In November 2025, Ofcom published the long-awaited violence against women and girls Guidance. In this analysis we aim to highlight where the guidance falls short, and what we consider necessary to develop a solid baseline of support and mitigation of tech-facilitated gender-based violence on and by social media platforms.

On the 20th January 2026, the Government announced that it would consult on children’s social media use “to protect young people’s wellbeing and ensure safer online experiences.”

In light of this, and considering our belief in transformative justice approaches as the best means of driving systemic change for social problems, we do not support proposals for blanket bans - such as the barring of children under the age of 16 from social media platforms.

Today Ofcom have released their finalised guidance, as per the Online Safety Act, towards keeping women and girls’ safe online. The guidance is the conclusion of the years-long campaign Glitch and others undertook to ensure women and girls were considered in legislation for the online environment. 

Glitch welcomes the opportunity to respond to Ofcom’s consultation on additional safety measures under the Online Safety Act (OSA), with a particular interest in Sections 8 and 9 regarding proactive technologies (PTs) and 14 on recommender systems.

Here are some practical ways Ofcom can incorporate detecting the nuances of misogynoir online its approach to making recommendations to companies so they can reduce harmful content towards Black women and girls.

Ofcom’s long-awaited consultation for their guidance to help tech companies create a safer online environment for women and girls has been published. Here’s our assessment on how the Government can meet their commitment of halving VAWG in the next decade.

We’re identifying how Meta’s new hateful conduct policy is creating loopholes for legal, but harmful content to harm social media users. 

We use a design justice framework to assess if Ofcom’s guidance considers how racism and sexism shapes harm online.

Glitch responded to the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee’s inquiry on how social media algorithms and generative AI spreads harmful content. 

The SSP outlines expectations for Ofcom – and suggestions they need to be bold and ambitious in regulating platforms.