Prevention conference: young people share their hopes for a different world

Last week (29th October 2024) the End Violence Against Women Coalition held our second annual prevention conference, exploring the impact the online world is having on young people, and what can be done to tackle it.

The conference brought together members of our Prevention Network and sector partners, ranging from frontline practitioners to academic researchers, to hear from key figures in preventing online harms and violence against women and girls.

Imagining a Safe Internet

Starting the day with our first panel, ‘Imagining a Safe Internet’, four engaging young people shared their experiences of the online world and how we can move forward in minimising the impact of its harms, both our online and offline.

The young campaigners shared their views and experiences of online harms in the context of rapidly developing new technologies. This includes the blurred line between the internet and reality, and how regulation can prevent Big Tech from promoting outrage to increase profit. This brilliant panel was a reminder of the importance of co-production and ensuring young people’s experiences and ideas are reflected within policy. We were left with the hopeful reminder that the internet is a mouldable creation, and we have the power to transform its future.

We need to hold social media companies to account… Financially, they profit from our outrage and hurt. There will always be extremists like Andrew Tate online, but we can control the algorithms to make sure young people aren’t being targeted by them. We also need education to equip young people to be critical of information before forming an opinion. The internet is not static, it’s mouldable, we can change it – it reflects the values we have in society. It’s not too far gone or permanent – if we all take responsibility we can change it.

Linda, Action Breaks Silence Advisory Board Member

Huge thanks to the young people and to Tender, Action Breaks Silence, Girlguiding and LetMeKnow for your support.

Online misogyny

Following this, we had a fantastic panel of experts discussing how the online world shapes and influences young people, with a focus on toxic misogyny and inceldom. We heard from Laura Bates, who talked us through her experiences and findings around online misogyny from her time undercover researching for her book ‘Men Who Hate Women’ as well as her work with young people in schools.

We also heard from Anki Deo about the findings from Hope Not Hate’s recent report ‘Plugged in but Disconnected: Young People and Hateful Attitudes’,  and how hateful world views interact and proliferate online, with misogyny often their acceptable face.  Dolly Padalia from the School of Sexuality and Education shared about the challenges of misogyny in the classroom, talking us through their resource ‘A Look Into The Incel Movement’, as well as the transformative potential of quality relationships, health and sex education (RSHE).

The panel unpicked government plans to treat misogyny as extremism, discussing the importance of taking an intersectional lens given how misogyny and white supremacy are deeply intertwined, and how the Prevent programme has harmed young Muslims and minoritised communities.

Like the young people, the panel called for stronger regulation of tech companies, as well as better resourcing of prevention work including a whole-school approach to ending gender-based violence, and a whole-society approach to challenging hateful ideologies. We concluded this panel with a reminder of just how many of us are ready to work on bringing about change, and a rallying call to get started!

Online porn

Next on the agenda was porn and its online influence on young people. Dr Fiona Vera-Gray, author of ‘Women on Porn’ and deputy director of the Child and Women Abuse Studies Unit, talked about the harms of increasingly violent porn but the reality of its widespread use. Porn sites have an enormous reach, bigger than most social media platforms, but 1 in 8 videos recommended to first time users depict sexual violence. This is having a hugely harmful impact on young people’s wellbeing as well as norms and beliefs about what ‘normal sex’ looks like, while social stigma around porn and sex keeps questions and concerns about this in the shadows. This confronting but productive discussion brought into sharp focus how openly discussing sexuality and what young people are seeing in porn can help tackle this.

Rani Govender, the Policy and Regulatory Manager for Children’s Safety Online at the NSPCC shared how deepfake sexual abuse, AI nudify apps and access to violent porn is having a devastating impact on young people, reflected in children’s calls to the helpline, Childline. For too long, porn companies have been able to self-regulate, meaning they do nothing to fix the problem. The solution cannot be to isolate children from these spaces altogether; these harms won’t go anywhere and children will always end up accessing them. What we need is strong regulation that sets the foundation so that wherever children are going and whatever they’re doing online, we’ve got that level of protection in place.

We had a rich and important discussion about the need to apply an intersectional lens to porn and address racist misogyny in the porn industry, which sees Black women subjected to some of the most violent acts. This has a knock-on impact on Black women’s experiences of sexual violence and normalises racist tropes across society. Wrapping up the panel, EVAW’s Head of Policy and Campaigns, Rebecca Hitchen, concluded that instead of a narrow focus on restricting the age of users, the government’s porn review should regulate the content of porn sites.

Media literacy in practice

We ended the day with a workshop by Katie Freeman-Taylor from Internet Matters, looking at media literacy and misogyny. We picked apart the definition of media literacy, which comprises skills ranging from the ability to look critically at information, identify misinformation and contribute safely and respectfully to the online space. Looking specifically at how media literacy can be implemented in schools, Katie walked us through the five principles applied by Internet Matters, including training teachers for the digital age and a whole-family approach, and how these can be applied to tackle online harms including violence against women and girls.

We’re incredibly grateful to all our panel speakers, especially the young people who shared their hopes for the future of the online world. We’re also grateful to our energetic attendees, who contributed such thoughtful ideas and rich discussions.

If you or your organisation works in preventing violence against women and girls and you’d like to join the prevention network, please email admin@evaw.org.uk

ENDS