Women and Equalities Committee calls for tech accountability

Today (5^th March 2025), the Women and Equalities Committee (WEC) has published its report on tackling non-consensual intimate image abuse (NCII), with recommendations for the government to protect women and girls online.

We welcome the WEC’s recommendations, which include calling for NCII to be brought in line with the existing response to child sexual abuse materials, so that possession of intimate image abuse are a criminal offence, as well as the creation of them. Non-consensual intimate image abuse is deeply damaging and often life-changing, and the action taken to prevent this abuse must reflect that.

It also underscores the need for a holistic approach to supporting survivors, recognising that not every survivor will want to report to the police or seek criminal justice. It is particularly encouraging to see the committee recommend civil routes to justice for survivors that include compensation and take down measures, which the End Violence Against Women Coalition has long called for as part of our campaign with survivor-campaign group #NotYourPorn, survivor-campaigner Jodie*, leading expert Professor Clare McGlynn and GLAMOUR UK to #StopImageBasedAbuse.

We also welcome the committee’s calls for an online abuse commission and funding for support services, both of which are key calls of our campaign. The Revenge Porn Helpline reports that since 2015, they’ve reported approximately 338,000 intimate images to platforms for removal – a tenfold increase in just four years. However, government funding for the service has remained the same since 2020, despite the extreme increase in case load.

We particularly welcome the committees’ understanding of the way in which an individual’s faith may contextualise abuse, with the inclusion of a recommendation to expand the definition of intimate image abuse beyond sexualised images within certain contexts. For example, in some cultures, countries, or religions, sharing a photograph of someone without their religious clothing—or with their arm around another person—can be extremely harmful to the victim.

The report also recommends that non-consensual intimate image abuse should be included in the government’s definition of violence against women and girls, allowing it to be included in the government’s mission to halve violence in a decade; and that the use of nudification apps and the creation of synthetic non-consensual intimate images should be a criminal offence, with search engines and websites hosting this function held to account.

We also welcome the committee calling on the government to fund an online commission, at least in part, via a levy on tech companies. The companies who are responsible for, and profiting from, the harm occurring on their platforms must pay a ‘tech tax’ to support the prevention of violence against women and girls.

We have been encouraged by the inclusion of hashing technologies as an example of good practice within the Ofcom guidance on tackling violence against women and girls, published last Tuesday. But without enforcement powers, tech platforms will only have to adopt these measures on a voluntary basis.

Given the rollback of user safety measures on social media platforms such as Meta, and the general trend of tech providers doing the bare minimum to protect users, there is a pressing need to strengthen the VAWG Guidance by producing a Code of Practice.

Whilst we welcome the comprehensive nature of the recommendations made in the report, we note the lack of focus on prevention of intimate image abuse through comprehensive relationships, sex and health education – something that is crucial to preventing abuse by tackling its root cause and shifting attitudes and beliefs.

Andrea Simon, Director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition (EVAW) said:

“We’re pleased to see the Women and Equalities Committee’s recommendations reflect the scale and seriousness of this abuse as well as reflecting our own calls to tackle it through civil redress, funding for life-saving support services and an online commission to advocate for survivors and hold tech companies accountable. 

This is a deeply gendered threat, with the Revenge Porn Helpline reporting that 71% of reports of intimate image abuse being made by women, and 81% of perpetrators being me, when the perpetrator is known. It is therefore vital that we see more of an emphasis on preventative approaches such as comprehensive relationships, sex and health education in schools based on consent and equality, as well as public information campaigns to tackle the attitudes which drive this abuse.

We call on the government to implement these recommendations without delay and give Ofcom powers to make its VAWG guidance a mandatory code of practice. Tech companies should no longer be able to profit from online violence. Women and girls deserve to be safe online.”

ENDS

Media contact

Sinéad Geoghegan, Head of Communications, media@evaw.org.uk 07960 744 502