F31 Stopping Violence Against Women and Girls


Liberal Democrat Women

Mover:   Donna Harris

Summation:  Marie Goldman MP (Spokesperson for Women and Equalities)

 

Conference notes that:

A. Misogyny has evolved in the digital age, with the rise of the ‘manosphere’ and ‘incel culture’ spreading hateful ideologies linked to real-world violence.

B. Over one in ten women in England have experienced online violence, rising to 25 per cent among women aged 16–24 and 35 per cent among LGBT+ women.

C. Ethnic minority women are disproportionately targeted, with black women 84 per cent more likely than white women to be mentioned in abusive tweets.

D. A quarter of girls have been called degrading names online, and one in five have received unwanted images.

E. Nearly three-quarters of Generation Z have encountered misogynistic content online, with over half exposed at least weekly.

F. Generative AI has enabled the creation of non-consensual sexually explicit deepfakes and child sexual abuse material, including via tools such as X’s chatbot Grok.


Conference further notes that:

I. Women and girls still experience disproportionately high levels of online abuse, stalking, intimate image abuse and technology-facilitated violence, despite the introduction of the Online Safety Act 2023, the Victims and Courts Bill 2026 and the Crime and Policing Act 2026.

II. Ofcom's A Safer Life Online for Women and Girls guidance, published in November 2025, sets out voluntary measures for platforms, with no review due before 2027.

III. The Government’s Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) strategy, published in December 2025, includes commitments to tackle online harms by 2029.

IV.  Seven in 10 women believe that current legislation is ineffective at tackling VAWG online.

 

Conference believes that:

A. Everyone, regardless of identity, has the right to live a life free from fear and violence.

B. VAWG is a national emergency and tackling it must be a priority at all levels of government.

C. Effective action on VAWG must recognise the distinct experiences of minority women.

D. The Labour Government, like its Conservative predecessors, is failing adequately to tackle online harms against women and girls.

E. The law must keep pace with emerging technologies and evolving forms of abuse to protect women and girls. Conference reaffirms the Liberal Democrats’ commitment to tackling VAWG in all its forms.

 

Conference calls on the Government to:

1. Immediately bring into force all relevant sections of the Victims and Courts Bill 2026 and the Crime and Policing Act 2026.

2. Urgently review the Online Safety Act to ensure that Ofcom uses its enforcement powers earlier, as a first, not a last, resort to hold platforms to account.

3. Make Ofcom’s guidance on VAWG an enforceable code of practice with real consequences for failure to comply.

4. Deliver all commitments on online harms in the VAWG Strategy without delay.

5. Require platforms to publish regular assessments of their role in facilitating misogynistic abuse and the steps taken to mitigate it.

6. Reinvest fines levied under the Online Safety Act into digital literacy, healthy relationships and online genderbased violence prevention education.

7. Extend police charging powers for lower-level VAWG offences, including online stalking, technology-facilitated domestic abuse and harassment, to speed up charging decisions and reduce victim disengagement.

Applicability: Federal except for 1. and 7. which are England and Wales