To ask the First Minister and deputy First Minister how the Strategic Framework to End Violence Against Women and Girls will address technology-facilitated abuse, including (i) Artificial Intelligence-generated content; (ii) deepfake content; and (iii) online harassment and image-based sexual abuse.

Online abuse and violence against women and girls is an area of focus of the Executive’s Ending Violence Against Women and Girls Strategic Framework 2024-31. The Strategic Framework will be agile in its delivery to ensure it can respond to evolving and changing culture and practices, such as the expanding forms of online harm and technological abuse, including deepfake imagery.

The Department of Health has sponsorship of the Executive’s ‘Keeping children and young people safe: an Online Safety Strategy for Northern Ireland’ and accompanying three-year Action Plan, which were published in February 2021. The Department is currently drafting Actions for years 4 and 5 of the Strategy.

Ofcom, which is now the regulator for online safety under the Online Safety Act 2023, was a key co-design partner in the development of the Strategic Framework.

Ofcom is developing draft guidance for protecting women and girls online which is a requirement of the Online Safety Act 2023, and that draft Guidance which is due to launch for consultation in February 2025, will focus on the content and activity covered by the Act which disproportionately affects women and girls, such as online harassment, online misogyny and intimate image abuse. Our officials have been liaising with Ofcom, through two UK wide workshops, as they develop this guidance for consultation.

Work is also ongoing through the EVAWG Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) Challenge Fund on six proof of concept projects that will use data, tech, and design innovations to identify solutions that make spaces safer for women and girls, including online.