Reports
Insights & Evidence: What We’re Learning About Women’s Online Wellbeing
Our research is designed to shine a light on how digital technologies are transforming the landscape of violence against women across Europe, and what needs to change to protect wellbeing, safety, and digital participation. This page will host all public reports, summaries, data insights, and key findings from the Women’s Online Wellbeing (WOW) project as they are released.
Over three years, our international consortium will produce substantial evidence based on the scale, nature and impact of digitalised violence against women (DVAW), including image-based sexual abuse (IBSA), online harassment, threats, impersonation, stalking, deepfakes and more. These findings will be released here as open, accessible resources for survivors, practitioners, policymakers, educators and researchers.
What you will find here
Full research reports
Detailed reports from the WOW studies, including the systematic review, Europe-wide survey and qualitative research with specific groups and professional stakeholders.
Short summary briefings
Accessible summaries of key findings for practitioners, policymakers, educators, support organisations and community groups.
Policy and practice briefings
Focused recommendations for those working in victim support, policing, law, education, policy and technology.
Public resources
Plain-English outputs such as infographics, teaching materials, multilingual resources and awareness materials.
Academic publications
Links to peer-reviewed articles, conference outputs and other research publications when available.
Forthcoming outputs:
Systematic review
A review of European research, policy and legislation on digitalised violence against women and image-based sexual abuse.
Status: Forthcoming
Europe-wide survey
Findings from a large-scale survey exploring women’s experiences of DVAW and its impact on wellbeing.
Status: Forthcoming
Qualitative studies
Research with specific groups and professional stakeholders across partner countries.
Status: Forthcoming
How Our Findings Will Make a Difference
Digitalised violence against women is developing quickly, while law, policy, support services and technology platforms continue to adapt. Evidence from specialist services shows rising demand, including a 106% increase in reports to the UK Revenge Porn Helpline in 2023 compared with 2022. WOW will contribute new evidence to support better recognition, prevention, policy and practice.
Through the WOW project, we aim to:
Improve recognition of how digital abuse affects women’s wellbeing, relationships, safety, mental health, and online participation.
Strengthen responses across policing, law enforcement, victim-support services and the criminal justice system.
Inform prevention strategies that reflect the experiences of the women most exposed to risk, including LGBTQ+ communities, minority ethnic groups and young people.
Challenge stigma surrounding image-based sexual abuse and other forms of digital violence, helping to shift public narratives and promote survivors’ rights.
Some content on this page discusses online abuse, digitalised violence and image-based sexual abuse. WOW is a research project and cannot provide emergency, legal or therapeutic support. If you need support, please visit our support page for links to specialist organisations.