UCL Computer Science is shaping new laws to meet the evolving threat of tech-enabled domestic abuse.

The challenge

1,400,000 women in the UK experienced domestic abuse in 2023-24.

Of those who contacted the National Domestic Abuse Helpline, 32% reported their abuser was using at least one form of technology to either extend or intensify their abusive behaviour.

Because technologies are embedded in almost every aspect of our society, tech abuse can take many forms. Abusers can track a partner’s movements via GPS-enabled apps and send abusive messages through social media. They can restrict access to accounts and services, misrepresent their victims in public and professional environments, or rack up large debts in their name.

Through wearables, IoT (Internet of Things) technology and Bluetooth-connected medical devices such as insulin pumps, tech abuse can also cause direct physical harm.

There are so many forms of tech abuse, and the technology is evolving so quickly, that it’s very difficult to find ways to prevent it – or even define it properly for legal purposes.

Existing tools and policy, such as the Technology-Facilitated Abuse in Relationships (TAR) Scale, tend to focus on specific forms of abuse, leaving many gaps and loopholes in the efforts to tackle tech abuse in all its complexity.

Tech abuse is such a complex issue, with implications for cybercrime, fraud, digital regulation, child and consumer protection, as well as domestic violence and stalking, that it also becomes difficult to coordinate a coherent response.

Across the various government policy groups, law enforcement bodies and other stakeholders, no single agency or department is empowered – or held accountable – to lead tackling tech abuse.

The breakthrough

The UCL Gender and Tech Research Lab are now making headway with this issue, by working with UCL Engineering’s Policy Impact Unit on a series of targeted research interventions – proactively providing the evidence policymakers need to fight tech abuse with policing and legislation.

Embedded within UCL Computer Science’s Information Security Research group, the lab examines the role of a specific kind of threat – the intimate partner – and the implications that their personal knowledge and privileged access hold for information security.

Tackling the problems of tech abuse requires a multidisciplinary approach, simultaneously exploring the technological, regulatory and cultural systems that allow tech abuse to take place. 

Combining these different strands of inquiry means UCL Computer Science researchers can now develop actionable insights that can be translated into policy in collaboration with government departments, including the Ministry of Justice, the Department for Education, the Home Office, the Foreign Office and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. 

The Lab also works with regional governments, including Scotland and Northern Ireland, as well as London’s Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) teams, and at an international level with partners including the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and UNWomen.

Real-world impact

The proactive research interventions of the Gender and Tech Research Lab have already underpinned several landmark legislations and policy approaches, protecting the rights of domestic abuse and tech abuse victims and survivors.

These include:

• Helping to shape and develop the first Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Strategic Threat Risk Assessment, which recognises VAWG as a national threat (in the same way as terrorism) and includes tech-enabled VAWG (tech abuse)
• Contributing to the development of the European Telecommunications Standards Institute's 13 principles of consumer IoT security
• Significant ongoing contributions to the Online Safety Act and associated regulatory approaches
• Advising the National Police Chiefs Council and the Domestic Abuse Commissioner on ways to coordinate tech abuse training and resource allocation across the UK’s 43 police forces
• Informing national Domestic Abuse Statutory Guidance, which now includes tech abuse
• Shaping and securing recommendations to Government by providing expert advice to Parliamentary Inquiries, including the ‘Connected Tech: Smart or Sinister’ Inquiry, and contributing to multiple Parliamentary briefings, which called on the Government to make tackling tech abuse an urgent priority
• Contributing advice and expertise, which enabled tech abuse to be added to Northern Ireland’s Strategic Framework to End Violence Against Women and Girls. 

Dr Leonie Tanczer, the academic lead for the Gender and Tech Research Lab, is keen to encourage students from all faculties at the university to get involved with their work – whether that’s following the monthly ‘Gender + Tech’ newsletter, attending one of the Lab’s weekly meetings, or contributing to their research efforts.

Additional information