Protect your people, protect your brand: Institutions, businesses and brands focus on ending digital violence.
- Jess Gondwe-Atkins
- 6 hours ago
- 3 min read
The UN’s 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, officially ended on Wednesday. However, this mission never really ends and we’re continuing the work until it is.
The theme for the day of Elimination of Violence against Women and Girls is “UNiTE to End Digital Violence Against All Women and Girls” which highlights one of the fastest-growing threats to safety and equality.
What is digital abuse?
Digital tools are increasingly being used to stalk, harass, and abuse women and girls. This includes:
Image-based abuse/ non-consensual sharing of intimate images – often called revenge porn or leaked nudes.
Cyberbullying, trolling, and online threats.
Online harassment and sexual harassment.
AI-generated deepfakes such as sexually explicit images, deepfake pornography, and digitally manipulated images, videos or audio.
Hate speech and disinformation on social media platforms.
Doxxing – publishing private information.
Online stalking or surveillance/tracking to monitor someone’s activities.
Online grooming and sexual exploitation.
Catfishing and impersonation.
Misogynistic networks e.g.manosphere, incel forums.
These acts don’t just happen online. They often lead to offline violence in real life (IRL), such as coercion, physical abuse, and even femicide, the killing of women and girls.
The impact is even worse for women facing intersecting forms of discrimination, including race, disability, gender identity, or sexual orientation.
While men and boys also experience harassment, women are disproportionately impacted and more likely to experience long-term psychological harm, fear, and withdrawal from online life.
The digital violence picture
More than 1 in 10 women in the UK have experienced online violence.
For women aged 16–24, that rises to 1 in 4.
13% of online abuse cases later escalate into offline violence.
Around 2 in 5 teenagers in England and Wales report abuse in relationships, much of it now digital, including image-based harm, coercion, and deepfake content.
This is now a workplace issue, a safeguarding issue, a customer issue, and a brand integrity issue.
Why employers, businesses and brands care
Digital violence affects:
Employee mental health, attendance and performance
Customer trust and safety
Online community management and brand reputation
The risk landscape organisations must now navigate
The culture and values companies claim to uphold
Forward-thinking organisations are acting early, not waiting for crisis.
My experience: supporting organisations to lead
In a previous role, I advised AXA on the creation of their world-leading domestic abuse policy and designed training for a specialist cohort of colleagues across the business. They are now equipped to recognise signs of abuse and respond safely and confidently to disclosures.
Our work went on to win many awards and set a new standard for corporate responsibility in this space.
AXA policy and support: https://www.axa.co.uk/newsroom/media-releases/2025/axa-launches-new-initiative-with-womens-aid-and-smart-works-to-support-domestic-abuse-survivors/
Culture, narratives & responsibility
Social narratives continue to shape how society understands relationships, coercion, control and harm. In the last month, YSL launched a campaign “Don’t Call It Love” pushing back against the romanticisation of manipulation, a powerful reminder of the role brands play in influencing culture.
Brands have tremendous power to challenge harmful norms or inadvertently reinforce them.
What organisations can do now
1. Review your policies
Ensure robust, trauma-informed policies for:
Online harassment
Domestic abuse (inside or outside of work)
Non-inclusive behaviours
Image-based and technology-enabled abuse
2. Provide specialist training
Equip your teams to:
Recognise digital and domestic abuse
Respond safely to disclosures
Understand coercive control and online harm
Build psychologically safe workplaces
3. Examine your products, services & storytelling
Ask:
Are we unintentionally reinforcing stereotypes?
Are we presenting relationships responsibly?
Are we perpetuating bias?
Are our platforms safe for the people using them?
Small shifts can dismantle harmful narratives or prevent them from taking root.
If your organisation wants to strengthen its approach…
The Unmistakables support businesses to:
Build or refine inclusion, harassment, domestic abuse and online safety policies
Train colleagues and leaders
Audit messaging, campaigns, and brand narratives
Develop safer, more inclusive cultures
Get in touch if you’d like support or a conversation about where to begin.