Hansard

As I open our annual debate marking the 16 days of campaigning against gender-based violence, I reflect once again on the continued importance of this debate and of the part that it plays in the parliamentary calendar. As 2025 draws to a close, violence, abuse and misogyny remain a grim everyday reality for women and girls in Scotland and, although real strides have been made to ensure that women and girls can be equally safe, we have much more to do.

That is in part because violence against women and girls evolves. The tools that perpetrators have to draw on evolve, and the rapid evolution of technology has created new tools for abuse. Home security systems, wearable devices and artificial intelligence-generated deepfake images are increasingly enabling the mass creation and sharing of exploitative content. Research indicates a proliferation of harm towards girls online. A recent survey by Girlguiding reported that 77 per cent of girls and young women aged seven to 21 have experienced online harm in the past year. For those reasons, this Government acknowledges the importance of the UN Women theme “UNiTE to end digital violence against all women and girls”.

Online abuse has wide-reaching impacts. Beyond the direct harassment, it limits women’s and girls’ ability to take part in online spaces, to learn, to voice opinions, to socialise and even to do their jobs. As our equally safe strategy outlines, technology-facilitated violence against women and girls is both a cause and a consequence of gender inequality. It happens because of women’s unequal position in society and it exacerbates that inequality by limiting the freedom, choices and opportunities of women and girls.

Exposure to online content harms boys, too. At an age when boys are questioning their identity and searching for belonging, online spaces increasingly provide a warped framework for an understanding of gender roles and societal norms.

Misogyny is potentially now being written into our future. AI and emerging technologies are not neutral. Unless they are specifically designed with care and with women and girls in mind, they replicate existing biases, particularly sexism and racism. Social media platforms are fuelling hatred against women, with algorithms, data sets, systems and search engines delivering sexist, sexualised and abusive content even to those who are not actively seeking it. They often promote harmful messages that equate masculinity with dominance over women, emotional suppression and aggressive behaviour. If we do not find an effective way to regulate now, those systemic biases will become further entrenched. We are storing up problems for the future.

There are no easy answers for any legislature, any Government or society as a whole. The speed of change can feel alarming, but together we have to find a way. I note that the guidance that Ofcom published at the start of this year’s 16 days campaign includes a range of practical safety measures that the regulator is urging tech firms to adopt to tackle those harms, and in the Parliament today, I urge tech companies to take immediate action in line with the guidance. Indeed, I urge them to go above and beyond what is needed to comply with their legal duties under the Online Safety Act 2023. We need to be ambitious in the standards that we set for women’s and girls’ online safety, and I know that many campaigners are concerned that the guidance does not go far enough.

Internet services are reserved. This Government has worked with the United Kingdom Government to get the 2023 act amended and strengthened, but we are clear that we must continue to press for further protections. In January this year, the Minister for Children, Young People and The Promise and the Minister for Victims and Community Safety wrote to UK ministers inviting further co-operation between the Governments on online safety, particularly in relation to protecting children and young people, and urged further legislative action. We will continue to work with the UK Government to do all that we can to protect our citizens from online harm. In October, ministers met Jess Phillips, the UK Minister for Safeguarding and Violence against Women and Girls, to discuss our shared aims of protecting children and young people from online harms and tackling violence against women and girls.

The First Minister, the Minister for Victims and Community Safety and the Minister for Children, Young People and The Promise have all written to tech companies about the need to take meaningful and tangible action to tackle online harms, and we will continue to press that point.

Within devolved powers, the Scottish Government is proposing to consult on potential new criminal law and associated measures to tackle online harm. That is in response to growing concerns about the effectiveness of existing legislation and the ability to make progress through the justice system. The consultation will seek views on proposals to create a new offence to criminalise the non-consensual creation of deepfake images. That is due to the growth of apps that enable people to create deepfake pornographic images of another person.

Of course, we have already enacted criminal law to tackle people who share or threaten to share deepfake, intimate or pornographic images of another person without their consent. Through the UK Government, we are informing the developing Council of Europe instrument and recommendations in relation to combating technology-facilitated violence against women and girls.

In recognition of the significant and wide-ranging risk of harm, the First Minister established the online safety task force—with joint ministerial leadership from the Minister for Children, Young People and The Promise and the Minister for Victims and Community Safety—to provide oversight and direction across the Scottish Government. It is reviewing current activity and considering priorities for action within the devolved powers that are available to the Scottish Government.

In order to end violence and discrimination against women and girls, men and boys must be seen as much more than part of the problem; they have to be integral to the solution. Research indicates that a rise in misogynistic content in digital echo chambers presents particular challenges for secondary school-aged young people. We are, therefore, in the process of co-creating a campaign with young people. Co-creation is critical to developing credible and effective messaging that reflects young people’s lived digital experiences and understanding of misogyny. I thank the young people and the third sector experts who continue to work with us to shape the campaign, and I look forward to updating the Parliament ahead of the proposed launch date in February 2026.

To demonstrate how successful campaign work can be, it is worth reflecting on last year’s sextortion campaign, which was developed with Police Scotland and the Crimestoppers youth service, fearless. It is believed to be a key factor in the 2023-24 32.2 per cent decrease in reports to Police Scotland of sextortion.

Our schools framework on preventing and responding to gender-based violence is clear about the need to create a positive, safe school culture. We are also committed to supporting Time for Inclusive Education’s new digital discourse initiative, which helps schools to equip children and young people with the skills to navigate the digital media and counters the impacts of disinformation and online hate. We are delighted to have been able to support the first stage of that work, to help teachers and learners with skills to tackle the issue.

The online world is not always negative. The digital space offers opportunities for services and survivors. Those who work with survivors of abuse have told us that digital delivery is an integral part of the support that they offer. That is particularly the case for organisations that support younger women, enabling increased access to choice and, in certain circumstances, expanding offers of support. That includes video calls and apps for one-to-one and group support and counselling, as well as online chat as a helpline option. QR codes can enable discreet access to information, whereas picking up a leaflet would immediately identify the woman as a possible victim.

That is why we have established a violence against women and girls digital inclusion network, which is made up of specialist violence against women and girls services, the Mhor Collective and others, to consider how we can improve access to information and advice for survivors of technology-facilitated violence against women and girls.

I will end my opening remarks by paying tribute to the extraordinary work of violence against women services across Scotland. Those support services are life saving, but it is not just in the vital area of direct support and advocacy that they are making a difference; extraordinary work is being done to raise awareness, to educate and to prevent violence before it begins. To each and every one of them, I give my thanks.

As I said at the beginning of my remarks, it is important for legislators and Governments to face up to the challenges of the technological changes that our society faces. Those are difficult. Often, perhaps, we are criticised as Parliaments and Governments for acting too slowly, for implementing too slowly or for reflecting on a debate that has already passed in a society that has moved on to other things. It is a challenge that we will all need to rise to, next session.

I move,

That the Parliament unites in its commitment to 2025’s 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence campaign; warns that digital violence is the fastest growing form of abuse against women and girls worldwide; highlights the UN Women campaign, “UNiTE to End Digital Violence against All Women and Girls”, which reminds everyone that digital safety is central to gender equality; recognises that protecting women and girls online will take concerted societal action from all spheres of government, tech companies, organisations, institutions and individuals, and commits to strengthening efforts to prevent violence against women and girls across all sectors and in all its forms.