Understanding gender differences in experiences and concerns surrounding online harms: A short report on a nationally representative survey of UK adults
Online harms, such as hate speech, misinformation, harassment and self-harm promotion, continue to be widespread. While some work suggests that women are disproportionately affected by such harms, other studies find little evidence for gender differences in overall exposure. Here, we present prelimi...
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Zusammenfassung: | Online harms, such as hate speech, misinformation, harassment and self-harm
promotion, continue to be widespread. While some work suggests that women are
disproportionately affected by such harms, other studies find little evidence
for gender differences in overall exposure. Here, we present preliminary
results from a large, nationally representative survey of UK adults (N = 2000).
We asked about exposure to 15 specific harms, along with fears surrounding
exposure and comfort engaging in certain online behaviours. While men and women
report seeing online harms to a roughly equal extent overall, we find that
women are significantly more fearful of experiencing every type of harm that we
asked about, and are significantly less comfortable partaking in several online
behaviours. Strikingly, just 24% of women report being comfortable expressing
political opinions online compared with almost 40% of men, with similar overall
proportions for challenging certain content. Our work suggests that women may
suffer an additional psychological burden in response to the proliferation of
harmful online content, doing more 'safety work' to protect themselves. With
much public discourse happening online, gender inequality in public voice is
likely to be perpetuated if women feel too fearful to participate. Our results
are important because to establish greater equality in society, we must take
measures to ensure all members feel safe and able to participate in the online
space. |
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DOI: | 10.48550/arxiv.2402.00463 |