FREE ONLINE EVENT
Thursday 21st May 2026 at 4pm to 5.30pm
THIS EVENT MAY RAISE SENSITIVE TOPICS AND IS ONLY APPROPRIATE FOR OVER 18s.
Online technologies have transformed the scale, reach, and impact of harms experienced by women and girls. From image-based sexual abuse and sexually explicit deepfakes to the wider influence of online pornography, these harms raise urgent questions about law, regulation, accountability, and justice. In this talk, Professor Clare McGlynn will explore the gendered dimensions of online harms, drawing on her leading work on violence against women and girls, porn regulation, and technology-facilitated abuse. She will discuss the challenges posed by emerging digital forms of abuse, the limitations of current legal and policy responses, and the reforms needed to better protect victims and tackle systemic harm. The talk will also reflect on themes from her new book, Exposed: The Rise of Extreme Porn and How We Fight Back offering timely insights into one of the most pressing policy issues of our time.
Professor Clare McGlynn KC (Hon) is a Professor of Law at Durham University and an expert on violence against women and girls. Her research has been instrumental to the adoption of new criminal laws tackling online abuse and extreme pornography, and her latest book – Exposed – the rise of extreme porn and how we fight back – is out in May 2026. She has advised governments, human rights organisations and policy-makers across the world, as well as working with private sector companies Bumble, Google, Facebook and TikTok to develop their policies regarding online violence against women. She is a member of the Council of Europe’s Expert Committee on Technology-Facilitated Violence Against Women. She is also the co-author of Image-Based Sexual Abuse: a study on the causes and consequences of non-consensual sexual imagery and Cyberflashing: recognising harms, reforming laws.