On day fourteen of our ‘Sixteen Activists or Organisations Around the Globe Fighting to End Digital Violence Against all Women and Girls’ campaign, Minister Alex Davies-Jones discusses the evolving nature of digital violence, protections for victims, holding tech platforms to account and the MoJ’s ambitious goal to halve violence against women and girls in a decade.
Alex Davies-Jones has been a proud Labour Member of Parliament for Pontypridd since her election in 2019. She was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) on 9 July 2024, serving as the Minister for Victims and Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls.
The MoJ is a major government department at the centre of the justice system. It is committed to protecting and promoting the principles of justice, with a vision of delivering a world-class system that meets the needs of all members of society.
In her former position as a Shadow Minister, Alex oversaw Labour’s scrutiny of the Online Safety Act in the House of Commons, working with MPs from all parties to strengthen the legislation, particularly on issues such as online violence against women and girls (VAWG).
She has been at the helm of new laws to target online abuse and pornography in the UK. The Crime & Policing Bill will give victims of intimate image abuse up to three years to report a crime, instead of the current six months. It will also be illegal to possess or publish pornography depicting strangulation or suffocation and require tech platforms to stop this content spreading. As part of the Government’s Plan for Change, the amendments aim to strengthen protections for women and girls and address online violence.
Minister Davies-Jones oversees policy on violence against women and girls; criminal law, victims and witnesses; rape and serious sexual offences; and key justice reforms such as miscarriages of justice and coroners’ services. In addition, she serves as the MoJ Mission Lead for Safer Streets, which aims to reduce serious harm and rebuild public confidence in policing and the justice system. The long-term goal of Safer Streets is to halve knife crime and violence against women and girls.
In this interview, Minister Davies-Jones discusses the rise of digital sexual violence, the Government’s efforts to strengthen the law and support victims, the role of tech companies under the Online Safety Act and her vision for tackling abuse both online and offline.
You’ve been a strong advocate for women’s safety both offline and online. What first motivated your commitment to tackling digital forms of sexual violence, and how does this align with the Ministry of Justice’s broader work to protect victims?
Technology has created new forms of sexual violence, from intimate image-based abuse to AI-generated deepfakes. The harm this causes to victims is profound, enduring, and traumatising.
We’re committed to halving violence against women and girls within a decade, and tackling all forms of online abuse is integral to our mission. We’re taking decisive action to achieve this ambitious goal, using every tool at our disposal. We are criminalising emerging forms of abuse, such as creating sexually explicit deepfakes, and we are ensuring tech companies take stronger action under the Online Safety Act.
These measures sit alongside our wider reforms, from strengthening domestic abuse protective orders – with over 1,000 victims protected in one year – to working towards introducing free independent legal advice for rape victims – all designed to protect victims, pursue perpetrators both offline and online, and restore faith in our justice system as part of our Plan for Change.
How is the Government supporting victims of online sexual violence?
The Government provides funding for victims of crime – a total of £350m this year. This includes victims of online crimes – for example, the Home Office provides funding for the Revenge Porn Helpline, which plays a crucial role in this space. In the Ministry of Justice, we protected dedicated VAWG funding this year, maintaining funding levels for ring-fenced sexual violence support. This includes the Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Fund grant, for specialist sexual violence services.
The UK has been a global leader in this space, with initiatives like the Revenge Porn Helpline and StopNCII. From your perspective, how have these services evolved, and why are they such an important part of the Government’s response to image-based abuse?
Services such as the Revenge Porn Helpline and StopNCII play a vital role in detecting and removing non-consensual intimate image abuse (NCII), and in providing critical support to victims and survivors.
As technology continues to evolve – for instance with the rise of AI-generated image abuse – these services have adapted, including having to face considerable year-on-year increases to the harms they respond to.
We’re committed to tackling VAWG in all forms – that includes online and intimate image abuse, such as NCII. Our plan to halve violence against women and girls in a decade is ambitious, so it’s important to take a transformative approach to the way we work together across Government, third-sector organisations, public services and the private sector.
This multi-agency approach is essential, and we will continue working closely with specialist services such as the Revenge Porn Helpline and StopNCII to tackle this type of abuse.
Digital sexual violence is constantly evolving alongside technology. What are some of the key challenges the Ministry of Justice faces in keeping legislation and enforcement up to date with these developments?
There’s always the risk that, as technology evolves, new forms of abuse come to light. When they do, we will take action to criminalise them – as we have done by introducing new offences for creating or requesting the creation of an intimate deepfake without consent. We have also introduced new intimate image taking offences to cover more situations where intimate images are taken without the person’s consent. However, I am thinking seriously about how we can be more ahead of the game, rather than having to react as the technology advances. Legislation rightly takes time and needs to be carefully considered, and that is difficult when you are dealing with such a fast-moving challenge.
We also want platforms to do more to stop intimate image abuse, and to get content removed as quickly as possible. This is why we are supporting Ofcom as it continues to implement and enforce the Online Safety Act.
Recent legislation like the Online Safety Act has been a major milestone. Can you share how this is helping to tackle image-based sexual abuse and hold perpetrators accountable?
The Online Safety Act regulates online services to protect victims. It ensures that social media platforms and search services take responsibility for the safety of their users. They must take steps to reduce the risk that users come across illegal or abusive content such as intimate image abuse.
Ofcom has issued its first Codes of Practice and Guidance which set out that providers should take down intimate images shared, or reshared without consent. Ofcom sets out the steps in Codes of Practice that providers can take to fulfil their duties. Ofcom is consulting on additional measures including the use of hash-matching tools to facilitate the take down of intimate image abuse.
Ofcom has strong powers to hold companies accountable for failing to meet their duties. It can issue enforcement decisions that direct companies to take specific steps to come into compliance. It will also be able to issue companies fines up to £18m or 10% of qualifying worldwide revenue in the relevant year, whichever is higher.
Looking ahead, what is your vision for ending digital violence against women and girls and how do you see the Ministry of Justice driving that progress in the years to come?
Our vision is clear: to halve violence against women and girls in a decade, tackling abuse wherever it happens, including online. The upcoming VAWG Strategy will set out concrete steps to address digital harms and protect victims. We will drive this forward by strengthening laws, continuing to support victims, and working with partners across government and the tech sector to make online spaces safer for everyone.
