The ODDA attends the Government Enough! Campaign launch as part of ongoing efforts in tackling VAWG

Violence and abuse against women and girls is one of the defining issues of our time. For the ODDA and our members, tackling VAWG is an ongoing concern that sits at the heart of what a responsible online dating and social discovery sector must stand for.

As a partner of the Government’s Enough! Campaign, we are actively engaged across a range of practical workstreams to close the gaps that allow perpetrators to operate with impunity.

We are pushing Home Office Ministers and the Police to extend Clare’s Law to dating app users, giving them the right to ask about a match’s history, and the right to know. We have written to the National Police Chiefs’ Council and the Director of Public Prosecutions calling for bail conditions that prohibit individuals arrested for certain offences from accessing dating platforms. And we have written to prisoner charities reminding them of their legal duty to share information about individuals who continue to pose a risk to women after release, building on our existing work with the Ministry of Justice, through which probation officers can already report convicted sex offenders via the ODDA website.

Alongside this, we have welcomed Lauren Sharp as our Researcher in Residence, joining us from the Centre for Protecting Women Online at the Open University. Lauren is currently researching how profile verification features shape women’s perceptions of safety on dating platforms, work that will directly inform how the sector designs safer experiences.

We know that keeping women safe online can only be achieved if everyone works together, via sharing information and using every lever available, including the law. We will continue to update members as this work develops.