Analysis
Policing the Digital Threat: Inside Refuge’s Tech Safety Summit
ADVERTORIAL: As tech-facilitated abuse surges, the need for innovative police approaches to prevention, detection, and enforcement has never been more critical.
Refuge, the UK’s largest specialist domestic abuse organisation, will host its second Tech Safety Summit online on 23–24 September 2025.
Following the success of the charity’s inaugural summit in 2024, this year’s event will again bring together survivors, tech experts, regulators and frontline professionals to examine the rapidly shifting landscape of tech-facilitated abuse – and explore the urgent role of policing in confronting it.
The summit, supported by major tech sponsors including Microsoft, will feature speakers such as Ofcom CEO Melanie Dawes, Adele Walton (author of Logging Off: The Human Cost of our Digital World), and Baroness Jones, Minister of State for the Future Digital Economy and Online Safety, alongside high-profile guests including Adolescence writer Jack Thorne, BBC broadcaster Victoria Derbyshire, and presenter Rachel Riley.
Panel sessions will explore:
• The growing role of generative AI as both an instrument of abuse, including tools that generate deepfake intimate images and AI chatbots, and a safeguard
• International law enforcement responses to domestic abuse, including insights from Interpol’s AI Innovation Centre and their pioneering 2023 ‘AI toolkit’
• Strategies to improve digital evidence collection and enhance survivor support
It is critical that tech abuse is treated as the urgent threat it is. A recent Home Affairs Committee report concluded that the government will fail to meet its pledge to halve Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) within a decade unless it significantly invests in tackling tech-facilitated abuse.
Between 2018 and 2024, referrals to Refuge’s dedicated Tech Facilitated Abuse and Economic Empowerment (TFAEE) team soared by 205% – a stark indicator of the growing scale of tech abuse. Yet despite this surge, it remains vastly underreported. A recent UK-wide poll commissioned by Refuge found that only 58% of people would report the non-consensual sharing of intimate images if it happened to them or someone they know – highlighting widespread barriers to seeking help and justice.
Pioneering police responses
Police forces are at the frontline of this new digital frontier of domestic abuse. Refuge’s Tech Safety Summit presents a unique opportunity for policing professionals to deepen their understanding of emerging threats – and to incorporate innovative solutions, survivor insight, and best practice into frontline action.
Police attendance will support:
• Stronger investigative outcomes
• Enhanced digital literacy in domestic abuse cases
• Improved safety planning for survivors
• More effective inter agency collaboration
By engaging with this event, police forces can help ensure that the safety of women and girls is embedded at the core of modern policing – where it belongs.
Find out more and purchase tickets here:
https://refugetechsafetysummit.vfairs.com/en/registration-form?utm_source=PoliceOracle
The code ‘SUMMIT20’ gives a 20% discount.
Category: VAWG
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