News Story

MK Tech Week: OU hosts ‘Building Safer Digital Futures’ – uniting researchers, MPs and community to end online violence against women

Thursday 2 Oct 2025

As part of Milton Keynes Tech Week, the Centre for Protecting Women Online ran the event “Building Safer Digital Futures: Responsible AI and Tech to Protect Women Online” at The Open University. Emily Darlington MP opened the programme with a powerful keynote, sharing personal experiences and highlighting why tackling online violence against women and girls remains such an urgent priority.

The session was led by the Centre’s Responsible AI stream, led by KMi’s Prof Miriam Fernandez, together with Dr. Alba Morales Dr. Ángel Pavón Pérez. They were joined by fellow stream leads Prof Olga Jurasz, Dr.Keely Duddin, Prof Arosha Bandara, and Prof Rose Capdevila for a panel that gave an overview of the Centre’s ongoing work to address online violence from different disciplinary perspectives.

The event closed with an interactive activity, where participants shared their views on the biggest barriers to online safety and their ideas for change. The discussions made clear that while the challenges are complex, collaboration between researchers, policymakers, and industry is key to building safer online spaces for women and other minoritised groups.