  Online harms, such as hate speech, trolling and self-harm promotion, continue
to be widespread. While some work suggests women are disproportionately
affected, other studies find mixed evidence for gender differences in
experiences with content of this kind. Using a nationally representative survey
of UK adults (N=1992), we examine exposure to a variety of harms, fears
surrounding being targeted, the psychological impact of online experiences, the
use of safety tools to protect against harm, and comfort with various forms of
online participation across men and women. We find that while men and women see
harmful content online to a roughly similar extent, women are more at risk than
men of being targeted by harms including online misogyny, cyberstalking and
cyberflashing. Women are significantly more fearful of being targeted by harms
overall, and report greater negative psychological impact as a result of
particular experiences. Perhaps in an attempt to mitigate risk, women report
higher use of a range of safety tools and less comfort with several forms of
online participation, with just 23% of women comfortable expressing political
views online compared to 40% of men. We also find direct associations between
fears surrounding harms and comfort with online behaviours. For example, fear
of being trolled significantly decreases comfort expressing opinions, and fear
of being targeted by misogyny significantly decreases comfort sharing photos.
Our results are important because with much public discourse happening online,
we must ensure all members of society feel safe and able to participate in
online spaces.
