A ground-breaking AI solution to help provide support to women at risk of online abuse.

Introduction

In partnership with South West Grid for Learning Charity (funded by The Tampon Tax fund), we have built Project Minerva. A ground-breaking digital solution to help provide support to women at risk of online abuse. Funded by DSIT (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology).

The Brief

Build a UK wide AI tool for women suffering online abuse, including harmful content and intimate image abuse which will save lives by linking patterns of online/offline abuse to alert women to imminent danger. Empowering women to seize control, report crimes, have intimate images removed, access support to rebuild lives and revolutionise the way in which support for victims of online harms is delivered.

What problem were we trying to solve?

Intimate image abuse is an issue that is becoming more widespread with millions of people around the world affected.

Two recent examples highlighting the widespread impact of online abuse were the recent airing of the BBC documentary ‘Deepfake Porn – Could You Be Next?’ which looked at the rise of intimate image abuse through deepfake technology, while the release of the Girls’ Attitude Survey by the Girl Guide Association revealed one in three girls (aged 11-21) have been put off certain jobs where high profile women get abused online.

Both these reveal how online abuse impacts real lives and the need for change to ensure everyone is safe online.

Challenges

  1. Sadly, those targeted by these forms of online abuse often find that this content has been posted on more than one platform. To support, Minerva will provide a vital and easy way for them to remove this.

  2. Building a comprehensive view of each case is an important step in online safety as the laws around online abuse, particularly intimate image abuse, are complex and confusing resulting in a low number of prosecutions.

  3. Balancing ease of access with user safety was paramount so that victims were able to freely access tools to support them, but perpetrators were not able to access the same information.

Deliverables

  • Full discovery from design thinking, testing and development of the prototype.

  • Build cycle, through to delivery of the final AI driven digital experience.

Impact

We have measurable outcomes that ensure Minerva helps women to:

  • Request removal of intimate images

  • Create and download a ‘timeline report’ that can be used to reduce the number of times they have to re-tell their story

  • Download an evidence report for the police

  • Support women who would like to be referred to other agencies/services that can help them

Outcome

Placed as Promising in the top 100 list of global projects by UNESCO and IRCAI

(International Research Centre on Artificial Intelligence) solving one of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (Human Rights). https://ircai.org/top100/entry/minerva/