Toward inclusive online safety: evaluating the role of intersectionality on online abuse in the United Kingdom

Online harm is entangled with social hierarchies, such as gender, race, and sexuality, that shape who is targeted and how protection is distributed. However, large-scale measurement of these intersectional inequalities remains limited. Drawing on a multi-year survey from the United Kingdom (Ofcom’s Online Experiences Tracker, 2023–2025, n = 44,935), we conducted a Multilevel Analysis of Individual Heterogeneity and Discriminatory Accuracy (MAIHDA) to investigate how overlapping identities influence online harm exposure. Our findings demonstrate that analyzing individual demographic factors, such as gender or ethnicity, in isolation underestimates the prevalence and severity of online abuse experienced by women and ethnic minorities. Intersectional effects illuminate differences in harm frequency and likelihood, indicating that online abuse is shaped by broader social forces, including sexism, racism, and homophobia. Our results suggest that online harm follows entrenched systems of inequality. This challenges procedural, compliance-focused online safety regulation and complicates criminological theories of victimization which attribute harm to individual risk. We point toward the need for justice-oriented approaches that center affected communities and address the conditions enabling harm. Embedding intersectionality into harm measurement and governance is essential to achieving more equitable online safety.