Towards A Sociotechnical Methodology for Responsible Research on Violence Against Women and Girls

Habiba Farzand; Rui Huan; Marvin Ramokapane

Towards A Sociotechnical Methodology for Responsible Research on Violence Against Women and Girls

Habiba Farzand^*, Rui Huan, Marvin Ramokapane

^*Corresponding author for this work

School of Computer Science

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference Contribution (Conference Proceeding)

Abstract

Online spaces are increasingly becoming overwhelmed with violence against women and girls (VAWG), such as stalking, hate speech, deepfakes, and similar crimes, which have made investigations around VAWG critical for online safety. In this paper, based on our experiences of designing and conducting sociotechnical research, we present considerations for a sociotechnical method for understanding and addressing VAWG through the lens of responsible innovation, which includes: (1) recruiting local participants, (2) ensuring high standards of ethics and safeguarding, and (3) co-designing age-appropriate and topic-sensitive study designs. We conclude with open research questions for the HCI community to guide future research on sociotechnical methods for safe online spaces.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Publisher	Association for Computing Machinery
Pages	1
Number of pages	3
Publication status	Accepted/In press - 19 Feb 2026
Event	ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 2026 - Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain Duration: 13 Apr 2026 → 17 Apr 2026 https://chi2026.acm.org/

Publication series

Name	Human factors in computing systems
Publisher	ACM
ISSN (Electronic)	1062-9432

Conference

Conference	ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 2026
Abbreviated title	CHI ’26
Country/Territory	Spain
City	Barcelona
Period	13/04/26 → 17/04/26
Internet address	https://chi2026.acm.org/

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

Keywords

Sociotechnical Methods
online harm
violence against women and girls

Handle.net

Persistent link

REPHRAIN Safer Streets: A Blueprint for Integrated Data Systems Linking Online Harms and Street Crime
Rashid, A. (Principal Investigator)
1/06/25 → 31/03/26
Project: Research
Equitable Privacy
Rashid, A. (Principal Investigator), Liveley, G. (Principal Investigator), Ramokapane, M. (Co-Investigator), Ajmeri, N. (Co-Investigator), Coles-Kemp, L. (Co-Investigator), Huan, R. (Researcher) & Patnaik, N. (Researcher)
1/09/22 → 28/02/26
Project: Research, Parent
REPHRAIN: REsearch centre on Privacy, Harm Reduction and Adversarial INfluence online
Rashid, A. (Principal Investigator), Ramokapane, M. (Researcher), Das Chowdhury, P. (Researcher), Owen, R. (Co-Investigator), Vranaki, A. A. I. (Co-Investigator), Rushforth, Y. (Manager), Schultz-Graham, R. R. (Administrator), Burger, K. (Co-Investigator), Peersman, C. (Co-Investigator), Zhang, M. (Co-Investigator), Van De Sandt, E. H. A. (Researcher), Hutton, H. (Researcher) & Gordon-Petrovskaya, E. (Researcher)
1/10/20 → 31/08/24
Project: Research, Parent

Cite this

@inproceedings{487e2ba6d7a844a0b5b28faafefee0d1,

title = "Towards A Sociotechnical Methodology for Responsible Research on Violence Against Women and Girls",

abstract = "Online spaces are increasingly becoming overwhelmed with violence against women and girls (VAWG), such as stalking, hate speech, deepfakes, and similar crimes, which have made investigations around VAWG critical for online safety. In this paper, based on our experiences of designing and conducting sociotechnical research, we present considerations for a sociotechnical method for understanding and addressing VAWG through the lens of responsible innovation, which includes: (1) recruiting local participants, (2) ensuring high standards of ethics and safeguarding, and (3) co-designing age-appropriate and topic-sensitive study designs. We conclude with open research questions for the HCI community to guide future research on sociotechnical methods for safe online spaces.",

keywords = "Sociotechnical Methods, online harm, violence against women and girls",

author = "Habiba Farzand and Rui Huan and Marvin Ramokapane",

year = "2026",

month = feb,

day = "19",

language = "English",

series = "Human factors in computing systems",

publisher = "Association for Computing Machinery",

pages = "1",

booktitle = "Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems",

address = "United States",

note = "ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 2026, CHI {\textquoteright}26 ; Conference date: 13-04-2026 Through 17-04-2026",

url = "https://chi2026.acm.org/",

}

Farzand, H , Huan, R & Ramokapane, M 2026, Towards A Sociotechnical Methodology for Responsible Research on Violence Against Women and Girls. in Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Human factors in computing systems, Association for Computing Machinery, pp. 1, ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 2026, Barcelona, Spain, 13/04/26.

Towards A Sociotechnical Methodology for Responsible Research on Violence Against Women and Girls. / Farzand, Habiba ; Huan, Rui ; Ramokapane, Marvin.
Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Association for Computing Machinery, 2026. p. 1 (Human factors in computing systems).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference Contribution (Conference Proceeding)

TY - GEN

T1 - Towards A Sociotechnical Methodology for Responsible Research on Violence Against Women and Girls

AU - Farzand, Habiba

AU - Huan, Rui

AU - Ramokapane, Marvin

PY - 2026/2/19

Y1 - 2026/2/19

N2 - Online spaces are increasingly becoming overwhelmed with violence against women and girls (VAWG), such as stalking, hate speech, deepfakes, and similar crimes, which have made investigations around VAWG critical for online safety. In this paper, based on our experiences of designing and conducting sociotechnical research, we present considerations for a sociotechnical method for understanding and addressing VAWG through the lens of responsible innovation, which includes: (1) recruiting local participants, (2) ensuring high standards of ethics and safeguarding, and (3) co-designing age-appropriate and topic-sensitive study designs. We conclude with open research questions for the HCI community to guide future research on sociotechnical methods for safe online spaces.

AB - Online spaces are increasingly becoming overwhelmed with violence against women and girls (VAWG), such as stalking, hate speech, deepfakes, and similar crimes, which have made investigations around VAWG critical for online safety. In this paper, based on our experiences of designing and conducting sociotechnical research, we present considerations for a sociotechnical method for understanding and addressing VAWG through the lens of responsible innovation, which includes: (1) recruiting local participants, (2) ensuring high standards of ethics and safeguarding, and (3) co-designing age-appropriate and topic-sensitive study designs. We conclude with open research questions for the HCI community to guide future research on sociotechnical methods for safe online spaces.

KW - Sociotechnical Methods

KW - online harm

KW - violence against women and girls

M3 - Conference Contribution (Conference Proceeding)

T3 - Human factors in computing systems

SP - 1

BT - Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

PB - Association for Computing Machinery

T2 - ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 2026

Y2 - 13 April 2026 through 17 April 2026

ER -

Towards A Sociotechnical Methodology for Responsible Research on Violence Against Women and Girls

Abstract

Publication series

Conference

UN SDGs

Keywords

Handle.net

Fingerprint

Projects

REPHRAIN Safer Streets: A Blueprint for Integrated Data Systems Linking Online Harms and Street Crime

Equitable Privacy

REPHRAIN: REsearch centre on Privacy, Harm Reduction and Adversarial INfluence online

Cite this