A new study from King’s College London provides evidence of a gender gap in online safety advice and technology – particularly in the way men and women engage with security and privacy technologies aimed at keeping them safe online.
To investigate the causes of this gender gap, researchers from King’s Department of Informatics conducted a survey asking more than 600 UK adults (approx. 50% women and 50% men) about their preferred online privacy and security methods – such as training courses from official bodies, semi-formal advice from webpages or informal advice through word of mouth.
The findings revealed a significant difference between the way men and women access online safety advice, with about 76% of women saying their go-to approach is to seek online safety advice in-person from family compared to under 24% of men; while 70% of men seek such advice from online sources compared to only 38% of women.
While guidance from family and friends is not necessarily risky, argue the researchers, there is no guarantee these ‘advisors’ have the skills to advise, provide correct information and enable learning.
In contrast, the breadth of digital safety advice delivered online is not reaching the large population of women.
The study also found that women are more likely to rely on simple or built-in online protections such as privacy settings, security software updates and strong passwords. By contrast, men participating in the study appeared to be more fluent with a wider spectrum of protection methods, including more sophisticated technologies such as firewall, VPN, anti-spyware, anti-malware, anti-tracking and Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA).
Lead Author, Dr Kovila Coopamootoo, Lecturer in Computer Science at King’s College London, said: “This research stresses the need for a gender lens when it comes to assessing online safety opportunities and whether they are configured for and serving the whole population, including women and girls.”
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