“Today we’re publishing our online safety research agenda, which sets out the areas of research that will help to inform and underpin our long-term work as the UK’s online safety regulator. As an evidence-based regulator, we use research and data to guide our activity across our various workstreams. This is no different for our online safety work. We have an extensive research programme in place to help us in our online safety duties. Following on from the research we have already conducted, and given the complexity of the Online Safety Act and the services we regulate, we will continue with a programme of ongoing research that will broaden our evidence base and help to keep us up to date with changes in the online world. Publishing our research agenda enables us to be transparent about our research interests and goals, and encourages collaboration with the wider research community both in the UK and around the world. By setting out our areas of interest we hope to encourage the development of future research. Our areas of interest for future research are arranged into four themes:

• understanding user activity and behaviour;
• understanding online risk and harm;
• understanding service design and characteristics; and
• understanding safety measures and technologies…”