Regulating Sexual Violence Content across Screen and Online Media

Regulating Sexual Violence Content across Screen and Online Media will bring together scholars, policymakers, practitioners, and industry stakeholders to address the urgent challenges posed by the circulation and consumption of illegal recorded sexual violence content, including image‑based sexual abuse (IBSA) material and child sexual abuse material (CSAM). As sexual violence content is increasingly produced, distributed, and encountered across both screen‑based and online platforms, regulatory institutions, digital platforms, and frontline agencies face escalating demands for effective, prevention‑focused responses.

This half-day workshop will provide a rare cross-sector space for examining how sexual violence content is governed in Australia and internationally, and how regulatory approaches might better account for platform dynamics, user behaviours, technological affordances, and the evolving nature of online sexual offending.

By integrating criminological, policy, legal, technological, and screen- and media-focused perspectives, the workshop will support evidence‑informed dialogue and help shape more effective responses to the proliferation of sexual violence content across screen and online environments. The event also aims to foster sustained collaboration between academics, government agencies, NGOs, digital platforms, and practitioners committed to addressing screen-based sexual violence and online harm.

Provisional schedule:

9am-9:30am                – Registration & coffee/tea

9:30am-10:15am       – Welcome & presentation of multi-stakeholder workshop findings

10:15am-11:30am    – Research Insights Session: Policy Implications for Regulating CSAM and IBSA

11:30am-11:45am    – Comfort break / morning tea

11:45am-1pm             – Cross‑Sector Roundtable on Trends, Challenges, and Regulatory Solutions

1pm-2pm                       – Lunch & networking

(optional) 6pm–‘Screening Sexual Violence: Representation, Regulation, Response’.

Places are limited and catering will be provided based on registration numbers. If you can no longer attend, please cancel your registration as soon as possible so that your place can be offered to another participant. Please advise of any dietary requirements at registration.

The workshop will be followed by a free evening screening of short films ‘Screening Sexual Violence: Representation, Regulation, Response’ at Mercury Cinema (13 Morphett St, Adelaide) from 6pm.

This event is a pre-conference workshop for the Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology (ANZSOC) 2026 conference. If you wish to also attend the main conference on 1-4 December 2026, please register here.

A list of speakers will be added closer to the event – please check back or keep an eye on the ANZSOC Conference 2026 website.