OzCHI 2026 Workshop
Advancing Interdisciplinary Approaches to
Inclusive Online Safety Research
21st or 22nd (pending) November 2026 | Adelaide University, Australia
Deadline for Expression of Interest : 20th October 23:59 (Anywhere on Earth)
Deadline for Expression of Interest : 20th October 23:59 (Anywhere on Earth)
Registration Now Open!
Workshop attendees must register for both the workshop and at least one day of the main OzCHI 2026 conference.
Day passes are available via the registration website: [to be updated]
Early bird registration closes on [to be updated].
Online safety research and practice have advanced considerably, yet critical questions remain at the edges. Which communities are still not designed for when safety tools are built? And as AI becomes central to online safety, how do we reckon with its dual role as both a source of new harms and a proposed remedy? Responding to the OzCHI 2026 theme ``On the Edge,'' this workshop brings together researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and community advocates across disciplines to examine online safety at its limits. Together, participants will interrogate who needs greater attention in current safety research, apply the same scrutiny to AI safety tools that we apply to the harms they address, and build interdisciplinary networks toward a shared research agenda.
The workshop will centre on exploring case studies and scenarios around exclusion and the communities that need greater attention in online safety. By communities needing attention, we mean those safety tools were rarely built around, such as women and gender-diverse people, culturally and linguistically diverse communities, people with disability, children, older populations, and more.
The workshop will facilitate dialogue to:
Identify communities needing greater attention in online safety
Interrogate AI safety tools with the same scrutiny we apply to the harms they address.
Develop interdisciplinary collaboration across academia, industry, policy, and community.
Build sustained networks and a shared research agenda.
The workshop is planned as a full-day event from 09:00 to 16:15 on 21st or 22nd November 2025. Times are tentative and can be changed based on the timetable of the conference.
Morning Session
09:00 - 10:00 Workshop Opening and Participant Introductions
10:00 - 10:30 Forming Interdisciplinary Groups
10:30 - 10:45 Morning Tea Break
10:45 - 12:00 Engaging with Case Studies
12:00 - 13:00 Lunch Break
Afternoon Session
13:00 - 14:15 Developing an Interdisciplinary Action Plan
14:15 - 15:00 Action Plan Presentations
15:00 - 15:15 Afternoon Tea Break
15:15 - 16:00 Expert Panel Reflections
16:00 - 16:15 Closing and Next Steps
We particularly encourage submissions that describe interdisciplinary work involving multiple stakeholders across academia, industry, policymakers, and community advocates to address the complex social, technical, policy, and ethical challenges of online safety.
Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
Designing for Safety and Wellbeing
User-centred approaches to understanding and responding to online abuse
Safety by design principles and their practical implementation across platforms
Designing for resilience and digital literacy in online safety
Participatory design methods for developing safety interventions with affected communities
Prevention-focused approaches to online safety
Evaluation methods for assessing safety intervention effectiveness
Psychological impacts of online harm and trauma-informed design
Cultural and contextual considerations in online safety design, particularly for marginalised groups
Technology, AI, and Ethics
Emerging online safety challenges from generative AI and synthetic media
Use of AI for enhancing online safety and harm detection
Transparency and explainability in safety-related AI systems
Privacy-preserving safety interventions
Ethical considerations in developing safety technologies, especially for marginalised or vulnerable users
Evaluating the impact and unintended consequences of AI-driven safety tools
Policy, Governance, and Industry
Policy frameworks and regulatory approaches to online safety
Inclusion of equity-focused safety standards and obligations for protecting marginalised users
Industry perspectives on implementing and scaling safety features
Cross-platform safety considerations and interoperability
Collaborative models involving academia, industry, policymakers, and communities
Social, Behavioural, and Cultural Perspectives
Social and behavioural dynamics of online abuse (perpetrator, bystander, and survivor perspectives)
Cross-cultural differences in perceptions of safety, harm, and acceptable behaviour online
Structural, cultural, and socioeconomic factors influencing online safety for underrepresented communities
Psychological impacts of sustained exposure to online harm and strategies for resilience
Online safety education, awareness, and digital literacy interventions from a behavioural perspective
Collective action, social movements, and advocacy around online safety and digital rights
We welcome submissions from researchers and practitioners across diverse disciplines such as HCI, Social Computing, Design, Policy, Cybersecurity, Ethics, and Social Sciences. Policymakers, industry professionals, and community advocates engaged in digital safety are encouraged to join. Both emerging and established researchers working on new or ongoing online safety projects will find this workshop valuable.
To participate, please submit an Expression of Interest (EOI) by 20th October 2026 23:59 (Anywhere on Earth).
Your submission should describe a recent event, case study, or news article involving an online harm and a tool or platform implicated in it (or a tool whose design raises safety concerns for particular groups), reflect on it through your own disciplinary lens, and note what you hope to gain from the workshop. This may draw on your own work where relevant, and prior research on the case is welcome but not required. Contributions from both emerging and established researchers, working on new or ongoing online safety projects, are welcome.
Selected participants will be invited to join a collaborative, interactive workshop focused on identifying communities that need greater attention, examining the dual role of AI as both a source of harm and a proposed remedy, and co-developing research directions and lasting interdisciplinary networks.