Creating safer online digital services through research.

UCL's Safer Digital Services Lab conducts research to understand and mitigate online harms, with a focus on developing novel user-centered technical governance mechanisms, and governance frameworks that prioritise accountability, support, and restoration over punishment.

Our People

Sarah Elwahsh

Inclusive and participatory approaches to designing conversational AI for digital health contexts.

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Sarah Elwahsh

Doctoral Researcher

Majid Hatamian

Privacy engineering, privacy harms, and user reporting

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Majid Hatamian

Honorary Senior Researcher Fellow

Beltsazar Krisetya

Information integrity governance during political stress tests.

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Beltsazar Krisetya

Doctoral Researcher

Lisa Mekioussa Malki

Privacy of LLM-based memory mechanisms.

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Lisa Mekioussa Malki

Doctoral Researcher

Julia Mathews

Rethinking user reporting tools for children

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Julia Mathews

Doctoral Researcher

Catherine O'Brien

Analysing platform governance frameworks and co-designing novel user reporting tools.

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Catherine O'Brien

Senior Research Fellow

Mark Warner

Researching human-centric approaches to security, privacy, and online trust.

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Mark Warner

Associate Professor

Previous Lab Members

Kyle Beadle

Community-based surveillance and moderation.

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Kyle Beadle

Former Doctoral Researcher

Nuur Alifah Roslan

Understanding the user experience and user needs from content reporting tools.

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Nuur Alifah Roslan

Former Visiting Research Fellow

Lauren Scott

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Lauren Scott

Former Doctoral Researcher

Research Themes & Projects

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Research Themes

Stengthening Online Information Integrity

Stengthening Online Information Integrity

Transparent Platform Governance

Transparent Platform Governance

Understanding People and Comunities Online

Understanding People and Comunities Online

Privacy Risks, Harms, and Protections

Privacy Risks, Harms, and Protections

User Centered Content Moderation

User Centered Content Moderation

Latest News

NordiCHI Paper on LLM-Based User Content Reporting
Oct 2026

NordiCHI Paper on LLM-Based User Content Reporting

Cathy O'Brien presented a recently published paper at NordiCHI on LLM-based reporting

Dr Catherine O'Brien is Promoted
Jan 2026

Dr Catherine O'Brien is Promoted

Dr Catherine O'Brien was promoted to Senior Research Fellow!

Google funding to co-design AI-enhanced reporting tools
Dec 2025

Google funding to co-design AI-enhanced reporting tools

We won Google funding for a project that looks at integration of LLMs within privacy harm reporting systems