Making a Difference: How to Measure Digital Safety Effectively to Reduce Risks Online

The report addresses the difficulty of 'measuring the immeasurable' in digital safety due to evolving technologies and subjective harms. It introduces a tripartite categorization of metrics—impact, risk, and process—to provide a common language for platforms and regulators. The document emphasizes that these metrics should be used to drive evidence-based decision-making, ensure regulatory compliance, and increase accountability, while cautioning against the risks of Goodhart's Law and the need for balanced data access and privacy.

• The document proposes a three-part categorization of digital safety metrics to clarify their application: 'Impact' metrics quantify user harms and lived experiences; 'Risk' metrics identify features that increase the likelihood of harm; and 'Process' metrics evaluate the effectiveness of operational systems and interventions.
• Measuring digital safety is complicated by the 'dynamic nature of technology and online harm', the variety of digital services, and the subjective nature of harms influenced by culture and language.
• The report warns of 'Goodhart’s Law', where a metric can become a distorted incentive if it is used as a primary performance target, leading organizations to manipulate behavior to optimize the metric rather than improve safety.
• Effective digital safety measurement is increasingly linked to regulatory compliance, citing the European Union's Digital Services Act (DSA) and Digital Markets Act (DMA), as well as the Online Safety Acts of the United Kingdom and Australia.
• To improve data availability for research, the report suggests streamlining data access and promoting partnerships between researchers and data custodians, provided these are done in a 'privacy-protecting way'.

APA

World Economic Forum (2024). Making a Difference: How to Measure Digital Safety Effectively to Reduce Risks Online. https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Making_a_Difference_2024.pdf

Chicago

World Economic Forum. Making a Difference: How to Measure Digital Safety Effectively to Reduce Risks Online. 2024. https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Making_a_Difference_2024.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Economic Forum |title=Making a Difference: How to Measure Digital Safety Effectively to Reduce Risks Online |date=June 2024 |url=https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Making_a_Difference_2024.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldeconomicforum2024making, author = {{World Economic Forum}}, title = {{Making a Difference: How to Measure Digital Safety Effectively to Reduce Risks Online}}, institution = {World Economic Forum}, year = {2024}, month = jun, url = {https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Making_a_Difference_2024.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }