Prevalence Benchmarking

Prevalence Benchmarking

Prevalence Benchmarking provides regulators, platforms, and civil society with independent, verifiable statistics on the scale and distribution of online harms. By triangulating multiple data sources and applying transparent methodologies, Civility Bureau delivers neutral prevalence estimates, derived without personal identifiers and using transparent, regulator‑auditable methods that can be compared across services and categories.

41%

Online Harm

44%

Children – Online Risk

60%

Non-Comparable Categories

Evidence-Based Measurement of Online Harms

why choose us for Prevalence Benchmarking

This service does not rely on platform self‑reporting. Instead, it produces auditable, regulator‑ready benchmarks that show how widespread specific harms are, how they evolve over time, and how enforcement outcomes compare to sector‑wide baselines.

Under‑reporting of abuse

A 2021 Pew Research Center survey found that 41% of U.S. adults had personally experienced online harassment, yet only a fraction of incidents were ever reported to platforms.

Disproportionate exposure

EU Kids Online (2020) reported that 44% of European children aged 9–16 had encountered at least one online risk in the past year, highlighting the need for consistent prevalence data across demographics.

Measurement gaps

Ofcom’s 2022 Online Nation report showed that over 60% of platforms used non‑comparable harm categories, making regulator oversight fragmented and unreliable without shared benchmarks.

Key Benefits

For platforms

Demonstrate accountability with independent, verifiable records rather than self‑reporting alone.

For regulators

Gain auditable evidence of enforcement activity without requiring direct access to user content.

For communities

Trust that enforcement actions are logged consistently and transparently, protecting rights while ensuring oversight.

Attestation Services are not enforcement. They are a neutral layer that records moderation outcomes in anonymous, standardized form without raw user data. By embedding transparency, auditability, and privacy safeguards, they ensure governance is both effective and rights‑respecting.