#DontCrossTheLine - a campaign targeting harassment on nights out

On Friday 29 September, we’re launching our Don’t Cross the Line campaign - targeting sexual harassment and misogynistic behaviour on nights out in the Shoreditch area, which will initially run for four weeks from this week.

Launched by Hackney Council and local bars, pubs and nightclubs, it aims to send a clear message to perpetrators of sexual offences that behaviours like unwanted groping, grabbing or touching will not be tolerated in the night time economy.

Help us expand the reach of the campaign by posting on social media or putting posters up in your venue.

How you can support the campaign

  • Put a poster up in your venue. We’re bringing posters and other collateral around to night time venues in the area and we’d be grateful if you could post it in places in your venues that work for you. If you’re not a night time venue and would like posters, let us know [see contact details at the bottom of this document].

  • Join us and post on social media at 5pm on Friday 29 September, using the suggested social media copy below or your own words. We’d be really grateful for your support then or at any other part of the evening and following four weeks. Please use the #DontCrossTheLine hashtag.

  • If you see a poster, floor stencil, sticker or advert from the campaign, take a picture and share on social media using the hashtag #DontCrossTheLine

  • Please also post or send photos of posters and other collateral in your venue using the same hashtag. We’d love it if you sent or posted a portrait video of your staff saying “Don’t cross the line!”

Images and animations are available to use here. Please also feel free to use your own image or video.

Suggested social media copy:

Option 1

Unwanted touching, groping or grabbing is a crime - don’t cross the line.

We’re proud to be working with @HackneyCouncil on a new campaign to target sexual harassment on nights out.

Find out more: http://bit.ly/dontcrosstheline

#DontCrossTheLine #HackneyNights

Option 2 - venue specific

We operate a zero tolerance approach to sexual harassment.

That’s why we’re supporting a new campaign from @HackneyCouncil targeting unwanted touching, groping or grabbing on nights out.

Find out more: http://bit.ly/dontcrosstheline

#DontCrossTheLine #HackneyNights

The launch

The campaign will be launched with local bars, pubs and nightclubs on the evening of Friday 29 September in Shoreditch. To mark the launch, the Council have also teamed up with The Metropolitan Police to host a pop up hub in the area. The pop up will include information about the campaign, a chance to tell us what you think and a ‘welfare space’ running till 4am offering access to a range of help - from the police, the Council and medics.

Background

The new #DontCrossTheLine campaign is part of the Council’s ongoing project, Hackney Nights, which works to prevent crime and anti-social behaviour in the borough’s nightlife spaces. The campaign has been launched in response to the rise in misogynistic behaviours in the night-time economy (NTE) since the Covid pandemic as well as the increase in online content encouraging misogynistic views and behaviours; which ultimately leads to sexual crimes/incidents.

This year Hackney has trained over 2,000 nightlife staff in sexual harassment as part of the Hackney Nights project. This has seen an increase in incident reports; particularly incidents considered ‘low level’, which were normally massively underreported. Increased reporting is extremely positive and the #DontCrossTheLine campaign aims to build on this.

Find out more about Hackney Nights here: hackneynights.co.uk/

Contacts

Hackney Nights team, hackneynights@hackney.gov.uk

Hackney Council's communications team, press@hackney.gov.uk, 020 8356 3736