Month: July 2024

Safe Online believes that a better internet is where all children and young people can safely enjoy all the benefits the online world has to offer. Now more than ever, there is an urgent need to make sure that this becomes a reality.

Press Release: July 17, 2024 [LONDON]: Today, survivors of childhood sexual violence will address the escalating threat to children’s lives posed by online abuse, and call for action to ‘redesign’ the internet and protect children ahead of the first ever global Ministerial on the issue in November 2024. This is a pivotal moment to redefine the digital world for children, ensuring that technology is used for their benefit and never for their harm.

Safer Internet Day, on February 6 2024, marks an important moment to come together to address urgent challenges. Governments, civil society, businesses, educators and children from across the globe are mobilising on this day to acknowledge and promote the theme of “Together for a better internet”.

What are Safe Online grantees doing to support a Safer Internet Day?

For 2026, Safe Online worked with Tech Coalition members to identify three priority areas where online child sexual exploitation and abuse (OCSEA) intersects with emerging risk, informed by what we’re seeing across the ecosystem: AI companionship and intimacy, nihilistic violent extremism and sadistic online exploitation (NVE/SOE), and grooming in online gaming environments. These are areas where the evidence base is thin and the risk of harm is escalating. The result was a narrower call than in past years, asking applicants to go deep on one problem and build industry engagement into independent research itself.