2024: A Year of Urgency, Vision, and Partnership in Safeguarding Children Online
As 2024 comes to a close, we find ourselves reflecting on a year marked by both immense challenges and significant opportunities in safeguarding children in an increasingly digital world. The rapid evolution of technologies—such as Generative AI and extended reality platforms—has reshaped our digital landscape, offering immense potential but also exacerbating the risks children face online. While these technological advancements promise to change lives for the better, they also outpace our collective ability to protect children from harm, presenting critical questions about how we mobilize the necessary resources to respond.
This year, we saw a growing consensus among policymakers, industry leaders, and civil society on the need for global collaboration to create a safer, more ethical digital future. Discussions around AI ethics, governance, privacy, and child safety have expanded beyond niche circles, signaling progress. Governments have begun stepping up with regulatory frameworks aimed at mitigating harm, safeguarding privacy, and ensuring accountability. However, we know regulation alone is not enough.
Closing the investment gap: a call to action
The single greatest barrier to achieving a safe, inclusive, and ethical digital future for children is the chronic underfunding of the field. Online child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEA), in particular, faces a significant—and worsening—funding gap. Despite the growing awareness of the risks children face online, investment in solutions has not kept pace with the scale or complexity of the problem.
To implement the bold, innovative vision we need, governments, industry, and frontline actors must commit to increasing funding and resources. We must clearly articulate the financial and resource demands of protecting children online and rally stakeholders to recognize that these investments are vital—not only for child protection but for a safer, healthier digital ecosystem.
This is not just about responding to harms—it’s about scaling prevention, building infrastructure, and enabling cross-sector collaboration. Without sustained, meaningful investments, our vision for a safe digital world will remain out of reach. Let 2025 be the year we close the funding gap and begin to match our ambitions with the resources they deserve.
Strengthening the links: a holistic approach
Children do not experience online harm in isolation. Evidence increasingly shows that online CSEA is inextricably linked to broader issues such as mental health challenges, gender-based violence, extremism, peer-to-peer abuse, and violations of children’s online rights. Yet, these intersections are often overlooked in discussions about digital safety and child protection. To make meaningful progress, we must shift our focus upstream—addressing protective and risk factors holistically and investing in prevention as much as response.
This means integrating online safety into broader conversations about children’s rights in the digital age and embedding their voices and lived experiences into everything we do. By addressing the root causes and interconnected risks children face, we can work toward a future where children not only survive but thrive online.
Innovations, open solutions and collective impact
Tackling online harms will also require bold, risk-taking investments in technology tools, new approaches, and open-source solutions that benefit the entire ecosystem. The system as a whole—governments, industry, civil society, and frontline actors—must collaborate to create shareable, scalable tools that drive progress.
Equally critical is the need to invest in the evidence and data infrastructure that underpins these solutions. Reliable, accessible, and actionable data from all sectors is a cornerstone for improving interventions, developing new tools, and driving effective research. Building this foundation will help us create smarter, more coordinated responses to the complex and evolving threats children face.
A shared mission amid global uncertainty
All of this work unfolds against a backdrop of geopolitical challenges and conflicts that have tested the resilience of children worldwide. From wars and famines to economic instability and global displacement, children have borne the heaviest burdens of this year’s crises. These realities underscore the urgency of our mission.
Yet, amidst these challenges, 2024 has also been a year of collaboration and progress. At Safe Online, we’ve forged impactful partnerships, championed survivor- and youth-centered approaches, and pushed for digital safety to be recognized as a critical element of global child protection agendas. None of this would have been possible without the unwavering support of our donors, partners, and grantees.
Looking ahead with purpose
As we close this year, I carry a deep sense of hope—but hope alone is not enough. To ensure that 2025 brings safety, equity, and opportunity to every child, we must act with purpose. I appeal to all who share this vision to join us in scaling our efforts: through advocacy, funding, and bold action. Together, we can create a future where every child, everywhere, is safe, empowered, and free to thrive—both online and offline.
Let us move forward with resolve, united in our commitment to a safe digital future for children and young people.
See more stories from our family of grantees
A day of learning, networking and problem-solving
Representatives of 21 Safe Online grants across Southeast Asia and the Pacific had the opportunity to meet face-to-face in Bangkok, Thailand this week in an important moment of reflection and learning.
Call to Action: A digital world safe for every child
Safe Online joins survivors, allies and global child protection organisations to call upon all States, the tech industry and other relevant stakeholders to prevent and end the sexual exploitation and abuse of children online and create a safer digital future for every child.
Safe online invests $4 million to generate evidence on tackling online child sexual exploitation and abuse
Safe Online’s latest funding round is investing $4 million for generating crucial data and evidence to tackle online child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEA). This initial investment will be followed by an additional $1.5 million for evaluations of the projects in the next quarter.
