Safe Online awards $6.7 million to 20 new grantees to advance innovative and high-impact solutions to fight online child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEA).
In response to the escalating risks children face in the digital world, Safe Online launched a global call for proposals in 2024 to identify and support the most promising solutions.
Following a rigorous selection process from a pool of over 300 applications, 20 grantees have been selected to receive a combined USD 6.7 million in funding – USD 1.7 million more than originally allocated. This significant increase reflects the urgent, growing need to strengthen global efforts to protect children from digital harms. These new projects, from across the world, are designed to deliver maximum impact where it’s needed most
Additionally, recognizing the overwhelming demand and immense needs in the ecosystem, Safe Online is increasing our initial investment of 6.7 million by an additional 8.5 million bringing the total investments for the period 2024-2026 to USD 15 million. This expanded funding will enable us to support more high-impact initiatives and scale up global efforts to create a safe digital future for children
The 20 initiatives announced today represent the first cohort selected through the 2024 Open Call. More projects will be launched in the second half of 2025 and early 2026 through a targeted, invitation-only process, designed to address emerging needs and fill critical strategic gaps.
Our 20 new grantees were selected for their strong focus on innovation and potential for high impact. Each project demonstrates the ability to create new pathways for change and push the boundaries beyond what currently exists. In addition, the selection process prioritized proposals with clear potential for scalability and long-term sustainability, as well as those offering solutions that are interoperable and applicable across different systems and use cases.
Grantees include international organisations, child protection NGOs and CSOs, research, and academic institutions and tech start-ups and include a range of path-breaking projects.
New projects under the ‘Networks and Systems’ pillar will build the foundations of the ecosystem by formalizing mental health care models for frontline professionals working on online CSEA, transforming the response to Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) by testing a new model for survivors’ support, pioneering early intervention strategies to prevent CSAM by targeting individuals at risk of offending and addressing critical gaps in digital regulation enforcement by developing a fair and sustainable redress standard through the child-inclusive, collaborative COR Sandbox.
Projects under the ‘Research and Data’ pillar will generate new evidence and data through child-centric, participatory action research to understand children’s vulnerability to online risks, especially related to non-consensual sharing of private images; online coercion and AI and understand emerging forms of image-based sexual violence against children by exploring experiences of survivors, their parents or caregivers, law enforcement officers, and professionals working with children.
Projects under the ‘Tech Tools’ pillar will design, test, and develop technology solutions that contribute to the broader ecosystem and promote tools that are shareable, adaptable, and enhance efficiency in online CSEA prevention and response efforts. These projects include prototype tools for generating semantic hashes to help law enforcement and trust and safety teams more accurately identify new CSAM; systems to disrupt payments made by offshore offenders to facilitators ; and an automated AI evaluation platform, specialized in assessing CSEA risks, designed to help organizations evaluate the trust and safety risks of their AI models.
This latest investment grows Safe Online’s investment portfolio to USD 100 million with impact in over 100 countries and accelerates Safe Online’s globally important role as a catalyst for innovative and scalable solutions to combat digital harms.
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Suojellaan Lapsia Ry
Our grantees Suojellaan Lapsia Ry Redirection Countries involved:Finland Suojellaan Lapsia Ry will develop and launch ReDirection, an evidence-based self-help programme working to prevent the consumption of CSAM on the Dark Web. By providing targeted support for these individuals, the project will also reveal new information about these searchers and their pathways
New Venture Fund
Our grantees New Venture Fund Communication and Advocacy Support: Inspiring the End of Violence Against Girls and Boys Grant timeline:United Stated of America As a part of this communications and advocacy support, New Venture Fund develops a number of communications tools for resource mobilization to end online child sexual exploitation
Middlesex University 2
Our grantees Middlesex University Invisible Risks Countries involved:United Kindgom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland We know that online child sexual abuse material is highly damaging to children. But today, little primary research exists about the impact such material has on content moderators – individuals who are charged with constantly
