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
Tech Coalition Safe Online Research Fund announces additional funding of US $500k to select existing grantees for research extension, product development & innovation
The Tech Coalition Safe Online Research Fund is granting 4 awards to further accelerate the work of organisations from the first cohort of grantees. The additional funds will be for a duration of 12 months and will support projects to extend research to applications such as piloting solutions, technical collaboration and innovation efforts.
Safe Online awards $10 million to 23 new grantees to join the fight against digital harms
To combat the growing threats in the digital space, Safe Online launched a global call for proposals in 2023. After a rigorous and thorough selection process, 23 grantees have been selected to receive USD 10 million. The new investment grows Safe Online’s investment portfolio to USD 100 million across 106 projects with impact in 100 countries and accelerates Safe Online’s globally important role as a catalyst for new solutions to combat digital harms.
Joint Stakeholder Statement: Call on policymakers to swiftly adopt the extension of the ePrivacy derogation
Joint call on policymakers to swiftly adopt the extension of the interim ePrivacy derogation Joint Stakeholder Statement Brussels, 23 January 2024 The undersigned organisations have been participating, from different angles, in the discussions surrounding the proposal laying down rules to prevent and combat child sexual abuse. All signatories share the same goal,
