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Tech Industry and Researchers come together to tackle online child sexual exploitation and abuse

Tech Industry and Researchers come together to tackle online child sexual exploitation and abuse

Promoting action from research

2024 Collaboration Announcement

We’re excited to announce that Safe Online and Tech Coalition’s partnership is entering its 4th year! With a generous USD $500,000 from the Tech Coalition, we’re set to enhance the impact of 13 research projects that play a crucial role in developing resources and applications for the tech industry. This effort is part of our ongoing commitment to combat online child sexual exploitation and abuse. 

Safe Online’s collaboration with the Tech Coalition addresses a crucial gap in the online child safety ecosystem for research funding that is aligned with industry trends, policymaking, and practical applications. Over the next year Safe Online will aim to maximize the impact of the current investments and build on this pivotal  partnership with the Tech Coalition.

The main aim of the Tech Coalition Safe Online Research Fund is to use the research to impact tech industry practices and steer technological developments. We do this not only through our research but also by organizing strategic events and engagements, to provide space and platform for the tech industry and researchers to share insights from the research projects. These events are key to translating these insights into products and practices that can significantly enhance the protection of children online. See an example of a recent convening below. 

Why we came together – 2023 Research Fund Convening

More than 45 participants, a combination of researchers supported by the Tech Coalition Safe Online Research Fund and tech professionals, came together in San Francisco to discuss emerging findings from research and actions that the tech industry can take to protect children online. 

What we covered

The day started with a public panel to share insights about this unique initiative and hear from collaborators who have made this work possible. Made up of industry members, independent experts and researchers, the panel was united in its call for more cross-sectoral collaboration, the need for greater inclusion of underrepresented geographies and groups, and the real impacts that the research projects from this fund are already having.

Marija Manojlovic, Executive Director, Safe Online made the exciting announcement that 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 are for a duration of 12 months and will support projects to extend research to applications such as piloting solutions, technical collaboration and innovation efforts.  Read more here

We then dove straight into the research findings with a lightning round of presentations followed by a marketplace that gave tech professionals the chance to talk to researchers and understand what the findings mean for them. 

In the afternoon we took a deep dive into the research themes with small groups unpacking the opportunities and challenges around grooming, user reporting, prevention and wellness and deterrence and offender behavior. We ended the day focusing on action – linking up researchers with tech professionals working in operations, policy and product to discuss how to continue to strengthen the links across sectors to better protect children online.

How the day went

Overwhelmingly, participants were excited about the new and strengthened connections with other experts working on the issue –both within the research and tech communities and across both sectors.

“Meeting the other researchers and hearing about their work was perhaps the most useful because it made me feel like part of a movement for change - and we can all do with feeling a bit of unity in this field”
- Amanda Third, Young & Resilient Research Centre, University of Western Australia
“Valuable connections were made for professional networking and information sharing - we solved mutual problems together!”
- Tech industry participant feedback from post-workshop survey

The research projects range from linguistic analysis that can track patterns of grooming, to understanding more about perpetrator behaviors, to increased evidence around parents’ awareness of online abuse. The Research Fund has a focus on promoting action, making it even more valuable to bring researchers together with tech professionals. 

“I found it practical and action-oriented. I think there was a very fluid dialogue where we managed to put everyone's needs and work into perspective”
- Lina María Saldarriaga, Universidad de los Andes

There was a high level of consensus on the day about ensuring that research in this area is practical, actionable and is fast paced enough to make a change in the tech industry.

“Researchers could reflect on methods and think about the minimum viable product – a gold standard works in a vacuum but not real-world contexts. What matters is what’s making a difference.”
- Group discussion on policy

There is a lot of enthusiasm and energy to continue collaboration through a community of practice and individual connections that were made on the day. 

Overall, we received incredible feedback from the attendees at the convening. Both research grantees and tech industry participants appreciated the chance to learn, exchange ideas, and have open and honest discussions.  Participants highlighted the need for more such events bringing together researchers and tech partners to share learning, and to receive tailored research insights at regular intervals in order to  grow and strengthen this unique new community of practice.

We want to build on the enthusiasm from the day and keep the momentum going. As a next step, the TC Safe Online Research Fund will keep working to set up effective ways to share findings from research, increase researchers’ knowledge of how different platforms work, promote collaboration and most importantly action.

The Tech Coalition Safe Online Research Fund is investing in knowledge and research to end online child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEA). The Tech Coalition and Safe Online joined hands in 2020 to collectively work to support knowledge and research towards ending online harm. Going into its 4th year, the Fund is continuing its focus on innovative research that produces actionable insights to impact product and policy development, with a priority given to research that can help inform the technology industry’s approach to combating online child sexual exploitation and abuse.

Image: © UNICEF:UN355768

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Winners of the 2024 Safe Online funding call

June 2, 2025

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

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Safe Online Progress Snapshot 2023

December 18, 2023

The challenges to children’s online safety have never been more significant, and demand an unprecedented response. Our work, now more critical than ever, has risen to meet these challenges. From strategic investments to critical research and advocacy, Safe Online has been at the frontline of the battle to tackle online child sexual exploitation and abuse.

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Reflections: Safe Digital Futures for Children – Data for Change

Reflections: Safe Digital Futures for Children – Data for Change

Envisioning a digital world with the rights of children at the core

It has been a month since Safe Online together with the French Online Child Protection Laboratory and WeProtect Global Alliance met in Paris, France to host the second Safe Digital Futures for Children: Data for Change event.

Safe Online’s experts Serena Tommasino and Natalie Shoup came together to reflect on the event, what the initiative means for the child online safety community and what success looks like.

Q: What does “Safe Digital Futures for Children and Young People” mean?

Natalie: When we came up with the name, we were trying to reflect on alignment of all digital harms against children and a proactive way of building the future, building many futures, actually. We were trying to include the diversity of children’s experiences in the various ways of imagining our future. This also goes back to our own Safe Online mission – and the fact that digital is not necessarily just online. So, for me, Safe Digital Futures was getting at all the different threads we were trying to pull together

Serena: For me, the name is about building the backbone and infrastructure of a safe digital world for all children and young people.  Connectivity is growing and eventually all children will be connected or immersed in digital environments. We are heading towards a future where terms like offline and online will not make sense anymore – we will be immersed in the digital world, and we will not think about it as such. In fact, children of this generation have already made this transition.

The name, therefore, refers to the future digital world we need! A place designed with children’s safety in mind, especially the safety of the most vulnerable groups of children and young people. Today the digital world is designed by and for adults, and this is why we need to envision a future digital world that enables children to navigate with strong and age-appropriate safeguards to prevent risks and threats of violence.

Q: Why is data relevant for a safe digital future?

Serena: The design is the result, but how can we design a safe digital world without knowing how and where children and young people are at risk? The change that we want needs to be informed by comprehensive and quality data and evidence, including the perceptions and voices of children and young people from across the world. We do not only need better and reliable data, but also collaboration, capacity and sustained political support to ensure data is used effectively. This is why we named the initiative ‘data for change’!

The hidden nature of online child sexual exploitation and abuse

How can we make a difference for this and future generation of children without adequate resources?

Natalie: Echoing that, there is currently not only a fragmented data landscape but also fragmented investment in capacity and infrastructure. When we are speaking about data, we are referring to the whole ecosystem. So not just datasets, but also data resources, technical expertise, ethical principles, legal agreements, relationships, technology infrastructure, etc. We need this full picture of data to inform more dynamic systems and anticipatory frameworks so that we are not always reactive. 

Rates of change are increasing for not only how quickly technology is evolving but also how rapidly it is affecting the nature of our daily lives. This is adding complexity to an already massive challenge in keeping children safe online. There is a huge opportunity and need to use data to frame this conversation more proactively and create the groundwork for a shared way forward so that this does not become an ongoing exercise in firefighting but rather in strategically shaping our digital futures. 

Q: What was your experience with data coming into this initiative?

Natalie: This is an interesting question especially considering how everyone in the workshop had diverse expertise and experiences and came in thinking about data from different perspectives. It’s good to reflect on this while thinking about our own experience with data.

I have a background in data science, and I’ve worked a lot with data for social good including thinking about data governance, data privacy and data ethics. I see a lot of potential to find ways to put narratives and learnings from those topics within the context of and in service of child safety.

When we did the first data initiative in 2021 and again this year, I realised there is so much that exists in terms of data governance and data ethics work, and we have an opportunity to learn from other communities doing this work. But I also realised diving into this, that there’s so much that’s so unique about our field – for instance, how technology is intertwined, the sensitivity of much of the data, how the issues evolve so quickly. So, while we can learn from other communities and build on certain things there’s so much that is unique in our space and needs to be done very thoughtfully with people who understand this problem. If we are able to figure some of these things out in collaborative and dynamic ways, that can offer other folks a lot of potential to learn from our space too.

Serena: Every sector or professional, based on their experience and expertise, will see, think and talk about data in a different way and that remains one of the key barriers when we’re trying to align different data sets to create a more comprehensive and harmonised picture. For instance, law enforcement will have their own expectations from data as something that is going to lead them to identify the victim and bring the perpetrator to justice. Academics will focus more on sampling, methodology and quality. Professionals will want easy to use data for programming, policy and advocacy. This variety is a richness, but it’s also a challenge; because it’s about building bridges for people to talk to each other, understand different datasets, terminologies and working modalities and see how to better align efforts across sectors and levels.

Q: What was the biggest challenge and success in organising this workshop?

Natalie: The biggest challenge going into the workshop was striking the right balance in capacities to approach the data landscape effort that came out as a priority from the 2021 convening and was used to inform the conversations for this year’s workshop. The key question was do we bring in data experts and then try to complement the content expertise or do we bring in someone from our ecosystem and try to bolster or find some way to connect them to data expertise so that they’re not starting from scratch.

Our team is a great example of a mix of expertise and perspectives coming together and being able to look at the data ecosystem in collaborative ways with the goal of identifying concrete places to advance this work. We hope to take what we are learning in our team’s experience with these efforts so far to better build bridges and spaces for the wider ecosystem to do the same.

Serena: The biggest success was bringing the right people into the room and creating a safe space for them to share and learn from each other. We are grateful to all the participants who not only joined us but who were willing to be open and very engaged to build a better data ecosystem for child online safety.  

Natalie: I agree, a success for me was the openness with which people approached the workshop and the fact that we heard from people that they came away with new ideas and connections. This group of people have invaluable expertise based on their work and perspectives and coming into the workshop some challenges to current ways of working were presented for people to sit with – of trying to make some shifts in looking at data not in terms of our individual organisational mandates and in silos but instead in more comprehensive and harmonised ways.  By the end of the two days, we heard from many participants that they had changed their minds in some way in how they think about data. Some said, “Maybe I didn’t know everything that I thought I did” or “It’s important for me to see this differently.” This feedback and engagement of the community we brought together was hugely positive for me.

Q: What does the future with this initiative look like?

Natalie: In the longer term, one important focus is creating mechanisms for data governance and seeing that take shape – it is incredibly important in any data ecosystem, and it doesn’t exist for this field as a whole yet. We also want to see shifts in narratives and more inclusion as well. In fact, being intentional about inclusion of different actors that aren’t well represented is an immediate next step and then also over time, having a more inclusive ecosystem as a whole.

Serena: With data, we will be able to quantify, understand and contextualize risks and the extent to which children and young people experience the abuse in order to prevent and disrupt it before it happens. This is what ‘Data for change’ means! Without data this crime will remain invisible, and we would be investing in the dark. Data has the power to make this horrible crime against children visible and to guide us in designing safe digital futures for children and young people. 

Since 2017, Safe Online has invested over USD 76 million across 100 projects in 85 countries. Of this, over USD 20 million has been invested in evidence and data generation.

Images: © Safe Online/Photographer: Rafael Duarte

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Joint Stakeholder Statement: Call on policymakers to swiftly adopt the extension of the ePrivacy derogation

January 23, 2024

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,

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12 new countries join flagship global initiative to combat online child sexual exploitation and abuse

12 new countries join flagship global initiative to combat online child sexual exploitation and abuse

Disrupting Harm is a large-scale research project that provides robust evidence across sectors, on children’s exposure to online sexual exploitation and abuse, and how countries can more effectively respond to this crime. Today, ECPAT International, INTERPOL, Safe Online and UNICEF Innocenti are announcing the implementation of Disrupting Harm in eleven new countries: Armenia, Brazil, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Jordan, Mexico, Montenegro, Morocco, North Macedonia, Pakistan, Serbia and Tunisia.

This second round of investment (totalling USD $7.5m) will enable robust research on online child sexual exploitation and abuse, conducted by Disrupting Harm partners with support from national expert organizations. By 2025, evidence-informed action plans will be produced for each country to strengthen their capacity to prevent and respond to online child sexual exploitation abuse. 

In today’s increasingly digital world, the internet has become an integral part of children and young people’s lives, providing enormous opportunities for communication, education and entertainment. At the same time, it can also present a serious threat to their safety and well-being. Unfortunately, there is very little solid evidence available on the scale of these risks, which groups of children are more likely to be harmed, and where or how this happens.

In 2019, in response to the growing threat of online child sexual exploitation and abuse, Safe Online invested an initial USD $7m in the Disrupting Harm large-scale research project, implemented by ECPAT International, INTERPOL and UNICEF Innocenti. Disrupting Harm produces crucial evidence on children’s exposure to online sexual exploitation and abuse, and assesses how national protection systems are responding to this crime. Based on this research it proposes ways in which leaders and policy-makers can help strengthen online child sexual exploitation and abuse prevention and response approaches to more effectively address this issue.

Taking a holistic and cross-sectoral approach, Disrupting Harm conducts nationally representative household surveys with children and their caregivers; reviews existing national laws and policies; engages with national law enforcement agencies to understand their capacity to effectively respond to these crimes; documents the experiences of children and young people who have experienced online sexual exploitation and abuse; and studies the experiences of frontline welfare workers and justice professionals who are working with cases of online child sexual exploitation and abuse to understand their capacities and needs.

Disrupting Harm has so far been implemented in thirteen countries across South-East Asia and Eastern and Southern Africa.

Headline findings from these countries show that:

In response, a number of these countries have already initiated policy and legislative changes to strengthen prevention and response, for example:

    • In line with Disrupting Harm recommendations, the Government of Malaysia amended existing legislation to ban sexual extortion and livestreaming of child sexual abuse, making these criminal offences. This move better enables the effective prosecution of these crimes. These amendments represent a significant strengthening of the country’s legislative framework in this area and contribute to creating a safer online world for children in Malaysia.
    • In Indonesia, Disrupting Harm recommendations were used to help develop a National Roadmap on Child Online Protection and informed the revision of national standards and training modules for integrated child protection services. Findings from the program were also applied to the development of a web-based platform strengthening children’s awareness of violence, including online safety.
    • In Tanzania, insights and recommendations were integrated into education and training materials developed by the Ministry of Health.

Today, ECPAT International, INTERPOL, Safe Online and UNICEF Innocenti are announcing the implementation of the second phase of the Disrupting Harm program in twelve new countries. These are: Armenia, Brazil, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Jordan, Mexico, Montenegro, Morocco, North Macedonia, Pakistan, Serbia and Tunisia. The research will be implemented between 2023-2025 through close collaboration between a range of different actors including national UNICEF offices, civil society organisations, ECPAT network members, law enforcement and INTERPOL National Central Bureaus, independent expert organizations, and government institutions.

Findings from the first phase of Disrupting Harm can be found here: https://safeonline.global/disrupting-harm/#findings As the findings from the second phase emerge, they will be accessible here.

Image: © UNICEF:UN051254

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Safe Online awards $10 million to 23 new grantees to join the fight against digital harms 

June 20, 2024

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.

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Learning, Networking And Visioning A Safe Digital Future:

June 21, 2022

On 30-31 May 2022, End Violence’s Safe Online initiative brought together over 40 grantees and partners from across the world alongside donors, and industry representatives from the Tech Coalition in a unique opportunity aligned around a common vision to end online child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEA).

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Tackling age assurance & live streaming of abuse to make the internet safer for children

Tackling age assurance & live streaming of abuse to make the internet safer for children

Safe Online is investing USD $2 million across 10 innovative projects to seed and grow solutions that leverage existing and new technologies to tackle online child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEA).

The new projects will focus not only on technology solutions, but also include research around the use of tech solutions for the two key areas – age assurance and live streaming of abuse in the online CSEA ecosystem.

These two themes were selected based on rising prioritisation in global discussions of online CSEA  across sectors; upcoming legislation and emerging policy focus globally that raises the urgency of proactively engaging with these challenges; as well as from extensive consultation with diverse experts across the online CSEA and related fields.

"Our understanding of how we approach age assurance and live streaming of abuse in the online CSEA ecosystem is fragmented and often reactive to current trends in digital harms. With these 10 new projects, Safe Online is promoting a unified and proactive approach that focuses on upcoming legislation, new and emerging technology and tackling rapidly evolving threats in the digital space."
- Marija Manojlovic, Director, Safe Online

The 10 organisations, awarded through a rigorous selection process supported by external technical experts, will build on existing tools and research in the space as well as existing evidence, frameworks and networks. These organisations were selected on the relevance of the proposed solution and potential for scale and impact, the soundness of the proposed technology or research, global/regional and national context (including similar projects and risk of duplication), legal basis for implementing the tool or policy relevance for the research, and the type of the organisation and geographic distribution of funds. 

Read more on the projects:

AVID: A global approach to tolerances, frequency, bias and resilience of Age Assurance. 

Lead research on appropriate levels of tolerance for age assurance systems in line with the development of international standards, including developing guidance on the frequency of re-authentication of users & research on bias, presentation attack and system-level attack.

https://www.accscheme.com/ 

Center for Democracy & Technology: CSEA & Social Media Policy

CDT will conduct research and lead multi-stakeholder workshops to address how child sexual exploitation and abuse material (CSEA) is identified and addressed in live-streamed content. Live streaming, which is increasingly important in the use of popular apps particularly among children, presents unique challenges for combatting CSEA content. Given the scale of user generated content on major social media and other online services, companies make use of a range of machine learning techniques to analyze user behavior and user generated video, audio, and text. Understanding the capabilities of such techniques, and how they may be deployed, is crucial for assessing the consequences for children’s safety, privacy, free expression, and other rights. It is also important to understand how these tools can be applied in non-English language settings, and the extent to which these tools can be effectively integrated into trust and safety systems in a way that protects and promotes children’s rights. CDT’s project will (1) assess proposed and existing technologies used to detect and address CSEA in live streamed content, and (2) facilitate dialogue and engagement between researchers, advocates, and policy-makers on how to address this problem.

http://www.cdt.org/ 

Pathfinder Labs: Jaeger

Jaeger is a cutting-edge solution to meet critical objectives to safeguard the vulnerable and bring offenders to justice. 

    • Identify offender profiles and groups.   
    • Capture volatile streaming data automatically. 
    • Alert investigators of ‘at-risk’ streaming sessions. 
    • Provide a unified platform reference. 
    • Facilitate collaborative operations and investigations.

https://pathfinderlabs.nz/

Plan International Australia: Safeguarding young people from the dark path of self-facilitated live streaming of CSEA

Plan International, with ECPAT, will conduct a participatory action research into the ‘value chain’ of live streaming of online child sexual exploitation and abuse in the Philippines, outline livestreaming risk factors, the steps that victims and perpetrators go through, and the perceived “benefits” and consequences of the actions.

http://www.plan.org.au/ 

Rigr AI Limited: Video Summarisation Tool (VST)

Rigr AI is crafting the “VST – Video Summarisation Tool,” tailored for Law Enforcement Agencies (LEA), Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), and private sectors. Its primary goal is to identify victims of Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (CSEA) content.

https://rigr.ai/ 

AVPA Limited: euCONSENT Phase 2

euCONSENT ASBL is a non-profit NGO that will put into live operation extensions to the eIDAS infrastructure required to deliver its vision for pan-European, open-system, secure and certified interoperable age verification and parental consent to access Information Society Services.

https://euconsent.eu/

T3K.AI: CounterACT - Countering Abuse through Coercion or Trafficking

T3K.AI will adapt their solution CORE, which is specialized on the AI-enabled detection of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) in pictures and videos, to CSAM detection in livestreams. The project will optimise the automatic screening of livestreams to empower Content Providing Companies in their fight against streamed abuse.

https://www.t3k.ai/ 

Yoti: Level Playing Field

Yoti is a digital identity company that makes it safer for people to prove who they are, providing a number of innovative solutions which span reusable Digital ID, age assurance, identity verification and esignatures. Yoti will aim to support data and content regulators in the online child safety area; to review a wider number of sites and achieve the objectives of their online safety regulations. This project will have a global reach and maintain the collaborative approach of Yoti in working with key partners including policy advisers, think tanks, researchers, humanitarian bodies and civil society.

https://www.yoti.com/

Universidad de los Andes (with Aulas en Paz and Te Protejo): AI alert system for the detection and deterrence of CSEA livestreaming in the Latin American context

This project aims to test and improve an Artificial Intelligence alert system for the detection of live streaming of abuses in Latin America. This initiative is based on a tool previously created by Universidad de los Andes through a project financed by Safe Online. By using information from conversations that take place between aggressors, the research team will analyse patterns and commonalities in these interactions in order to tackle this crime in a faster and more strategic way. Through a partnership established with hotlines and organisations that work on the prevention of CSEA in Colombia, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Ecuador and Costa Rica, this alert system seeks to become a regional tool for the prevention of this crime.

Web-IQ: OSAgE: Open Source Age Estimation

To help keep children safe online and enable authorities to enforce age legislations on online platforms, Web-IQ uses AI to create an age assurance tool, tailored to Safe Online’s mission. The tool aims to verify a user’s age by scanning open information available online, helping protect kids from online dangers of sexual abuse.

https://web-iq.com 

Image: © UNICEF:UNI316261

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Hear from our grantee: Age Check Certification Scheme Why Age Assurance is key to empowering children in the digital age

May 1, 2024

Hosted in collaboration with the British Standards Institution (BSI), this groundbreaking summit united over 700 global stakeholders to affirm a bold declaration: “Age Assurance Can Be Done!” With a focus on safeguarding children online, the summit produced a landmark Communique on Age Assurance, outlining principles like prioritising individual rights and data minimisation. Safe Online grantee, Age Assurance Certification Scheme, explains why age assurance is critical, the role of the first-ever Communique on Age Assurance and the way forward from this landmark Summit.

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Meet the new Safe Online visual identity!

Meet the new Safe Online brand!

We are thrilled to share a major milestone in the journey of Safe Online and our mission of shaping a safer digital world for all children and young people everywhere.

In line with the evolving technological landscape and the ever-changing needs of young people worldwide, we are establishing ourselves as a global funding vehicle and renewing our commitment to our core purpose; to protect and empower children and young people throughout the digital world.

Alongside our communications partner, Strategic Agenda, we have developed a powerful new brand that speaks directly to our purpose, mission, and vision to launch our evolution from the End Violence partnership.  

Why?

This crucial step allows us to wholeheartedly devote our resources, expertise, and unwavering passion to the cause of ensuring the online safety and empowerment of our most vulnerable technology users.

We believe that every child and young person deserves an online experience where they can benefit from all it has to offer without fear of harm, abuse or age-inappropriate content and experiences. The digital world is an integral part of their lives, and we owe it to them to ensure digital spaces meet the standards we set for the physical world.

Our new mandate and sole focus allows us to have a greater impact and broader reach than ever before, and strengthens our position as a network and advocate at the heart of online safety. 

As we embark on the new chapter of Safe Online, we renew our promise to create a safer digital future for children and young people. Our new identity is more than a brand: it's a commitment to the well-being of every child and young person who turns to the digital world to explore, create, and dream. We will ensure that their journey online is enriching, inspiring, and, above all, safe.
- Marija Manojlovic, Director, Safe Online
Safeonline's impact so far

What will change?

We will continue to invest in research, systems, and tools developed by innovative partners focused on online safety.

We will use the learnings from our investments to build an evidence base on what works to tackle abuse online, as well as to advocate to prioritise child online safety in business practices, policies and budgets of governments and industry alike. We are now able to dedicate more time, support, and resources to new and existing partners. 

Finally, a huge thank you to all who worked on, and with, the End Violence partnership over the past 7 years. The extraordinary commitment and professionalism of all during the duration of the partnership and the transition period has helped to build the exciting and ambitious path before us now. 

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Tech Coalition Safe Online Research Fund announces additional funding of US $500k to select existing grantees for research extension, product development & innovation

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.   

The boost in funding is a move towards promoting more real-world application of independent research – and strengthening application of research to product and service development within the tech industry. Building on the existing research grants, the Fund aims to enhance the community of practice for online CSEA research to support capacity across the ecosystem in tackling digital harms against children.

Read more on the innovative projects that have been awarded the boost funding below:

Dublin City University: Understanding Online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in the Philippines

The additional funding will help translate findings from a white paper developed in the first phase of the project to practical policy changes and recommendations to improve detection and reporting of online CSEA-related transactions on financial platforms – as well as refining a typology to support enhanced online CSEA-related payments detection. The project will also develop and pilot a public awareness campaign (online and offline) in the Philippines alongside key stakeholders to develop greater community understanding of the scope and harm of online CSEA to children, reduce associated stigma and encourage reporting – thus enabling better detection of the crime as well as deterring potential offenders at the level of online CSEA-affected communities.

Technological University Dublin: N-Light Discovering Child Grooming patterns

In the first phase, the N-Light project gathered and analysed data from the national child agency (ISPCC), national Hotline (Hotline.ie) and Dark web CSAM text posts. CSAM posts were identified and visual explorations were developed to allow investigation. The new funding will support the conversion of the static models and analyses into a deployed software tool, with a wider user base. This will allow agencies to analyse the most recent data to spot grooming techniques and correlations over relevant timelines between child victim reports and groomer activity discussions; extend into more sophisticated analyses including the ability to profile messages coming from child victims; deploy the tools to their partners and beyond; and adapt the tool such that other hotline/ child agency partners can take use the tool to analyse their own data.

University of Kent: Understanding and improving help seeking by people at risk of online child sexual exploitation and abuse

The findings from the first phase of the project demonstrate ways to further optimise existing ‘get help’ messaging to promote not only deterrence but importantly, help seeking. Furthermore, findings show alternative messages as well as reframed industry-typical messages that are perceived as more effective promoters of help seeking. These are findings from tightly controlled studies. To transform industry practice, these findings need to be implemented “in the wild” of the internet ecosystem. Through partnering with industry collaborators, real-world links can be established between message content and click-throughs to helplines and other prevention resources. The new funding will allow us greater collaboration with tech organisations to pilot alternative warning messages and to track their impact and through this to translate our existing work into industry-wide solutions promoting greater engagement with help resources. 

University of Middlesex: Invisible Risks

This funding would be used to further develop and expand the intervention prototype developed in the initial funding to enhance the wellbeing of content moderators addressing child sexual abuse and exploitation. The current research project helped develop skeleton versions of three online intervention modules: sleep hygiene, managing anxiety and staying positive. However, the evidence has identified a number of other areas that need development including, but not limited to, managing intrusive thoughts, maintaining positive relationships and maintaining a work/life balance. The additional funding will provide the opportunity to enhance and expand these modules even further, resulting in a highly effective online platform that can significantly support content moderators in their self-driven psychological wellbeing. 

Image: © UNICEF:UN0582709

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Hear from our grantee: Age Check Certification Scheme Why Age Assurance is key to empowering children in the digital age

May 1, 2024

Hosted in collaboration with the British Standards Institution (BSI), this groundbreaking summit united over 700 global stakeholders to affirm a bold declaration: “Age Assurance Can Be Done!” With a focus on safeguarding children online, the summit produced a landmark Communique on Age Assurance, outlining principles like prioritising individual rights and data minimisation. Safe Online grantee, Age Assurance Certification Scheme, explains why age assurance is critical, the role of the first-ever Communique on Age Assurance and the way forward from this landmark Summit.

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71 member states make first of its kind call to action to fight online violence against children

71 Un Member States Make First-of-its-kind Call to Action to Fight Online Violence Against Children

71 Member States of the United Nations have come together to make the very first call to action statement urging increased and fast action to remove known child sexual abuse materials online.

Online child sexual exploitation and abuse is growing significantly around the world and is increasingly involving younger children. In 2022, the US-based National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) received 32 million reports (up from 29 million from 2021) of suspected child sexual exploitation.  

The first-ever call to action by the Member States directly recognises that governments and the private sector have a responsibility to take action to keep children safe from all forms of sexual exploitation and abuse, and points to the fact that law makers are rightfully concerned and are calling for greater urgency in our efforts to secure a safe digital environment for children. 

"Safe Online welcomes the ‘first of its kind’ call to action by over 70 Member States of the United Nations. The message from world leaders is clear – the digital space has to be rid of child sexual abuse material. We believe that the global call to action will signal the need for urgent concerted and decisive action by Governments and other stakeholders."
- Marija Manojlovic, Director, Safe Online

In the call to action, all the countries acknowledge the grave issue of child sexual exploitation and abuse material and how this puts children at risk of further sexual exploitation and abuse, including the risk of the widespread dissemination of this material. The statement recognises the stigma and long-lasting trauma caused to survivors, including revictimisation every time material is spread online.

It calls for:

    • urgent action by governments, internet service providers and other actors to protect children from online sexual exploitation and abuse
    • facilitation of dialogue between the different entities and sectors required for an effective response
    • the need for common data sources and knowledge of known child sexual abuse materials that makes detecting, reporting and removing materials easier
    • increasing public awareness of the serious nature of child sexual exploitation.

The call to action is informed by expert discussions hosted by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), supported by the UK government. These discussions brought together a wide range of experts and activists, including from child protection charities, the public sector, the private sector and the legal and financial sectors.

This growing global consensus on the issue of taking urgent steps to tackle online harms against children follows on the heels of other positive legislations to keep children safe from online harm. Recent legislative action in countries like the UK, US and Australia are creating a blueprint for online safety for children through new mandatory rules, robust safeguards and a strong enforcement capacity.

In 2021, G7 governments announced a set of ground-breaking commitments to combat online CSEA and highlighted End Violence as key partner to help make the internet safe for children. In a historic move, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) adopted General Comment No. 25, marking the first instance of including the digital rights of children in its framework.

Most recently, in the EU, the proposed new legislation presents an exceptional opportunity to set high standards to protect children online through policy action, which is key in ensuring a safe digital environment. This leadership of the EU will have a positive impact in other regions of the world. Safe Online is part of a growing movement of child protection organisations supporting the #ChildSafetyOnlineNow campaign to raise awareness and generate momentum around tackling online CSEA.

The Safe Online initiative has been drawing attention to the need for aligned and decisive action by governments and tech companies in order to drive change urgently needed for children. In fact, our policy call for a safe internet for children outlines three key steps for governments and industries.

Our work at the global, regional and national levels in over 80 countries has brought to light new knowledge and evidence on what works – especially through our Disrupting Harm project and the ground-breaking work that we do with the Tech Coalition Research Fund. Our partnerships with grantees on the ground demonstrate the need for strong systems by focusing on strong regulatory and policy frameworks.

Learn more about the call to action here.

LIST OF SIGNATORY COUNTRIES

Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Armenia, Argentina, Australia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Ghana, Guatemala, Honduras, Iceland, India, Japan, Kenya, Liechtenstein, Mexico, Moldova, Morocco, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, Sudan, Switzerland, Thailand, Türkiye, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States of America, Uruguay, Vietnam, Yemen and the European Union and its 27 member states (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden) 

See more of our recent updates

Thorn

January 9, 2024

Our grantees Thorn Bringing Light to the Dark Web Countries involved:United States of America The Fund is supporting Thorn’s Bringing Light to the Dark Web project, a global initiative that will use a new tool to help law enforcement identify children who are victims of online child sexual exploitation and abuse. Thorn

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UNICEF Tanzania

January 10, 2024

Our grantees UNICEF Tanzania Preventing and Responding to Online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse Countries involved:Tanzania Through support from the Fund, UNICEF Tanzania is strengthening its ongoing child protection work by establishing and supporting the national Child Online Safety Task Force, which seeks to enhance the capacity of frontline service providers in

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UNICEF Dominican Republic & Plan International Dominican Republic

January 10, 2024

Our grantees UNICEF Dominican Republic & Plan International Dominican Republic Protecting Every Child Against Sexual Exploitation and Abuse Countries involved:October 2017 – October 2019 In the Dominican Republic, UNICEF Dominican Republic and Plan International Dominican Republic have teamed up to establish and implement the country’s national response board, which is charged with coordinating initaitives that prevent

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Kenya launches groundbreaking training handbook to combat online child sexual exploitation and abuse

Kenya Launches Groundbreaking Training Handbook to Combat Online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse

Kenya's National Council on the Administration of Justice (NCAJ) has launched a training handbook on the investigation and prosecution of online child sexual exploitation and abuse (OCSEA) in Kenya.

The handbook was developed with technical support from UNICEF Kenya, a grantee of the Safe Online Initiative at the End Violence Partnership, and launched by the Hon. Lady Justice Martha K. Koome, Chief Justice and President of the Supreme Court of Kenya & Chairperson, National Council on the Administration of Justice.

Marija Manojlovic, Safe Online Director, spoke at the launch event and highlighted the need for ensuring effective justice for children. “There is an urgent need to streamline the justice process for children. When implemented well, for example via ‘one-stop’ centres, it can provide a child-friendly setting for child victims, and facilitate collaboration and coordination between support services”, she said. 

The handbook is a huge step forward in training officers in the justice system on handling OCSEA cases in the child’s best interests. “The training package is a major step in implementing the Children Act. It will help in enforcing laws such as the Sexual Offences Act, which are designed to protect children online,” said Dominic Stolarow, UNICEF Kenya’s representative at the launch event. 

Safe Online has been supporting key actors in Kenya to ensure:

    • frontline workers have the knowledge and skills to prevent and respond to online CSEA
    • improved laws and standards for quality services, including the Kenya Anti-Human Trafficking and Child Protection Unit that manages cases of online CSEA 
    • community outreach on online safety for children, caregivers and teachers.

Safe Online is proud to be a partner in Kenya’s journey towards a safe digital future for children.

Read the handbook here and view the work of Safe Online here. 

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End violence hosts its 10th global knowledge exchange webinar

July 6, 2020

On 17 June, End Violence held its 10th Global Knowledge Exchange Webinar, which gathered 117 individuals from partner and grantee organisations around the world. This webinar, the third event held in 2020, focused on integrated, child-centred frameworks for investigation, rehabilitation and recovery for survivors of online child sexual exploitation and abuse.

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Middlesex University 2

January 9, 2024

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

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UNICEF Madagascar

January 10, 2024

Our grantees UNICEF Madagascar Strengthening the National Protection System to Prevent and Respond to Online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in Madagascar Countries involved:Madagascar From 2018-2021, UNICEF Madagascar  used Fund support to educate children, youth and caregivers on online child sexual exploitation and abuse, ensuring families know how to report cases

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Safe online invests $4 million to generate evidence on tackling online child sexual exploitation and abuse

Safe Online Invests $4 Million to Generate Evidence on Tackling Online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse

The Safe Online portfolio, which invests in cutting edge solutions and knowledge for the online safety of children, has grown manifold over the last six years and has so far reached $76 million in investments focusing on 95 projects with impact in over 80 countries globally. The current targeted funding round builds on learnings generated during previous rounds and offers a unique opportunity to use results reported by grantees to understand the impact of programmes and tools we are funding, as well as identify lessons from the ground on how the change happens. 

 

From solutions for the tech industry and policies for governments to strengthen online safety to resources and digital platforms that help children stay safe online, this funding round covers a range of diverse and critical projects.  

 

It will enhance the knowledge and evidence base to support the scale-up of tested approaches and solutions and also provide crucial insights to stakeholders in the larger online CSEA ecosystem.

Grantee projects have been selected from existing and previously funded Safe Online projects based on their potential for impact and scale. The additional $1.5M in the next quarter will be invested to evaluate these project interventions with a focus on relevance, effectiveness, scalability and sustainability. Safe Online was supported by the Evaluation Advisory Group in the robust selection process of the projects, who will also be guiding the evaluation design process and reviewing the deliverables throughout the life cycle of the projects. 

"As the only global fund dedicated to tackling online CSEA, Safe Online is a leading contributor of evidence on what works and what doesn't to address digital harms to children. Our selected cohort of grantees and interventions will help us go one step further in that regard and demonstrate what sustainable, scalable and impactful solutions look like in this field."
- Marija Manojlovic, Director, Safe Online
Meet the Grantees

5Rights Foundation 
5Right Foundation’s Child Online Safety Toolkit project aims to create a safer digital environment for children. By providing resources and training based on the toolkit, it seeks to empower countries and organisations to better protect young internet users. It intends to establish an internationally recognised framework for child online safety, fostering a unified and effective approach across different countries and jurisdictions. The toolkit serves as a resource for both civil societies and regulatory bodies worldwide, contributing to policy development and implementation, and the regulation of online child safety. 

 

Council of Europe
EndOCSEA@Europe Plus will build on the results of the previous project phase to strengthen actions to prevent and combat online child sexual exploitation and abuse (OCSEA) across the Council of Europe member states, with particular focus on Georgia, Montenegro and the Republic of Moldova. 

 

DeafKidz International
DeafKidz Defenders is an interactive digital platform designed to educate deaf children on how to stay safe online. This project will empower deaf children in Pakistan, South Africa and Zambia, and increase teachers’ and parents’ knowledge of safeguarding to better protect deaf children from abuse.

 

UNICEF EAPRO
UNICEF EAPRO’s project focuses on continuing momentum for work by being done by UNICEF East Asia and the ASEAN Pacific Regional Office for child online protection. It supports activities like tech industry working groups and a regional forum which will be held in Bangkok in November 2023 to support collaborative efforts that make children’s digital lives safer. Other activities include disseminating and applying detailed technical guidance for legislative reform and support to survivors of online child abuse.

 

UNICEF Ghana
UNICEF Ghana will implement the new project “Protecting children from online sexual exploitation in Ghana: Scale-up of interventions with the biggest potential for impact and evidence generation”. At least 10,000 children are expected to benefit from individual case management, national multi-sectoral and private sector engagement will be enhanced and the capacity of law enforcement, judiciary and prosecutors for effective investigations and successful prosecution of online CSEA will be strengthened. The project aims to scale interventions and generate evidence on the implementation of the Cyber Security Act and the National Child Online Protection Framework, criminal justice and victim support and empowerment, in collaboration with the Cyber Security Authority, the Ghana Police Service, the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection and other partners. 

 

UNICEF Jordan
This programme supports UNICEF’s work with the Government of Jordan to prevent and respond to online child sexual exploitation and abuse. This includes programmes and policies that strengthen the capacity of the national protection system and raise awareness on keeping children safe online.

 

Tech Matters
Aselo, a contact center platform built by Tech Matters, is live in ten countries. One of the primary goals of Aselo is to increase the capacity of child helplines to meet the needs of much greater numbers of children and young people. The existing technology supported by Safe Online helps to identify repeat callers and texters in most communication channels, so that helpline counsellors can review past contact (and case) records. The new funding will enable Tech Matters to make a minimum set of enhancements to Aselo to significantly expand the capabilities of the helplines to address the issue of repeat callers and allow the helplines to handle a greater volume of actionable calls/texts, maximizing their impact and support for those in need.

 

Thorn
Support from Safe Online has enabled Thorn to accelerate the development of our ‘classifiers’ that use the latest artificial intelligence to identify child sexual abuse material (CSAM) at scale, helping to identify victims faster and stop the viral spread of CSAM. This new funding aims to enhance and scale the CSAM Classifier by 1) deploying the existing CSAM Classifier to leading forensic and victim identification technology platforms that will enable adoption by law enforcement and hotline analysts, and 2) identifying a scalable, consistent feedback mechanism for the CSAM Classifier.

See more of our recent updates

Turkiye Kadın Dernekleri Federasyonu

January 10, 2024

Our grantees Turkiye Kadın Dernekleri Federasyonu Connect the dots Countries involved:October 2017 – October 2019 Grant timeline:March 2023 – March 2024 Grantee website:tkdf.org.tr Funding amount:$47,710 Find other grantees

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Save the Children Sweden

January 10, 2024

Our grantees Save the Children Sweden Combating Online Exploitation and Sexual Abuse of Children and Adolescents Countries involved:October 2017 – October 2019 In Peru, the Fund is supporting Save the Children Sweden’s programme to combat online child sexual exploitation and abuse, which is operating on a number of different levels. The organisation

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Policy Proposal 3

Woman writing in notebook

Policy Proposal 3

As part of Together to #ENDviolence, experts from across the End Violence community came together to prepare a prioritized set of policy proposals to end violence against children. The result is six game-changing policy proposals, backed by evidence and research on what works to protect children.

The third policy proposal calls for making the internet safe for children. To do so, governments and private sector companies should:

    • Adopt and implement comprehensive child online safety policies, based on children’s rights to access the digital world in ways that are safe and secure in line with the UNCRC General Comment (No25), on children’s rights in relation to the digital environment.
    • Increase investments to scale up solutions that keep children safe, particularly those that tackle grooming and distribution of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and sexual abuse.
    • Commit to preventing, detecting and stopping all activities that may harm children online, including grooming and distribution of CSAM building on frameworks such as the WeProtect Global Alliance Model National Response, and the six actions outlined by the Broadband Commission report on Online Child Safety.

Read more about this policy proposal in the following key messaging documents below, which are available in English, French and Spanish.

Explore all of the Together to #ENDviolence policy proposals.

Images: © Safe Online/Photographer: Rafael Duarte

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UNICEF Madagascar

January 10, 2024

Our grantees UNICEF Madagascar Strengthening the National Protection System to Prevent and Respond to Online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in Madagascar Countries involved:Madagascar From 2018-2021, UNICEF Madagascar  used Fund support to educate children, youth and caregivers on online child sexual exploitation and abuse, ensuring families know how to report cases

Read More »

Council of Europe 2

January 9, 2024

Our grantees Council of Europe EndOCSEA@Europe+ Countries involved:Georgia, Montenegro, Moldova (the Republic of) The Council of Europe is using support from the Fund to promote, facilitate and support national efforts to prevent and fight against online child exploitation and abuse. Though the project covers all 47 Council of Europe member states,

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Plan International UK

January 10, 2024

Our grantees Plan International UK Cyber-safe Spaces for Children and Youth in Manila and Quezon City Countries involved:The Philippines In the Philippines, Plan International United Kingdom is working in the Philippines to ensure children are protected from online sexual exploitation and abuse, perpetrators are apprehended and prosecutors, and children enjoy the benefits

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