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Every second at least two images of children being sexually abused are shared online.
While the digital world is revolutionising human experience and benefiting us in ways unimaginable to previous generations, it also presents heightened risks of exploitation and abuse, especially for the most vulnerable.
Children in the 21st century are growing up in the digital world. However, the internet was not designed with children’s safety in mind. Safe Online exists to make sure that the internet is safe for children, so that every child can take advantage of all the opportunities the internet has to offer.
Our investments result in strong systems, data and research on online trends and threats, and the technology tools needed to tackle digital harms at scale. We ensure that the opportunities created by digital technology are open to everyone.
The threats and dangers children experience online can include harassment and violence, exposure to harmful content, and concerns around unethical use of digital data.
The most critical threat to children, however, is the alarming growth in online child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEA), and creation and sharing of child sexual abuse material (CSAM), including images and videos. This threat has only been exacerbated with the rise of new technologies such as generative AI, which have the potential to create new avenues of exploitation.
How are we shaping the future of the digital world and children all over the globe?
The evidence and learnings from our investments bring unique and critical insights on the rapidly growing digital ecosystem. Our role as a trusted partner at the intersection of public, private and third-sector actors makes us uniquely positioned to seed and grow partnerships, create opportunities for generating evidence and share knowledge on what works and what doesn’t to tackle online harms to children.
At Safe Online, we are unwavering in our demand for the rights and safety of children in the digital world. We actively inform and engage with governments, the tech industry, regulators, and other actors to ensure that the safety of children is central to policy discussions and technological innovations. Through our advocacy, we refocus attention on foundational elements like design choices, infrastructure and platform norms to proactively push for safety, privacy and trust by design.
Our advocacy has resulted in key successes including: In 2021, G7 governments announced a set of groundbreaking commitments to combat online child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEA). 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. Also, in 2020, the UN Secretary General’s Roadmap for Digital Cooperation included a specific call-out on the need to tackle online CSEA for the first time.
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All imagery is taken from the UNICEF image library. It is not available in the public domain.
We are here to ensure every child and young person grows in to the digital world feeling safe, and is protected from harm.
We support, champion, and invest in innovative partners from the public, private, and third sectors working towards the same objective.
We believe in equipping guardians and young people with the skills to understand and see danger themselves once accessing digital experiences without supervision.
