Last week, the Tech Coalition doubled-down with our commitment to the #SafeOnline Research Fund, awarding eight new researchers with funding for the upcoming year. The new projects span 13 countries and nearly 30 organizations. We are proud to continue our support of the growing community of research grantees who are an integral part of our ability to make the digital world safer for children. 

We asked a few #SafeOnline grant recipients what they think it will take to move toward the Tech Coalition’s shared vision of a digital world where kids are free to play, learn, and explore: 

"Strengthening collaboration and cooperation among different stakeholders is the foundation of creating a safe and protected online space for children. Governments, lawmakers, police, the private sector, ISPs, tech companies, schools, colleges, and parents are responsible for ensuring and protecting children's online rights."

ChildSafeNet, Nepal

Enhancing Parental Roles in Protecting Children from Online Sexual Exploitation and Abuse

"Without a doubt, this requires genuine and sustained collaboration and responsibility on a global scale. Across countries and actors, there is real innovation potential, a huge appetite to tackle online sexual exploitation and abuse, and an impressive set of projects already delivering excellent outcomes… Creating a safe, borderless environment to channel and facilitate this level of sharing would be a real game changer in prevention, detection, and prosecution efforts." 

Swansea, United Kingdom (focused on the UK and Spain)

DRAGON (Developing Resistance Against Grooming Online): Stories Strengthened Safeguards

"...we know that we will never end online child sexual exploitation without the close participation of children. The high-quality data we will gather on children's insights and experiences will inform policy, programming, and product design. We know this is key to enabling technology platforms to develop and offer support that responds in ways considered most helpful to children.”

Save the Children, Hong Kong(focused on Hong Kong, Colombia, South Africa, Kenya, the Philippines, Cambodia, and Finland)

Protecting children from online grooming: Cross-cultural, qualitative and child-centered data to guide grooming prevention and response

“(Our project) will enhance the prevention and deterrence of sexual victimization by targeting all potential CSAM users. To date, the limited number of existing specialized intervention services for CSAM users focus on adult males who have been already identified by the criminal justice system or who self-refer as an at-risk population (i.e., tertiary and secondary prevention). By addressing all potential CSAM users, the project will include sizable but neglected lower-risk target groups. Such early interventions are crucial to prevent those in the initial stages of an offending career from escalating into more serious offending by habituation.”

MSB Berlin Medical School, Germany 

RAPPID- (Risk Assessment for the Prevention & Promotion of Internet Deterrence)

The new 2022 #SafeOnline grantees lead the way toward a digital world where children are free from harm. We are excited about the insights that will come from each of these grantees. While our #SafeOnline grantees focus on varying issues within online child safety, and in different geographic regions, we are united in our mission - to use these insights to drive industry collaboration across sectors to combat the sexual abuse of children online. Learn more about the projects here.