Safe Online
Safe Online works internationally with a wide range of partners to support and invest in projects that prevent and/or diminishes violence against children.
They have supported several IWF projects, including the Reporting Portals project, the Portals evaluation, and the reThink chatbot project. These tools make the internet safer for everyone globally as they fight against the spread of child sexual abuse imagery online.
Safe Online and the Reporting Portals project
Safe Online funding enabled us to launch 30 reporting portals for images and videos of child sexual abuse at no cost for the host nation. This means that today, millions more people have access to this reporting mechanism, which would not have been possible without the funding. Portals also open conversations about the issue of online child sexual abuse, the fact that such material knows no border, and that this type of abuse, offline and online, takes place at an international, national, but also at a community level.
Today, we have 53 portals around the world, empowering more than 2.7 billion people to report child sexual abuse criminal content and make the internet safer.
reThink Chatbot project
An example of technological solutions targeting online behaviours was an interactive chatbot that was developed by IWF as a part of two-year project financed by Safe Online.
The chatbot aimed to curb the demand for online child sexual abuse material in the way that it interrupts people trying to access this imagery and prevent them from committing a criminal offence. The IWF reThink Chatbot interacted with internet users who were showing signs that they might be looking for images of child sexual abuse. It attempted to engage them in a friendly and supportive conversation, and at the right moment, signpost them to the help and intervention support that they needed. The chatbot was live on Pornhub UK, after Aylo volunteered to pilot the chatbot on the Pornhub UK platform. Aylo did not receive, or provide, any funding for this project. It is believed that this project had massive potential and has helped in our proactive fight against online child sexual abuse and exploitation.
