Our February Newsletter-WeProtect Global Alliance

Posted on 26 February 2024

Earlier this month, on 6 February, we celebrated Safer Internet Day, an important occasion to raise awareness of a safer and better digital world for all, and especially for children and young people. We asked some of our members to share with us what a safer internet for children looks like for them.   Our Executive Director Iain Drennan and Membership Engagement Manager Stephanie Quintao recently travelled to Brazil to mark Safer Internet Day (6 March) at a conference hosted by our friends at SaferNet Brasil, in São Paulo. They share some of their reflections and highlight the work being done in Brazil, one of our member countries, in this blog.   Our work as an Alliance to build a safer digital world doesn’t stop on Safer Internet Day but continues daily by bringing together experts from government, the private sector and civil society to develop policies and solutions to protect children from sexual exploitation and abuse online.   Also, in this newsletter, you’ll find some great work being done across our existing membership. We’ve recently welcomed several new members to the Alliance and look forward to working with them. Welcome Childlight, Destiny Rescue International, Kinderschutz Schweiz/ ECPAT Switzerland, Mulier Venezuela and Space 2 Grow Partners LLP!

OUR GLOBAL TASKFORCE MISSION STATEMENT

Last year we saw our Global Taskforce on child sexual abuse online – which brings together members from governments from across the world – continue to develop and grow. The taskforce recently published its mission statement “to improve coordination between governments at the international level, identify opportunities and gaps in our responses, collaborate to drive action in our national and international strategies, and share knowledge.”

NEW FINDINGS, OPINION PIECES AND INITIATIVES

Microsoft opinion piece: Combatting abusive AI-generated content Brad Smith, Vice Chair & President of Microsoft, has written an opinion piece on Microsoft’s work to identify and prevent risks related to generative AI.   He outlines Microsoft’s commitment to a robust and comprehensive approach that protects people and our communities, based on six focus area: strong safety architecture, durable media provenance and watermarking, safeguarding, collaboration, modernised legislation and public awareness and education.   The article also reinforces the need for global cross-sector collaboration. ” With a common commitment to innovation and collaboration, we believe that we can all work together to ensure that technology stays ahead in its ability to protect the public. Perhaps more than ever, this must be our collective goal,” Brad wrote.

New data insights on the alarming prevalence of child sexual abuse material on the surface web New research from Suojellaan Lapsia reveals the distressing ease of accessing child sexual abuse material online. It is the result of a survey of over 30,000 active online child sexual abuse material offenders and uncovers significant information to help tackle the proliferation of child sexual abuse and exploitation online.

Poll on how children and young people use the Internet to be safer Protection through Online Participation (PoP), a collaborative initiative that looks to better understand how children and youth are accessing safety and protection online, have launched a poll to better understand how children and young people look for help online when they feel scared or unsafe. The poll can be accessed in different languages.

Childlight: using data and insights to shine a light on the road ahead Paul Stanfield, CEO of Childlight, one of our newest members, reflects on how the fight to keep our young people safe and secure from harm has been hampered by a data disconnect between research and practice, and how Childight is working in partnership with many others to use their data insight to help join up the system and close the gaps.

Technological tipping point reached in fight against child sexual abuse The Virtual Global Taskforce (VGT), an international alliance of 15 dedicated law enforcement agencies working together to tackle the global threat of child sexual abuse, recently published a statement on the challenges that end-to-end encryption (E2EE) and the rapid evolution of AI can present to law enforcement in their response to child sexual abuse online. The statement pledged to support international law enforcement working collaboratively with industry and prevention.

NEW OPPORTUNITIES

Children Online Protection Lab: call for ideas and expressions of interest The Child Online Protection Lab have issued a call for ideas and resources to collectively develop the next steps for the Children Online Protection Lab with its stakeholders. You can submit an idea for an experimentation project you wish to develop, and the financial and non-financial resources needed for their implementation. You can also submit your organisations’ priorities on child online safety, and the financial and non-financial resources you could make available to support the development of the Laboratory’s experimentations. This process with then inform a Call for Proposals for the next cohort of experiments. Submissions close on 3 March 2024. The Children Online Protection Lab is an international initiative inaugurated by the French President in November 2022 to bring together governments, tech companies, academic experts and civil society actors to share expertise and best practices and test innovative solutions to protect children online more effectively.

We’re hiring: Alliance Research Consultant wanted WeProtect Global Alliance is seeking an experienced research consultant to support our Advocacy, Policy and Research team on key projects between mid-March 2024 and late May 2024.

ALLIANCE RESOURCES

Embedding child-centred approaches One of the recommendations from our recent Global Threat Assessment, focussed on the importance of adopting child-centred approaches. These approaches ensure that our interventions and services align with the experiences, rights, and needs of young people. This includes removing barriers to abuse identification and help-seeking, equipping children with age-appropriate knowledge and tools to navigate online spaces safely, and enabling children to hold online service providers to account for taking steps to keep them safe online. You can read more here.

Other resources You can explore more WeProtect Global Alliance resources on the Publications section of our website, while our Library contains the latest publications, reports & tools from our members. Visit our child and survivor participation map showing where and how children and survivors are being involved across the world in participatory initiatives to tackle online-facilitated child sexual abuse and closely related issues. You can also add your organisation’s own participation initiative. Take a look at our Model National Response, which aims to support countries and organisations in developing comprehensive national responses to child sexual exploitation and abuse online. Members can also access a self-assessment tool to support business planning cycles and agreeing future activities to help build maturity against the Model National Response model.

To learn more about what is happening within our Alliance and to share more information about your organisation’s work to help tackle child sexual exploitation and abuse online visit our Protectors’ Portal.