It's an extremely busy start to the year in the world of Online Safety. 

In the UK Ofcom continues to publish new codes and consultations as the Online Safety Act takes effect, generating hundreds (or even thousands of pages) for us all to try to make sense of, and respond to where appropriate. The government is revisiting the recommendations of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, and considering new legislation to implement them. 

In the EU we continue to see progress in implementation of the Digital Services Act, and debate about the long awaited new regulation on Child Sexual Abuse Material.

In the US President Trump takes a very different stance seeing Online Safety measures as unnecessary and undesirable, and in response we're seeing platforms withdraw fact checking and moderation from certain areas. At the same time state rules about protecting children from pornographic content with age assurance technology are being tested in the supreme court.

Amidst all of this activity on the government and regulatory side, the Safety Tech sector continues to grow.  PUBLIC published the International State of Safety Tech 2024 report highlighting activity in the sector, and it's great to see the growth and success stories captured there. It also highlights significant challenges. Key amongst these is that now regulation is in progress it has become likely it will be the major driver of safety tech adoption, the corollary.

However, overall many platforms still lack what seem like even the most basic safety technology to keep their users and the wider population safe.

In some cases there have been genuine barriers, and safety tech companies are helping address them.  Cyacomb recently published work in partnership with the Internet Watch Foundation demonstrating how we can provide far lower cost blocking of Child Sexual Abuse Material. It also uses Privacy-by-Design to ensure that users data is fully protected, simplifying integration from a data protection perspective. This work is highlighted in the International State of Safety Tech report.

In other areas technologies aren't yet in use because there is still a policy debate happening about what we should do. Cyacomb has demonstrated a secure, privacy protecting solution for detecting Child Sexual Abuse Material in End to End Encrypted Messaging. We developed Cyacomb Safety as part of a UK Government funded Safety Tech Challenge Fund project, and we continue to speak regularly with governments and regulators (in the UK, EU and beyond) to explain what technical capability this provides, supporting the efforts of other cybersecurity experts. In the UK, Ofcom's Technology Notices Consultation explores the powers that apply in this area.

We've already had a busy start to the year, and at Cyacomb we are delighted to see increasing recognition of the problems - a vital first step towards a solution. Humankind discovered fire as a source of warmth, heat for cooking and later energy to power an industrial revolution. Over the centuries, fire has caused horrendous destruction but from this we learned to tame it, at first in simple ways and then ever more sophisticated ones. Technology connects us, educates us, and powers endless innovation. Alongside benefits, dangers lurk. Child sexual abuse, grooming, sextortion, fraud, scams, all causing real harm and often focusing it on the most vulnerable in society. Ignoring these threats is like pretending a leaking roof will stop on its own. To start the new year we've created a new video to highlight our digital world's triumphs, illuminate its dangers, and remind everyone that we can start to overcome these if only we have the will.

Block Child Abuse Online. Save lives.

To learn more, contact us here.