Deadline: 31-Oct-23

Safe Online is pleased to announce a new global open call of US$ 10 million for proposals to continue laying the foundations for a safe internet globally, in line with the latest data and evidence from the field, developments technological and relevant structures that address digital damage to children.

MAIN FUTURE SUBSIDIES

Children's Rights, Youth, Poverty Eradication, Sustainable Development, Climate Change and Civil Society LeadershipDOWN

With this new Open Call, Safe Online continues to invest in a "whole system" approach for maximum impact, supporting work across multiple sectors in a coordinated way to promote solutions to address Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse online (CSEA) and related forms of harm to children. The investment approach draws on the vast amount of knowledge generated through Safe Online's investments, as well as the latest data and evidence in the field and the wider digital harm ecosystem.

This new Open Call promotes innovative approaches and seeks proposals that address disadvantaged areas, the specific needs of survivors and the most vulnerable groups of children and young people. This will include funding for the development of programmes, solutions, policies, services and regulations, research and technology tools that are sensitive to gender (including boys) and inclusive.

With this new Global Open Call for Proposals of US$ 10 million, Safe Online will establish three interconnected permanent investment pillars under which it will obtain projects in the coming years. The three investment pillars are:

MAIN FUTURE SUBSIDIES

Children's Rights, Youth, Poverty Eradication, Sustainable Development, Climate Change and Civil Society LeadershipDOWN

• Networks & Systems
• Research Data &
• Technological tools

Main Objectives and Areas of Expertise

• Networks and Systems
  • The main focus of this investment pillar is to strengthen capacity at national level, cross-sectoral collaboration and international co-operation building on existing multi-sectoral structures and networks and in alignment with national, regional and global efforts to tackle other forms of violence against children and interrelated digital crimes. The aim is to enable a more effective and coordinated prevention and response to harm caused to children and young people in digital environments, with a particular focus on the worst forms, namely online CSEA and other existing or emerging forms of online violence against children and young people.
  • In line with a "whole system approach" and based on the latest evidence and data efforts, including the findings of Disrupting Harm and the Safe Digital Futures: Data for Change initiative, Safe Online invites project proposals aimed at strengthening national, regional and global systems to combat online violence against children through specific measures to achieve one or more of the following key objectives:
    • Strengthen the national, regional and global infrastructure to effectively combat digital harm to children with a survivor-centred, inclusive and gender-sensitive (including boys) approach through coordinated law enforcement, criminal justice and social welfare capacity as a necessary precursor to survivor awareness and support.
    • Prevent victimisation and strengthen support for survivors by improving early intervention and recovery assistance through greater participation of children, coordinated and consistent services and well-trained and trauma-informed staff in all institutions working in prevention and response services.
  • Areas of interest for 2023
    • Systematised and coordinated approaches to capacity building in law enforcement and innovative approaches to ensure meaningful participation of children.
    • Specific needs of child survivors of online violence and professionals working directly on online CSEA and other forms of digital harm to children, including trauma-informed services.
• Research and Data
  • The main focus of this investment pillar is to bring clarity on the scale and nature of digital harm to children, as well as the needs, gaps and solutions to inform coordinated efforts at national, regional and global levels. Despite the understanding that children's experiences are often interacting with and mediated by digital technologies - there is a lack of reliable, comparable and comprehensive data to understand children's experiences in digital environments, quantify and contextualise the risks facilitated by technology and capture the scale and nature of harm. This makes it difficult to prevent, interrupt and respond to situations of abuse and exploitation.
  • More specifically, investments under this pillar aim to generate data and evidence on emerging threats and trends related to children's safety in digital environments - for example, offender behaviour, prevention strategies, children's experiences in the digital world, solutions to guide collective efforts, etc. - in three areas of intervention:
    • Prevention and deterrence
    • detection and reporting, and
    • response and support.
  • Areas of interest for 2023
    • Technology has facilitated risks and harm to children in contexts humanitarian and during conflicts and crises, including children on the move.
    • Gender-based risks and harms, including for boys, facilitated by technologies.
• Technological tools
  • The main objective of this investment pillar is to support technological tools to seed and develop innovative solutions that harness existing and new technologies to improve the prevention, detection and response to digital harm against children, and its worst forms, namely online CSEA. Safe Online will invest in solutions that utilise technology in new and innovative ways and that are scalable. These could address, for example, the detection and removal of child abuse material (CSAM) and grooming, the prevention of live streaming of abuse, age-appropriate design, open source platforms to make the helpline ecosystem more efficient, law enforcement investigation tools (e.g. leading to shorter investigation times, increased victim identification capabilities), offender deterrence behaviour, and education and prevention tools that help children learn to recognise online risks and protect themselves, among others. Clearly defined technological solutions that will finance include:
    • Design of a proof of concept that demonstrates an innovative use of technology to tackle a problem. challenge with clear plans for further research and testing;
    • Development of new prototypes or products - including hardware/software/content components - or new functionalities within existing products or tools; and
    • Adaptation or combination of existing tools to resolve current gaps, increase efficiency and/or effectiveness or apply to new use cases.
  • Areas of interest for 2023
    • Future-proof considerations around new technologies and emerging trends in the practice of sector technology, as well as offences, including cryptography, live streaming, generative AI, immersive technologies, distributed web and financial aspects of the crime CSEA online.
    • Greater inclusion and representativeness of training data and access to relevant data sets for trainingtool validation and sizing

Cross-cutting topics

These cross-cutting topics were identified as needing attention in each investment pillar due to the lack of specific research, evidence, strategies and interventions, as well as the overarching opportunity to address the specific needs of survivors and the most vulnerable groups of children and adolescents. young people. Topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Children facing multiple risk factors, including children with disabilities, children living in high-risk environments or facing gender-based risks and harms (including boys) facilitated by technology - e.g. informal communities, labour camps, etc. refugees, institutions, in contact with the law, connected to the street, etc.
• Evidence-informed prevention targeted at offenders, children and parents, with priority given to innovative or evidence-based "what works" approaches from related areas of work.
• Innovative models to support and empower local experts in prevention, technology, networks social, children's participation, youth sensitisation and other relevant areas to strengthen its capacity to combat digital harm to children and its worst forms, namely CSEA online.
• Intersections with broader relevant agendas, such as Cybersecurity, Digitalisation, Human Trafficking, Gender Violence, Image-Based Sexual Abuse, Human Rights Digital, etc.
• Implications of new and evolving technology on offending trends and children's experiences.
• Other areas signalled as relevant and/or a priority by the applicants based on evidence.

Information on financing

• Duration of grant: Maximum 2 years
• Proposal budget:
  • Non-profit organisations (Networks and Systems): up to USD 750K
  • Non-profit organisations (Research data): up to USD 250K
  • Non-profit organisations (Technology Tools): up to USD 300K
  • For-profit (all Safe Online pillars): up to USD 250K

Geographical segmentation: Global

Eligibility Criteria

Only organisations that meet these mandatory requirements will be considered eligible:

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Children's Rights, Youth, Poverty Eradication, Sustainable Development, Climate Change and Civil Society LeadershipDOWN

• Your organisation is a legally registered entity in the country or countries of implementation. In addition, letters of support from local authorities and organisations will also be required.
• Your organisation is able to provide previous audit records or a micro-assessment.
• The proposed project is aligned with at least one of the main objectives, modalities and areas of the investment pillars established in this call.
• Funds should not be used for the core financing of an organisation, the cost of infrastructure, awareness campaigns in general, autonomous research and data collection, activities where a substantial part of the budget is allocated to travelling or conferences.
• Your organisation has a protection policy in place (including data privacy) or is willing to develop one. Budget for safeguarding activities up to 5% of total direct costs.
• Your organisation can demonstrate a track record of implementing similar projects in similar contexts (Applicable only to Investment Pillar A: "Networks and Systems").
• Organisations applying for transnational projects must demonstrate a successful track record in carrying out activities aimed at preventing and combating CSEA online at regional and international level (at least three projects) (only applicable to Investment Pillar A: "Networks and Systems").

For more information, visit Safe Online.