Delivering the projects
The projects funded by the Safety Tech Challenge Fund set out to prove not only that there are better and more innovative ways to detect child sexual abuse material (CSAM) in end-to-end encrypted environments, but that it’s possible to do so whilst upholding user privacy.
The participants of the fund – led by online safety tech firms from across the UK and internationally, and with support from government – developed their prototypes with a particular focus on how approaches aligned with safeguarding people’s right to privacy and data protection.
The projects harnessed technologies including age estimation, facial recognition and secure multi-party computation, and focused on developing proof-of-concept tools that illustrate how safety can be enhanced whilst upholding user privacy within an end-to-end encrypted application.
Impact of the Safety Tech Challenge Fund
Through financial investment and stakeholder access, the Safety Tech Challenge Fund gave the projects the platform and support they needed to develop their solutions, and instil confidence in future investors. Since the project ended, participants have continued to develop their proof-of-concept tools.
Following the success of the first Safety Tech Challenge Fund, DSIT have now launched their second fund. This fund will focus on exploring the creation of technologies that can identify and disrupt the sharing of links to child sexual abuse material. Working with the Home Office and GCHQ again, HMG are investing up to £700,000 to support the successful projects.
The Safety Tech Challenge Fund supports the embedding of a ‘safety by design’ culture in advance of upcoming regulatory changes. The Online Safety Bill is a vital world-leading piece of legislation, under which tech companies are going to be accountable to an independent regulator to keep their users, particularly children, safe online.
Alongside the pioneering Online Safety Bill, the Safety Tech Challenge Fund is another example of how DSIT are committed to supporting innovation and growth across the UK online safety tech sector to drive UK digital growth, further cement the UK as a world leader in online safety tech, and drive the technological developments needed to keep users safe online.
Credits:
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