Safe Online 2023 Open Call (USD$200,000 to non-profit or for-profit organisations)

Deadline: 29-Mar-23

The End Violence Partnership is announcing the 2023 Safe Online investment round of US$ 2 million to seed and grow innovative solutions and research that leverage existing and new technologies to address challenges around age assurance and live streaming of abuse in the online child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEA) landscape.

The purpose of this Open Call is to seed and grow innovative solutions and research that leverage existing and new technologies to address challenges around age assurance and live streaming of abuse in the online CSEA landscape. This means they are looking to applicants to identify solutions and research that will be most impactful to tackle these two topics within prevention, detection and response for online CSEA.

End Violence’s Safe Online Initiative has selected these topics based on rising prioritisation in global discussions of online CSEA across sectors; upcoming legislation in the EU, UK, US and Australia specifically and emerging regulation/policy focus globally that raises the urgency of proactively engaging with these challenges; as well as following extensive consultation with diverse experts across the online CSEA and related fields.

What they will fund?

• End Violence invites Technical Proposals for this year’s Technology Solutions Open Call that develop solutions that include technological and research approaches in one of two focus areas in preventing and combatting online child sexual exploitation and abuse (online CSEA):
  • addressing age assurance or
  • tackling live streaming of abuse.
• The objective of this Open Call was to encourage Proposals to focus on either age assurance or live streaming of abuse, not both. However, they recognise that there is overlap in these topics. If a Proposal does include both topics in some respect, applicants are asked to indicate only one of these topics as the primary focus of the project proposal.
• End Violence will award up to USD$200,000 to non-profit or for-profit organisations to work on innovative solutions that leverage existing and develop new technologies as well as address social and policy questions through research to address challenges around age assurance or live streaming of abuse in the online CSEA space. The total funding envelope to be awarded through this Open Call is ~US$ 2 million.
• They are interested in two modalities:
  • Solutions that utilise and implicate technology in innovative, groundbreaking ways that are scalable and globally applicable for addressing age assurance or live streaming of abuse. Solutions should be applied specifically to exact or related use cases for this Open Call (e.g. if online CSEA data is not available for application, use cases such as adult material could be used instead). Tech solutions they will fund include:
    • design of a proof of concept that demonstrates an innovative use of technology to address the specific challenges posed around age assurance or live streaming of abuse, and clear plans for further research and testing;
    • development of new prototypes or products – including hardware/software/content components – or of new features within existing products or tools;
    • adaptation or combination of existing tools to address current gaps, increase efficacy and/or effectiveness, or apply to new use cases.
  • Actionable or exploratory research on social and policy questions to better understand the enabling environment for more effective implementation of solutions, as well as address unintended consequences and structural barriers to impact of tech solutions that address age assurance or live streaming of abuse in the online CSEA landscape, including a focus on any/all of the following:
    • key populations (e.g. potential and actual victims, survivors, practitioners, would be and confirmed perpetrators, etc.),
    • environment (e.g. tech platforms, geographies),
    • broader ecosystem (e.g. policy, legal, ethical, cultural, economic, etc.).

Principles

They will fund tech solutions and research that meets the following standards:

• Child Rights-Centred
  • Tech solutions and research must recognise and uphold the spectrum of all human rights – civil. political, economic, social and cultural rights of every child, regardless of their race, religion or abilities – in their approaches to achieve child safety. This includes respecting user privacy – including children and young people – and ensuring data protection laws/guidance are incorporated into development of solutions and research.
• Inclusive
  • Tech solutions and research outputs consider all users in their design, including the most underrepresented or marginalised groups. Clear consideration of downstream implications of solutions and research should be reflected, with nuanced understanding of contextual factors and differential user-experiences.
• Collaborative
  • Tech solutions and research demonstrate multi-stakeholder collaboration within and across sectors – including digital technology industry, academia, CSOs, companies or organisations in parallel fields (e.g. cybersecurity, gender-based violence), national partners. etc. – as well as holistic approaches including interlinkages between online violence and in-person abuse against children.
• Outcomes-Driven
  • Tech solutions have demonstrable feasibility and efficacy in various environments and use-cases. Research includes outcomes that promote understanding of structural barriers and unintended consequences in order to more feasibly or effectively operationalise tech solutions.
• Transparent
  • Accountability mechanisms are in place for ensuring governing principles are adhered to and communicated clearly. Projects create open-source outputs and engage in open working techniques to the extent possible.

Eligibility Criteria

• End Violence’s Safe Online Initiative is looking to provide project grants to nonprofits and investment-style, equity-free seed funding to private companies. Only entities that fulfill these mandatory requirements will be considered eligible:
  • legally registered entity, either as nonprofit or private company;
  • the tech solution or research addresses the aims of the 2023 Open Call;
  • the organisation has a safeguarding policy or similar in place or is willing to develop a policy;
  • solutions and research must be compliant with the relevant/applicable legislative, regulatory and enforcement frameworks, including data protection policy in alignment with relevant laws/guidance;
  • the proposed solution or research responds to a clear need/gap, does not duplicate existing tools or research, and builds upon and/or interacts with existing solutions and research.
• They are actively seeking submissions of proposals from non-profit organisations, such as research institutes and academic institutions, civil society organisations (CSOs), non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and international organisations as well as private sector companies.
• Consortia are also highly encouraged to apply; however, the organisation submitting the application will be considered the main grantee, bearing all the contractual responsibilities vis-à-vis End Violence. Organisations are asked to list partners and advisors. Collaboration with other stakeholders such as law enforcement, government, etc. is encouraged, however the primary applicant must be a non-profit organisation. They encourage maximising synergies across jurisdictions/ sectors/ communities, as well as awareness of and exchange with existing tech solutions and research.
• They strongly encourage applications from non-ODA countries, as well as applications listing partners in the countries. Demonstration of matching funding, and a strong evaluation and impact assessment component are encouraged as well.

Ineligible

• End Violence does not provide core organisational funding for non-profit organisations (including such as research institutes and academic institutions, civil society organisations (CSOs), non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and international organisations) nor contribute to new business lines for large private sector companies.
• Multiple applications from the same institution are acceptable; however, consideration will be given to ensure diversity of grant recipients and therefore applications from the same institution will be carefully evaluated with this in mind.

For more information, visit End Violence.