At Childhood we have always strived to be at the forefront of understanding the risks and harnessing the potential of technology, to protect children and stop perpetrators.
We have a history of developing effective technological solutions to protect children. Over the past 25 years, we have continually added more technology to the toolbox needed to prevent child sexual abuse and exploitation.
As early as 2003, we invested in what would later become the company NetClean. It was initially an unestablished player with the pioneering idea that technical solutions could contribute to combatting child sexual abuse. We provided them with both financial and extensive support in terms of advice, knowledge, and a widespread network. Today, NetClean is a world leader in technical solutions in detecting child sexual abuse material. Multinational companies, authorities, and internet service providers around the world now use their technology.
We were also early to harness the power of AI by creating Stella Polaris in 2021 — a unique hub where we convene children’s rights and artificial intelligence to accelerate the development of concrete AI solutions in the fight against child sexual abuse.
During the first three years of this project, we have engaged AI experts, industry stakeholders, researchers, developers, the police and other actors within the justice system. Among many things we have contributed to tools that will make the police work to detect and investigate child sexual abuse more effective. We have also facilitated several interdisciplinary collaborations on AI and child sexual abuse.
One highlight in 2024 was the Stella Polaris Summit in Stockholm in June where we gathered expert speakers for panel discussions shining the light on key areas of how AI can be used in preventing child sexual abuse. During the day we covered topics such as the business sector´s role in protecting children, collaboration in research, pioneering darknet projects and uncovering the link between cybersecurity and child sexual abuse.
