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Brave Movement Campaign
Safer internet
Blog & Updates
News
Brave Movement statement on the EU's decision to let online child protection measures expire
Today’s vote in the European Parliament is a step backward in the global effort to protect children from sexual violence online.
Blog
Safety by design: A turning point for accountability in the digital age
We are moving beyond the idea that harm online is simply about content or individual bad actors. We are beginning to recognize a deeper truth: design choices shape behavior, exposure, and risk at scale. For the past three years, the Brave Movement—through our Safe Online campaign—has been advocating for safety by design and holding technology companies accountable. Their leadership has helped shift the narrative from reaction to prevention, from content moderation to system design, from individual responsibility to corporate accountability. For too long, our responses to online harm have focused on managing risk at the edges—through content moderation, reporting systems, age verification, and parental controls. They do not address the underlying design choices that shape how harm occurs in the first place. The question before us is simple: will we design for harm and try to contain it, or will we design for safety from the start?
March 26, 2026
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Blog
The key to digital safety? Letting youth lead every step of the way
Youth should be directly involved in conversations about online safety, not just as recipients of guidance, but as active partners and change-makers.
October 8, 2025
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Blog
Survivors as experts, not storytellers: Three lessons governments must act on
Survivors' lived experience was central to discussions on how to end childhood sexual violence at the meeting between Australia, UK, USA, New Zealand and Canada.
September 19, 2025
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Blog
Digital futures, safe childhoods: Prioritizing child protection in Africa’s budgets
Governments across Africa must urgently plan and budget now for children's safety in our increasingly digital world
June 16, 2025
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Blog
Youth-led social change: Creating a generation of empowered digital citizens
Sexual violence is often shrouded in silence due to cultural taboos, and online-assisted crimes against children and young people face similar stigma. Girls and young women, who are disproportionately targeted by online violence, experience societal discrimination, making it even harder for them to speak out or seek help. Online child sexual exploitation and abuse of children, especially young girls, is on the rise. Young girls are most vulnerable to online exploitation due to societal power imbalances and limited access to digital literacy programs. Young change makers use their own personal social media platforms to share relatable, anonymized stories, demystifying digital threats and empower young people to recognize, resist, and report abuse. They teach others about: Violence: sextortion that happens via messaging apps, grooming through fake social media accounts and AI- generated images of minors Responsible internet use: encouraging privacy settings and secure passwords, not to share or forward explicit content, understanding consent in the digital space, discouraging participation in online bullying, shaming, and knowing how to verify information sources as an essential digital literacy skill Guidance to peers experiencing abuse: listening without judgment, recognizing signs of online abuse, knowing when and how to refer peers to trusted adults or support systems, and promoting the ACSAI reporting hotline The program’s success lies in its participatory approach, ensuring that young people are not just recipients of information but active contributors in shaping solutions. At least 40 cases of online abuse have been reported through the ACSAI hotline with support from E-Changemakers Over 32 instances of child sexual abuse material and non-consensual intimate image content have been successfully removed through a range of trusted reporting mechanisms. These young ambassadors play a critical role** in: Educating peers on how to report abuse Facilitating the removal of intimate images and child sexual abuse material Advocating for a safer digital environment By working alongside young people and survivors, we have successfully co-created solutions with them. We have transformed the narrative: young people are not just spectators but active participants in creating a safer digital world. * When a report is been made to the ACSAI hotline (www.acsaing.org/report), ACSAI's trained Internet Content Analyst verifies and classifies the content as CSAM or IIA (intimate image abuse).
May 28, 2025
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Movement building
News
Brave Movement welcomes signing of bipartisan Take It Down Act as “a step forward in protecting all children from online sexual abuse and exploitation.”
WASHINGTON DC, 19 May 2025 – The Brave Movement – a global movement of survivors and allies working to end sexual violence against children and adolescents – has welcomed the signing into law today of the Take It Down Act. Brave Movement Founder and CEO of Together for Girls, Dr Daniela Ligiero said: “ Online child sexual exploitation and abuse is an epidemic, and one growing at an exponential rate. More than 300 million children have been affected by online child sexual exploitation and abuse in the last year, with 10 cases of abuse reported every second. In the run-up to the G7 Leaders’ Summit in Canada in June, the Brave Movement has called on all G7 countries to prioritize online safety as part of greater leadership action in ending all violence against children.
Blog
Take It Down Act: Awaited U.S. legislation to keep kids safe from online sexual exploitation
It specifically targets the distribution and threats of sharing non-consensual intimate images - including AI-generated content - as a federal crime, protecting survivors from further harm and ensuring that there are no loopholes for perpetrators based on location. Over 300 million children under the age of 18 have been affected by online child and sexual exploitation and abuse in the last 12 months. As the home to many of the world’s leading tech companies, the United States holds a unique position of responsibility and influence in shaping online child protection standards. The TAKE IT DOWN Act criminalizes the act of intentionally publishing or threatening to publish non-consensual intimate images, including AI-generated content, on online platforms. Violence, which might start in an online sphere, negatively impacts children in the physical world, such as bullying in school or acts of sexual violence physically perpetrated offline. Alarmingly, 1 in 8 children globally have been subjected to online solicitation, and 1 in 8 children have experienced taking, sharing, and or/exposure to sexual images and videos in the last 12 months. Online sexual violence can have serious emotional, health, and psychosocial impacts on children and youth, including into adulthood. I was a victim of technology-assisted child sexual abuse when I was 13 … It's been 21 years since my abuse, and I still live in fear of those images.
April 28, 2025
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Blog
Breaking the record of inaction in Nigeria: child-centred, grassroots advocacy for a safer digital future
New data, the world's very first global prevalence figure of childhood sexual violence unveiled by Together for Girls' Break the Record Campaign, shows that in the past 12 months, 82 million girls and 69 million boys experienced some form of sexual violence. This global scourge must be addressed, and we can certainly break this record of inaction towards ending childhood sexual violence. Collaborating with grassroots organizations around ending childhood sexual violence is critical to our mission. It includes data from Childlight which finds that over 300 million children under the age of 18 have been affected by online child and sexual exploitation and abuse in the last 12 months. These forms of childhood sexual violence, both contact and non-contact, have serious emotional, health, and psychosocial impacts on children and youth, including into adulthood. At Ravens Place, a school on the outskirts of Lagos, we delved into the urgent need to address online violence, with youth ambassadors facilitating group discussions with the children. The year ahead will be driven by Suburbancares youth-led advocacy with a children's summit focused on ending Online Sexual Violence in April 2025.
December 17, 2024
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Movement building
