Protech general FAQ

What is Protech?

The aim of the Protech project is to research, design and develop technology to stop people from viewing child sexual abuse content online. Videos and images of children’s horrific sexual abuse, and the global demand for it, has reached unprecedented levels on the internet and this safety technology will be designed for use on the devices of individuals who want to access child sexual abuse material.

The project brings together leading experts from the UK and the EU, from a wide range of backgrounds, including criminology, public health, developmental, clinical and forensic psychology, software engineering, child protection and internet safety. The on-device technology could help stem the growing demand for child sexual abuse material online and help prevent the suffering of child sexual abuse survivors whose images continue to circulate online long after the abuse has taken place.

The €2m (£1.8m) project is funded by the European Commission for two years via the EU Internal Security Fund and is being managed by the Commission’s Directorate General for Migration and Home Affairs (DG Home). The project is led by Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin (CUB).

How will the technology work?

The unique technology being developed for the project by SafeToNet uses highly accurate machine learning in real-time to detect child sexual abuse images and videos. The safety technology will monitor both network traffic and images before they are viewed on the user’s screen in real-time, vital seconds before the material can be seen by human eyes. After being installed, the on-device tool will run silently unless sexual images of children are detected and blocked. 

The safety tech is trained to accurately identify child sexual abuse material and it is tested on rigorously assessed child sexual abuse imagery confirmed as criminal content by human assessors at the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF). The IWF provides a secure environment where the machine-learning software is put through its paces to correctly detect child sexual abuse material. 

Salus is the name of the technology solution that has been developed to detect and block child sexual abuse material on an electronic device. It builds on existing technology developed by SafeToNet. 

Who will use the technology?

The on-device tech will be deployed voluntarily, and users will have full knowledge of its purpose and its effect on their device. Volunteers will be individuals who fear they might offend against children and will be recruited through critical community prevention services at CUB, The University Forensic Centre (UFC) within the Antwerp University Hospital, The Lucy Faithfull Foundation and Stop it Now Netherlands. 

The safety tool’s uniqueness will lie in its user-centred design which will provide effective intervention and halt the viewing of criminal content before it is seen by the user. It could prove to be a vital tool for the sustainable, long-term prevention of child sexual abuse content. 

What will make the tech suitable for the targeted user?

To help design the safety technology, the Policing Institute for the Eastern Region, based at Anglia Ruskin University in the UK, will examine why and how offenders begin viewing child sexual abuse material and what could help them to stop. They will conduct interviews with individuals at risk of viewing criminal content as well as professionals at prevention support level. PIER’s research and evidence will provide the data needed to inform and support the project.

When will Salus be deployed?

Once designed, the safety tech will be rolled out in a pilot stage in five countries: Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Republic of Ireland and the UK. It will involve at least 180 users testing the software over an 11-month period.

SafeToNet will gather feedback from users and professionals while the pilot is ongoing and use it to further improve and adapt the software.

The Department of Developmental Psychology at Tilburg University will evaluate the project and assess the feasibility of using the technology as part of an intervention programme in Europe. They will take on board recommendations from experts on how it could be effectively implemented as part of public health prevention schemes.

Who is involved?

• Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin is one of the largest university hospitals in Europe. All of our clinical care, research and teaching is delivered by physicians and researchers of the highest international standard. The Institute of Sexology and Sexual Medicine offers lectures, studies and internships for students of all disciplines and engages in interdisciplinary research on human sexuality, i.e., dealing with biological, psychological and social factors of influence on human sexuality. In 2005 the Institute of Sexology and Sexual Medicine started the “Prevention Project Dunkelfeld” which has now developed into a nationwide network of outpatient clinics providing treatment for self-identifying and help-seeking individuals with a sexual interest in children. 
• The Internet Watch Foundation helps victims of child sexual abuse worldwide by identifying and removing online images and videos of their abuse. We search for child sexual abuse images and videos and offer a place for the public to report them anonymously. We then have them removed. We’re a not-for-profit organisation and are supported by the global internet industry.
• SafeToNet is a cyber-safety company that has developed pioneering, award winning and patented technology that includes artificial intelligence to tackle key online threats such as cyberbullying, sextortion, grooming, abuse and aggression. 
• The University Forensic Centre (UFC) within the Antwerp University Hospital offers specialised outpatient treatment to individuals who committed deviant sexual behaviour and to individuals who have deviant sexual interests. In addition, the UFC operates as a support centre and provides scientific and logistic support to stakeholders tackling the issue of sexual offending in Flanders (Belgium). 
• Policing Institute for the Eastern Region (PIER) is a research institute within Anglia Ruskin University (ARU). Its vision is to improve policing through partnership in applied research, focusing on three areas – sexual offending, 21st century policing and extremism and counterterrorism. Its mission is to lead world class research, innovation and impact to improve policing practice. Ranked in the world’s top 350 institutions in the 2023 Times Higher Education World University Rankings, ARU is a global university .
• The Department of Developmental Psychology at Tilburg University specialises in life course development, developmental psychology and psychopathology, life events, cognitions and emotions, personality and short- and long-term transitions. In the field of forensic psychology, the department offers an undergraduate programme in forensic psychology and a clinical master's programme in forensic psychology. The research in the field of forensic psychopathology, aggression and personality, risk assessment, physiological research, longitudinal research on treatment effectiveness and treatment (innovation, such as virtual reality and e-health) is among the best in Europe. 
• The Lucy Faithfull Foundation is the only UK-wide charity dedicated solely to preventing child sexual abuse. We work with adults and young people who have sexually harmed a child, or who are at risk of doing so. We work with their family members, professionals, and victims of abuse. Our anonymous Stop It Now! helpline gives confidential advice, support and information to anyone worried about their own, or someone else’s, sexual thoughts or behaviour towards children. 
• Offlimits is part of the Centre for Expertise on Online Child Sexual Abuse. Offlimits believes that child sexual abuse is a preventable social problem that is best approached from a public health perspective, where all adults have a responsibility for prevention, including child sexual exploitation material users. Offlimits’ key objective is the prevention of child sexual abuse by offering anonymous, confidential and free support through a helpline to anyone worried about their sexual feelings and/or behaviour towards minors. For example, people viewing child sexual abuse material or people who are at risk of or have committed sexual child abuse. Offlimits refers people to the forensic outpatient centre de Waag. Next to de Waag, Offlimits has contact with different outpatient centres, psychologists and sexologists throughout the Netherlands, to create the possibility to refer people in their own region. 

How will you trust the users of the software?

There are, and always will be, methods by which offenders can circumvent technology such as this. The important characteristic of our target group is that these will be individuals who want to take part, who want to get help and who have volunteered to do so. The project will target cooperative, potential or real users of child sexual abuse images who want to avoid starting or continuing consumption.

Will the police be informed if users search for criminal content?

We are not judging or criminalising the volunteers who take part in the pilot. We accept that effective prevention requires trust and cooperation of all parties. We know that a purely repressive approach to this phenomenon does not bring much relief on its own, therefore the Protech project can be a first crucial step in a more preventive approach which will provide an additional tool in the fight against child sexual abuse.

How is this technology unique, haven’t there been similar projects?

While the intent behind Salus is similar to other prevention technologies, the difference lies in that all such existing products require humans to be content moderators rather than moderating content automatically. 

For instance, some existing tech that monitors streamed video, regardless of the content of the video, opts to take a snapshot of the screen and upload the screen captures to servers for a human being to review and moderate the content. 

Unless they have been legally allowed to do so, this in effect criminalises content moderators because capturing, transmitting and storing child sexual abuse material is a criminal offence.

Screen captures may also be prevented by those platforms which can mark an application as forbidding screenshots. For example, mobile banking applications will refuse to comply as the app is marked as containing sensitive information. 

Salus is different as it fully employs machine learning to perform the content moderation. In the case of streamed video, the safety tech “watches” the video moments ahead of the user before it reaches the user’s screen. If and when it detects child sexual abuse material, the stream is terminated with immediate effect.

Another advantage with the Salus technology is that people at risk of viewing images can be connected with a human being who can support that individual in their efforts not to consume harmful and illegal content. 

What if Salus blocks content which is not criminal?

The machine learning software behind Salus is highly accurate but there is always a chance that content which is not classed as criminal might be blocked. Feedback from users in the pilot stage and those professionals supporting the project will help the software to constantly learn and improve. 

When will the project end?

Protech is a two year project which launched in March 2023 and will conclude in March 2025.