UK Safer Internet Centre

What UK Safer Internet Centre does

The UK Safer Internet Centre (UKSIC) is a non-profit partnership, founded in 2011 and headquartered in London, that delivers online safety services for children, families, and professionals in the United Kingdom. It is a formal collaboration of three established charities — Childnet International, the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), and South West Grid for Learning (SWGfL) — each contributing distinct capabilities: educational outreach, content removal and a CSAM hash database, and school-facing safety tools respectively.

The partnership operates a portfolio of free services: the Professionals Online Safety Helpline (POSH), the IWF Hotline for anonymous reporting of child sexual abuse imagery, the Report Harmful Content national reporting centre (covering more than 20 major platforms including Meta, TikTok, YouTube, Discord, Tinder, and Roblox), and the Revenge Porn Helpline for adults experiencing intimate image abuse. Underpinning these is a technology layer that includes the Image Intercept tool (free access for smaller platforms to IWF's 2.8M+ image hash database), the Intelligrade automated grading system, the 360 Degree Safe school self-assessment tool (used by 11,000+ UK schools), and the Test Filtering Tool. Annual impact metrics cited include 270,000 web pages removed, 6,785 young people trained as Digital Leaders, 30,000 professionals trained, a 92% industry action success rate, and a 91% harmful content removal success rate. Safer Internet Day, the centre's flagship annual campaign, now operates in 130+ countries and reaches over half of UK children.

UKSIC generates no commercial revenue; all services are provided free of charge. Funding flows from UK government grants (notably the Home Office), philanthropic support (including Nominet's Countering Online Harms fund), and the partner charities' own fundraising. The centre also plays a formal policy role, having advised on the UK's Online Safety Bill and producing Trusted Flagger Guidance for the new regulatory regime. Leadership is shared across the three partner CEOs, with Susie Hargreaves OBE (IWF CEO) and David Wright serving as UKSIC Directors.

Name

UK Safer Internet Centre

Legal name

UK Safer Internet Centre

Website

https://saferinternet.org.uk

Company type

Private

Founded year

2011

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

UK Safer Internet Centre is a non-profit partnership of three charities (Childnet, IWF, SWGfL) that provides free online safety helplines, harmful content reporting, educational resources, and the annual Safer Internet Day campaign for UK children, families, and educators.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Online Child Safety Services

NAICS

Child and Youth Services (624110)

SIC

Services-Social Services (8300)

akta.pro primary industry

Content Moderation, Safe Messaging & Classroom Communication Safety (EDAFALAE)

akta.pro secondary industries

Child Protection & Child Rights (BPAGABAG), Protection, Child Protection & Gender-Based Violence (GBV) Response (BPAGAAAG), Protection Services (GBV, Child Protection, Legal Aid) (BPADADAH)

Keywords

• Online child safety
• Safety helpline services
• Digital safety education
• Harmful content reporting
• Internet safety awareness

Headquarters

HQ city

London

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Partnership Funding: The UK Safer Internet Centre is a partnership of three leading UK charities - Childnet International, Internet Watch Foundation, and SWGfL. Funding comes from charitable activities, government support, and organizational memberships.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

The UK Safer Internet Centre is a non-profit partnership of three charities (Childnet International, the Internet Watch Foundation, and SWGfL) that delivers free online safety services to the UK public. Its core offerings include professional advice helplines, public reporting hotlines for harmful and child sexual abuse material, a helpline for adults affected by intimate image abuse, peer-education and school training programmes, and the annual Safer Internet Day awareness campaign. All services are provided free of charge to end users.

Product overview

The UK Safer Internet Centre is a partnership of three leading UK charities — Childnet International, Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), and SWGfL (South West Grid for Learning) — offering a coordinated suite of online safety services. The core product portfolio includes helplines for professionals (POSH), adults experiencing intimate image abuse (Revenge Porn Helpline), and a national reporting centre for harmful content (Report Harmful Content). The IWF Hotline provides anonymous reporting and removal of child sexual abuse imagery. Supporting programmes include the annual Safer Internet Day campaign, the Digital Leaders Programme training young people, and professional training services. Technology tools include Image Intercept (hash database access for platforms), 360 Degree Safe (school online safety assessment), and Test Filtering Tool. The centre reports significant impact: 270,000 web pages removed, 6,785 Digital Leaders trained, and 30,000 professionals trained.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Professionals Online Safety Helpline (POSH): Support helpline for professionals working with children on online safety issues.
• Hotline
• Report Harmful Content
• Revenge Porn Helpline
• Safer Internet Day
• Digital Leaders Programme

Products and services

• Professionals Online Safety Helpline (POSH) Free, confidential helpline that provides advice to professionals (such as teachers, social workers, police officers and healthcare staff) who encounter online safety issues affecting children and young people, helping them to handle incidents and escalate where needed.
• IWF Hotline Anonymous public reporting service for members of the public to report child sexual abuse material found online, operated by the Internet Watch Foundation as part of the UK Safer Internet Centre partnership, with assessed reports passed to law enforcement and hosting providers for removal.
• Report Harmful Content Online reporting service for members of the public who have encountered online content they consider harmful but not necessarily illegal, providing tailored advice and signposting to relevant support and reporting routes.
• Revenge Porn Helpline (Report Remove) Free helpline service for UK-based adults (aged 18+) whose intimate images or videos have been shared online without their consent, providing emotional support, practical advice and assistance with having the content removed from platforms.
• Digital Leaders Programme School-based peer education programme that empowers young people to take a leadership role in promoting online safety among their peers, providing a structured curriculum, training and recognition for participants.
• Online Safety Training Training provision for educators, parents, carers and professionals covering online safety topics such as safeguarding, online harms, and supporting children and young people online.
• Safer Internet Day Annual national awareness campaign held each February that coordinates schools, organisations, government and industry across the UK around a shared theme to promote safe and positive use of digital technology.

Quantifiable outcome

• 270,000 web pages removed
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers4 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration23 records

AI capability1 record

Partnerships

16 partnerships are on record, tiered major, core and minor.

• TindermajorTechnology or Integration · 8 September 2020Report Harmful Content expanded its service to include dating platforms. Tinder partnered to address harmful content on their platform.
• HingemajorTechnology or Integration · 8 September 2020Report Harmful Content expanded its service to include dating platforms including Hinge.
• Match.commajorTechnology or Integration · 8 September 2020Report Harmful Content partnered with Match.com to handle harmful content reports on the dating platform.
• TwitchmajorTechnology or Integration · 8 September 2020Report Harmful Content expanded to gaming platforms, partnering with Twitch for content moderation support.
• DiscordmajorTechnology or Integration · 8 September 2020Report Harmful Content partnered with Discord to address harmful content on the chat platform.
• Childnet InternationalcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerOne of three founding charity partners of the UK Safer Internet Centre. Childnet focuses on promoting safe and responsible use of the internet for children and young people.
• Internet Watch Foundation (IWF)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerOne of three founding charity partners. IWF identifies and removes online child sexual abuse imagery and operates the hotline for reporting such content.
• South West Grid for Learning (SWGfL)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerOne of three founding charity partners. SWGfL operates helpline services including the Professionals Online Safety Helpline and Report Harmful Content.
• Home OfficecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerFunded the development of Image Intercept tool, providing smaller platforms free access to IWF's hash database of child sexual abuse imagery.
• Facebook/MetamajorTechnology or IntegrationExisting partnership platform for reporting harmful content. Meta announced new protections for teens in 2024.
• InstagrammajorTechnology or IntegrationExisting partnership platform for reporting harmful content. Meta placing under-18s into most restrictive content settings.
• TikTokmajorTechnology or IntegrationExisting partnership platform for reporting harmful content through Report Harmful Content service.
• Baroness KidronminorOthersCrossbench Peer and Chair of 5Rights Foundation who supported the campaign for online appeals processes in Online Safety Bill.
• Baroness NewloveminorOthersDeputy Speaker in House of Lords who supported the Don't Steal My Right to Appeal campaign.
• FacebookmajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership for IWF campaigns including Uganda and Zambia internet safety initiative.
• MTNmajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerTelecommunications giant partnered with IWF for internet safety campaigns in Uganda and Zambia.

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Thorn: US non-profit focused on defending children from sexual exploitation online, building technology tools for platform identification of CSAM. Highly comparable in mission (child online safety), technology development approach (e.g., Thorn's hashing tools), and partnership model with platforms.
• Childnet International: A founding partner of UKSIC, Childnet independently delivers online safety education for children, parents, and teachers. Comparable mission, beneficiary segments, and resource library, though operates as one of the three constituent charities within UKSIC.
• South West Grid for Learning (SWGfL): A UKSIC founding partner that operates the Report Harmful Content service, Revenge Porn Helpline, 360 Degree Safe school tool, and Test Filtering Tool. Effectively one of the three operational arms of UKSIC, with substantial overlap in products, beneficiaries, and tools.
• Internet Watch Foundation: The UK's reporting hotline for child sexual abuse imagery and operator of the Image Intercept and Intelligrade tools. A founding UKSIC partner; independently it operates the UK hotline function and maintains the hash database described in UKSIC's data.
• ConnectSafely: US non-profit delivering online safety education, parent guides, and school curricula on cyberbullying, privacy, and digital citizenship. Closely comparable mission and audience (parents, educators, teens) to UKSIC's educational arm.
• Internet Matters: UK-based nonprofit providing online safety advice, resources, and parental guidance for children. Operates with a similar mission to UKSIC and is backed by major UK ISPs and tech companies, making it the closest direct peer in the UK online safety education space.

Broad incumbents

• Common Sense Media: US non-profit providing media ratings, reviews, and online safety education for families and schools. Comparable in targeting parents, educators, and children with educational resources, though broader in scope covering all media rather than online safety specifically.
• National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC): US non-profit operating the CyberTipline for reporting child sexual exploitation. Functions as the US counterpart to UKSIC's IWF hotline; both serve as national reporting infrastructure for CSAM with similar platform-reporting workflows.
• NSPCC (National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children): The UK's largest child protection charity, operating helplines (including ChildLine) and safeguarding services. Comparable in beneficiary segments (children, parents, professionals) and non-profit funding model, but with a broader child welfare remit beyond online safety.

Emerging players

• Marie Collins Foundation: UK charity supporting children who have experienced online sexual abuse, providing click:pathway counselling and professional training. Narrower scope than UKSIC but directly comparable target population and professional training offering.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/uk_sic
• Facebookfacebook.com/saferinternetuk
• Instagraminstagram.com/uk_sic
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/safer-internet-centre

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about UK Safer Internet Centre