Summit for Achieving Safety, Security, and Privacy for Children Online

Monday, August 26 – Tuesday, August 27

The Center for Security in Politics (CSP), and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Science and Technology Branch hosted a Summit for Achieving Safety, Security, and Privacy for Children Online at UC Berkeley on August 26-27, 2024. Last year, the two parties signed a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement in order to partner and convene on key issues of national security like AI governance, encryption and lawful access, and civil liberties and privacy. The August Summit was the first result of this effort, focused on child online protection and the challenges relating to public safety access to digital evidence and adversarial use of artificial intelligence, recognizing the urgent need for collaboration in tackling technology-based risks to child safety.  

The Summit brought together leaders from the FBI like Deputy Director Abbate and Executive Assistant Directors, academia from UC Berkeley and other national universities, child safety advocacy groups like NCMEC and Vocare, tech and venture capital executives, and government officials from multiple different countries. With children being especially vulnerable to online harms, the event focused on exploring pathways to protect them while balancing privacy rights and enabling effective law enforcement. The Summit contained discussions around exploring areas of shared concern, identifying new tech-enabled threats, and looking at different technological and market-based approaches and actionable steps to enhance the safety, security, and privacy of children in the digital world.