SafeToNet, one of the world’s leading cyber safety specialists that uses AI to safeguard children online from abuse and aggression, has acquired Citadel Filters, the Canadian neural network and machine learning company that filters harmful content in image, video and text.
SafeToNet’s real-time safeguarding software runs on a child’s smartphone or tablet. It educates, guides, and advises the child and steers them away from risk in real-time by filtering anything that could harm them or hurt others. It encourages non-intrusive but informed conversations between the child and their parents or carer about online safety. Its award-winning technology is used by children and parents in over 130 countries.
Richard Pursey, executive chairman of SafeToNet said “Our aim is to safeguard children wherever they are in the world and irrespective of the device or application they are using. By joining forces with Citadel Filters we have further strengthened our safeguarding technology, especially on a Windows platform where Citadel is particularly strong. Their ability to block inadvertent or deliberate access to the dark web allows us to minimise the risk of children straying into areas online that can cause them irreparable harm. Their chat filters work in 44 languages allowing SafeToNet to further extend its growth into new international territories and therefore safeguard more children.”
Jesse Nicholson, Founder and CEO of Technik Empire, the owner of Citadel Filters, said “SafeToNet is a company we have watched and admired from afar and to join forces with them is such an obvious move for us. Both companies share a passion for improving the online safety of children and this will further enhance the enlarged group’s ability to detect and filter risk in real-time. I am absolutely delighted that the technology we have built will now be used by children all over the world. That is the reason why I started Citadel, to positively improve the lives of children online.”
Despite the complications of numerous and different video codecs or formats, Citadel’s neural network technology scans images and streamed video before a child sees them and if it detects harmful content it will abruptly terminate the stream or block the image. The technology is highly effective and has a 98.18% accuracy rate.
SafeToNet’s online real-time AI-based child safety solutions not only help safeguard children and provide parents and carers with peace of mind, but they also help social media companies and others that are in scope of relevant legislation to meet their duty of care obligations.
