AI for Safer Children: The trainings have commenced!

In May 2023, under the AI for Safer Children initiative, the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI), through its Centre for Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Robotics, in partnership with the Ministry of Interior of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), commenced its country-specific trainings. These trainings are an extension of the AI for Safer Children Global Hub, tailored to each country’s context and needs. They showcase technological tools and techniques available to facilitate each step of child sexual exploitation and abuse investigations based on the 8 step investigative workflow in the Global Hub’s learning centre, available to all Hub members free of charge, currently numbering over 350 officers from 89 countries The AI for Safer Children trainings, in addition to having experts in forensic analysis going through the workflow, technology provider demonstrations, and UN experts, also feature external stakeholder presentations, all tailored to agencies’ interests.  The first training, conducted virtually on May 9-10th for the UAE, featured tools from the Global Hub on victim and suspect identification. On May 30-31st, the training for the United Kingdom explored the dark web and deepfake investigations. On June 6-7th, the AI for Safer Children team conducted its first in-person, regional training in Singapore which brought together over 80 law enforcement participants from the Singapore Police Force, as well as India, Indonesia and Brunei. It featured open-source intelligence (OSINT) tools and techniques, as per request.

^{AI for Safer Children training in Singapore, 6-7th June}

Testimonials: this ‘could have a massive impact’ on investigations

Feedback from participants has been overwhelmingly and encouragingly positive about each training:

I wanted to thank you all for your time and amazing organization for the UAE training […] Our attendees were very satisfied with the content and they have learned a lot. ~ Guillaume A. (United Arab Emirates)

Great effort was made to ensure that the training package fitted our requirements. All elements of the training were interesting and well-delivered by subject matter experts who clearly had great knowledge and expertise. The training program was incredibly useful and very well-constructed. ~ Mike F. (United Kingdom)

I truly enjoyed the training and learned a lot from it. I also had the opportunity to explore additional software that will greatly aid in the investigation process, particularly in the identification of victims. ~ Peh Tian Yi (Singapore)

The AI for Safer Children Hub is a very good and useful initiative with lots of tools to support investigations to rescue more victims and arrest more criminals. ~ Yeo Kok Leong (Singapore)