UNICEF urges a broader approach to child online safety beyond social media restrictions

UNICEF issued a statement on 8 October 2026 calling for child online safety measures that address technology-facilitated violence including grooming, sextortion and child sexual abuse rather than relying solely on social media access restrictions, in the context of recent school violence linked to online networks allegedly grooming young people. The agency emphasised that children face serious harms beyond exposure to harmful content and that effective protection requires creating safer digital environments rather than restricting access to platforms.

A system that detects threat at the moment it is delivered addresses the underlying risk without the structural costs UNICEF identifies in blanket restriction. Guardii provides that targeted intervention, screening direct messages in real time for grooming escalation, sextortion demands, coercion to self-harm and other patterns of technology-facilitated violence, flagging a child in crisis to a parent, school counsellor or designated safeguarding officer without requiring the child to leave the platform or every user to verify their identity. Backed by Startmate and deployed across Instagram, Snapchat, Discord, Roblox and other services, the platform delivers the safer environment UNICEF calls for by intercepting harm where it originates: in the conversation itself.