d-LAB rewards an initiative for gathering court-admissible evidence in cyberbullying cases

• The second prize-winning proposal, SafeToNet (United Kingdom), is an artificial intelligence app that blocks potentially offensive online messages
• MWCapital has sponsored the initiative in partnership with the FC Barcelona Foundation, Save The Children (Denmark) and the Federation of Associations for the Prevention of Child Abuse (FAPMI-ECPAT, Spain)

February 20, 2018

d-LAB, Mobile World Capital Barcelona’s digital transformation programme, has named DAS Ciberbullying (Spain) and SafeToNet (United Kingdom) winners of their third challenge on “fighting cyberbullying through mobile technology”. This challenge has received the support of the following organisations: FC Barcelona Foundation, Save The Children (Denmark) and Federation of Associations for the Prevention of Child Abuse (FAPMI-ECPAT Spain). The award ceremony was held this morning at the Lluïsos de Gràcia theatre as part of Mobile Week Barcelona.

The first prizewinner is the legal protection insurance company DAS Ciberbullying, based in Hospitalet del Llobregat, which presented an app called Proofup. Proofup connects parents and children and allows them to take action against online bullying by gathering court-admissible evidence. It stands out for moving away from traditional parental control models by allowing minors to capture and record any harassment they consider violent to share it with their parents, giving them the opportunity to assert their autonomy. Psychological support is also offered to users whenever necessary.

The second prizewinner is SafeToNet, an app that uses artificial intelligence to identify potentially offensive written and visual content and blocks it before it can be sent. Once the system has been installed in a mobile device, it works in every app, social media channel and gaming platform.

The two winners have been selected from among the 22 projects received from 9 countries, including Canada, Chile, USA, Brazil, Spain, Israel, Ireland and the United Kingdom and will receive support from MWCapital to implement their projects in Barcelona.

Digital tools for a digital battle

The launch of d-Lab’s third challenge is a response to the growing need to combat online bullying due to the significance and magnitude of the problem on a global scale. According to the United Nations, cyberbullying is currently one of the most important challenges facing the education community. d-LAB promotes the positive and responsible use of mobile technology as part of the solution to this social issue.