Around the world, governments are rewriting the rules of the internet. From the EU’s Digital Services Act, to the UK Online Safety Act, to COPPA modernization, to new age-verification and design-duty mandates across dozens of jurisdictions, one message is consistent: child safety online is no longer optional.

As CEO of The Proudfoot Group and a long-time governance and safety practitioner, I welcome this shift. For years, families and advocates have called attention to the rising harms children face online—mental-health impacts, exposure to explicit content, predatory behavior, addictive design, and algorithmic amplification of risk. The research is overwhelming, and parents feel it every day.

But here is the truth I’ve learned working with regulators, policymakers, and platforms:

laws can create obligations, but only technology can meet them.

Governments can require age assurance, risk assessments, safe-by-default settings, and proactive detection of harmful behaviors. But if a platform lacks the technical means to deliver these outcomes, regulations become symbolic—well-intentioned, but unenforceable at scale.

This is the gap ChildSafe.dev was built to close.

Why Global Regulation Is Converging—and What Platforms Can’t Ignore

Across continents, lawmakers are converging around a shared framework:

1. A duty to prevent foreseeable harm to children
2. Proactive detection and mitigation, not just reactive moderation
3. Privacy-preserving age assurance, not surveillance
4. Risk-based governance of algorithms and AI systems
5. Transparency, auditability, and accountability
6. Safer design by default for minors

This is not a temporary trend—it’s the new foundation of digital governance.

Yet most platforms, especially small and midsize ones, are not architected to comply with these standards. Their systems were built for engagement, virality, and scale—not safety, accountability, or regulated oversight.

That is why ChildSafe.dev exists.

And that is where RoseShield becomes transformative.

How ChildSafe.dev and RoseShield Fit Into the New Global Safety Framework

ChildSafe.dev provides the technical building blocks that make regulatory compliance achievable. Our tools were designed specifically around modern regulatory requirements, engineering safety and governance into the systems that need them most.

RoseShield: Proactive Risk Detection That Meets Regulatory Expectations

Modern child-safety regulations increasingly require platforms to:

1. detect grooming and harmful interactions
2. identify high-risk content pathways
3. mitigate risks before harm reaches a child
4. provide evidence of safety interventions
5. operate with privacy-first architecture

RoseShield delivers exactly that.

It uses behavioral and contextual signals—not biometric or personal data—to detect risk patterns in real time. That means RoseShield gives platforms the ability to comply with design-duty and safety-duty obligations without violating privacy protections mandated under GDPR, the DSA, and other global frameworks.

Age Assurance That Aligns With Global Standards

Required or strongly encouraged in:

1. the EU DSA
2. the UK Online Safety Act
3. California and Utah age-design laws
4. multiple U.S. federal proposals, including COPPA 2.0 and KOSA

ChildSafe.dev offers privacy-preserving age-assurance infrastructure that allows platforms to differentiate minors from adults without bulk data collection—meeting the legal requirement while respecting children’s rights.

Evidence Packs and Auditability for Regulator Reporting

Global laws now require:

1. documented risk assessments
2. demonstrable mitigation
3. audit trails
4. regulator-ready reporting

RoseShield automatically produces structured safety evidence that can be used to demonstrate compliance—something regulators increasingly demand but platforms often lack.

A Reality Regulators Understand: Parents Cannot Shoulder This Alone

Around the world, policymakers have reached the same conclusion:

Parents cannot be the primary safety system for an internet they did not design.

Global regulation reflects this recognition. But the regulatory frameworks themselves are only as strong as the technologies supporting them. That is why ChildSafe.dev is not merely aligned with global standards—it was built to operationalize them.

We are not waiting for future regulations to force safety into products. We are engineering the infrastructure today that platforms will be expected to have tomorrow.

The Path Forward: Safety and Compliance by Design

As more countries legislate protections for children online, the burden on platforms will only increase. But for companies that adopt the right tools, compliance will not be a barrier—it will be a competitive advantage.

This is what I believe deeply as the founder of ChildSafe.dev:

Real protection requires technology that is aligned with regulation, grounded in privacy, and built for scale.

RoseShield and our developer-first tools turn compliance requirements into practical, deployable reality. They give platforms the ability to not just follow the law, but fulfill their moral responsibility to protect children in every digital environment.

The world is demanding safer technology.

ChildSafe.dev is here to help build it.