More visibility and real cases to solve
Convincing the funders of your idea is a challenge for every start-up. The challenge remains the same also for an organization whose primary goal is to solve a social grievance.
In 2018, Someturva had already received minor funding, but it had not yet managed to make a name for itself. Neither young people who were victims of social media bullying nor the adults whose task was to identify social media abuses were aware of Someturva's existing service. This was stopping the company from moving into a full-blown pilot phase.
Additionally, Someturva's challenge was that the artificial intelligence behind their service required learning material from real solved cases. Thus, more information was needed about actual instances of social media bullying and abuse.
The founder of Someturva, Suvi Uski, turned to Netprofile for help. Together, we agreed that Netprofile would work pro bono to support Someturva in raising visibility and awareness.
Abuse and pedophiles became a topic of conversation in the media and social media
The work took off swiftly. Netprofile's team created carefully targeted social media campaigns for Someturva that raised awareness, educated children, and encouraged victims to recognize and report abuse. The campaigns were successful, and the number of visitors to someturva.fi increased. At the same time, Someturva's lawyers helped victims identify crimes and file criminal reports with the police.
At the beginning of December 2018, chance intervened in a shocking manner when media reported the abuse and rape of a 10-year-old girl in Oulu. In addition to newspaper headlines, the incident caused political tensions and chaos on social media – the nation was shocked. Child abuse was widely discussed in public arenas, and it further encouraged people, especially children (70% of reports came from children), to seek help from Someturva.
Cooperation with Netprofile marked a turning point for Someturva
Netprofile and Someturva continued campaigning until January 2019. That's when the limit of a thousand actual solved cases was reached, which was considered sufficient material for the development of an AI-based service.
Someturva continues to work tirelessly in helping network users detect online predators. Its AI-based service is offered to companies, institutions, municipalities, and schools that pay for the service on behalf of their employees, students, children, or other community members.
Someturva campaign gained Netprofile a PR Agency Citizenship category win at the internationally respected PR and Communications industry SABRE Awards competition in 2020.
Someturva is a Finnish AI-based service for social media users. It offers a 24/7 service for those bullied, threatened, and harassed on social media. Someturva was founded by Finnish law, technology, and social psychology professionals.
