In a rare moment of tech giants playing nice, Alphabet Inc., OpenAI, Roblox Corp., and Discord have teamed up to launch ROOST (Robust Open Online Safety Tools)—an initiative designed to make the internet a safer place for kids. And they're putting their money where their mouth is, raising over US$27 million (RM120.71 million) to develop free, open-source safety tools.

That's right, the same companies behind AI-powered chatbots, meme-generating algorithms, and questionable game monetization strategies are now tackling online child safety. If this sounds like the Avengers of Tech, but with fewer capes and more AI, you're not far off.

What's ROOST and Why Should You Care?

At its core, ROOST is like a superhero AI that hunts down online dangers—specifically, it will detect, review, and report child sexual abuse material (CSAM) while making essential safety tools more accessible to platforms of all sizes.

Eric Schmidt, former Google CEO and co-founder of the initiative, summed it up nicely (and far more formally) at the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit in Paris:

"There's a critical need to accelerate innovation in online child safety."

Translation: The internet is a mess, and we need smarter tools to clean it up—fast.

Why Now?

Because, unfortunately, the problem is only getting worse.

According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, reports of suspected child exploitation jumped 12% from 2022 to 2023. That's already bad news, but here's where it gets worse:

A big part of this increase comes from better detection tools, but also the simple fact that kids are spending more time online than ever. Whether they're gaming, chatting, or endlessly scrolling through TikTok, the dangers are lurking—and that's exactly what ROOST aims to tackle.

What's Next?

With experts in child safety, open-source tech, and countering violent extremism contributing to the initiative, ROOST could set a new industry standard for online protection. The goal? Making safety tools more transparent, effective, and widely available—instead of locking them behind paywalls or proprietary systems.

It's a big step in the right direction, but let's be real—no amount of AI will fully replace good parenting, digital literacy, and keeping an eye on what kids are doing online.

That said, if ROOST can make the internet a little less scary and give bad actors a harder time, then it's a win for everyone—except the creeps, of course.