Online Safety Day 2023 

David is CEO at SWGfL and also Director UK Safer Internet Centre; the national awareness centre and part of the European Insafe network. 

David has worked extensively in online safety for over 20 years with children, schools and wider agencies. He advises a number of Governments, organisations and industry partners on online safety strategy and policy and has been appointed as an expert child online protection adviser to the UN ITU.

David has presented at conferences nationally and internationally.  He is a member of UKCIS and David has recently been invited to be a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Coalition for Digital Safety.

David has led pioneering work, such as the development of multi award winning resources, as well as the establishment of the helpline for victims of Revenge Porn. 

Dr Nikki Soo is a harmful content and digital well-being subject matter expert within TikTok’s EU Public Policy Team. She leads and engages in a wide range of industry safety issues, including mis/disinformation, hateful behaviour and digital well-being. Prior to joining TikTok, Nikki worked in academia across the last 10 years, specialising in the impact of digital technology on society, media and culture.

Policy and public affairs leader with experience working on complex legislation and regulation. Rich leads the NSPCC’s Child Safety Online team and oversaw its influencing of the Online Safety Act as it made its way through Parliament. His background is in enabling innovation in heavily regulated sectors. He led the negotiation of a new regulatory regime for Smart DCC and laid the groundwork for establishing a £200m innovation fund in the water sector.

Karl Hopwood is an independent online safety expert. He is a member of UKCIS (UK Council for Internet Safety) and sits on the UKCIS evidence group, education working group and the early warning group as well as on the advisory board for the UK Safer Internet Centre. He also sits on the Roblox trust and safety board where he represents the Insafe network. He was recently part of an expert steering group with TikTok looking at harmful and dangerous online challenges.

Karl has worked for a number of key players in the UK and abroad including CEOP (Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre), BECTA (British Educational and Communications Technology Agency), the European Commission, the UN and several Local Authorities within the UK and in Europe.

As an ex primary headteacher, he continues to work closely in schools across Europe with children, young people, parents, teachers and governors to develop safer online behaviours and the promotion of digital literacy. Karl has been employed for the last 16 years as an in-house consultant for INSAFE which is the coordinating node of the EU Better Internet for Kids programme where he is responsible for the coordination of safer internet helplines across Europe. Karl was the Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Marie Collins Foundation for 7 years, a charity which supports young people who have been sexually abused and exploited online and is Chair of the board of trustees of Childnet international and Chair of the executive committee of SACPA (Safeguarding and Child Protection Association). Karl has recently worked with a team developing a national online safety strategy in Rwanda and chaired the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) working group to re-write their Child Online Protection Guidance.

Margaret Mulholland is the Inclusion Policy Specialist for the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) and has worked as a teacher and leader across mainstream and special settings. Margaret is an Honorary Norham Fellow at the Department of Education, University of Oxford and is a columnist for TES.

Laurie Matthews (@LaurieAlyceAdventures) is a history teacher from Devon and a TikTok creator with over 186k followers and 9.5 million likes. Laurie has gained a significant following from posting her roadtrip history lessons on the platform.

Sarah spent 16 years in the civil service working in a number of key roles to tackle serious organised crime and protect children. Most recently she was the Deputy Director for the Online Child Sexual Abuse Threat (CEOP) at the National Crime Agency and the co-chair of the Virtual Global Taskforce, an international alliance of law enforcement agencies and partners working together to tackle the global CSA threat.  In January, Sarah moved over to Ofcom to head up CSA policy, Triage and law enforcement engagement as part of Ofcom’s new responsibilities under the Online Safety Act and led the development of a number of draft measures to protect children from online CSA, which are currently out for consultation.

Hugh is the Head of Online Harms Implementation at the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, where he leads a team implementing the Online Safety Act and its associated regulatory framework. He also oversees new policy development on social harms resulting from Artificial Intelligence, including Deepfakes. Before joining DSIT, he worked at several government departments including No.10 and the Cabinet Office, as well as spending time in the private sector. He studied PPE at the University of Oxford.