Keeping children safe without reading their messages
SafeCircle is a one-person project, built by its founder, Tomas Palma, from Spain. It is small on purpose, and I try to be as open about it as I can.
SafeCircle exists to protect children from dangers such as grooming, sextortion and cyberbullying, while keeping their conversations private.
Why SafeCircle exists
Those risks are real, and parents often find out too late. Many monitoring tools collect a great deal of what a child writes. I wanted to find out whether detection could work without that: spot the danger on the child’s own phone, explain to the parent why something was flagged, and leave the rest of the conversation private.
What I believe
- 01
Private by default
Message text stays on the device. Only a short alert leaves it, and only when something needs attention.
- 02
Explain every alert
Every alert has a risk level, a category and a written reason, so a parent knows why it was raised.
- 03
Publish what I can
Models, documentation and parts of the code are public, so people can check what I claim. What I have not published, I say so.
- 04
Be honest about limits
Detection can miss risks and can flag harmless chats. The published numbers include the gaps, and the limits are on the Trust page.
What has been built so far
Status as of today. Beta means real people use it, with rough edges. Research means it is not a product yet.
- Beta
Horizon
Our own model. It is fine-tuned from open base models and classifies on-screen text in the Android child app, which is in Google Play testing.
- Research
Vigil
A research-preview classifier, tested only on synthetic chats. It is not in the app yet.
- Beta
Parent app and dashboard
The Android parent app and the web dashboard. The dashboard is available in 9 languages, and the parent app is in Google Play testing.
- Beta
Orbit Browser
Our open-source browser for families and schools, in beta.
- Beta
SafeCircle Search
Private search, in closed beta, with results from Brave and no tracking.
- Beta
AI Playground
A free Android app to chat with on-device AI models, in Google Play testing.
- Next
iOS
There is no iOS app yet. You can join the waitlist.
Programmes and partners
I take part in these programmes and organisations, which are listed on our partners page. If you want to partner with us, see Become a partner.
- NVIDIA Inception Program
- AWS Activate
- Lambda
- CEEIM
How to reach me
The best way to reach me is through the contact page. I read everything, though I may not always reply quickly.
If your child is in dangerGet help now