2025 Unwrapped – Here’s What Happened to Online Safety This Year
2025 was still dawning when Mark Zuckerberg announced that he was making significant changes to Meta’s policies, endangering user safety across platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Threads. Putting his pocket ahead of users, the billionaire chose to turn a blind eye to what social media is actually about: people.
All people. Harms boosted by social media and AI platforms affect kids, teens, parents, and everyone – everywhere. In 2025, we saw a growing number of people speak up against online harms and the companies that amplify them.
Online safety is not a partisan issue. Lawmakers from opposite sides of the aisle, parents, advocates, actors, producers, comedians, and so many others have joined us to call for regulation of social media and AI companies.
Regulations have worked to make other industries safer – we have seatbelts and airbags in cars, and there are safety standards for things like food and pharmaceuticals. Common sense safety standards are also needed to build safer digital spaces. Equally important is ensuring that the victims of online harm, and their families, are entitled to their day in court. That’s why CCDH advocates for Section 230 reform in the U.S., and that’s why we support the new bipartisan Sunset Section 230 Act – a bill that would finally end the special protection given to social media companies.
CCDH puts people at the heart of our work
Unlike tech bosses, CCDH hasn’t lost sight of the importance of building digital spaces where kids and all communities can feel safe. In 2025, we put people at the heart of our work and drove change:
- CCDH tested ChatGPT and found it can give dangerous advice to teens and adults.
- We dug into the dangerous world of online misogyny and showed how it is deeply harming women, girls, and boys.
- We drove a global conversation about online safety.
ChatGPT is a fake friend
CCDH’s research showed that ChatGPT is not a friend. We simulated accounts of three 13-year-olds and found that the chatbot can give advice that can put their lives at risk. Then we tested ChatGPT’s new “safest” version. Spoiler alert: it doesn’t get any better.
Sadly, we are already seeing the results of AI’s negligence offline: Matthew Raine gave a heartbreaking testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on how ChatGPT pushed his 16-year-old son, Adam, to take his own life this year.
But AI doesn’t need to be this way. By providing this evidence to legislators, CCDH is advocating for legal solutions like the bipartisan AI LEAD Act (Hawley/Durbin) that pushes for safety designs when building AI tools, and that holds AI companies responsible when their platforms fail users. Join us and demand the developers and deployers of AI chatbots put safety first:
Adolescence and growing online misogyny
Netflix’s Emmy Award-winning show Adolescence kick-started a global conversation about how incel communities pull boys and young men into extreme sexist beliefs. It struck a chord because it reflects a real and urgent problem.
Our research showed the world’s largest incel forum has nearly doubled in size since 2022 – reaching 2.7 million visits in early 2025. Every one of those visits represents someone being exposed to an ideology that fuels harassment, hate, and violence against women.
But people are fighting back. Watch our conversation with journalist Taylor Lorenz and women’s safety consultant Karen Whybro to learn more.
Online safety is going mainstream
In 2025, CCDH had inspiring conversations with parents of victims of social media harms, online safety advocates, and producers taking the subject to the screen. This year we heard from Kristin Bride and her incredible journey for justice for her son’s death, a conversation that left us feeling the urgency to act. We also spoke to Apple TV’s The Morning Show Showrunner and Producer, Charlotte Stoudt, where she shared her views on the show, misinformation and AI, as well as to Matthew O’Neill, the producer of a documentary that follows the families of social media victims. Make sure you check our interviews here.
CCDH listened but also had the opportunity to inspire others in public events. We hosted events to talk to families about how to protect kids in times of AI and joined the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA) to discuss our report on how antisemitism is spreading freely on X.
And we took our concerns about online harms to legislators across the world. In the U.S., we focused our efforts on the AI LEAD Act, a bipartisan legislation that would ensure AI companies can be hold legally responsible for the harm their products cause. In the UK, we defended the Online Safety Act and had our research used as evidence for the first investigation into a major social media platform. In Europe, we saw the European Commission issue the first fine against a platform for lack of transparency.
CCDH’s crucial work is only possible because of our donors’ generous support. Join this amazing group and help us protect kids online and fight for online safety in 2026. Donate today.
What’s next for CCDH?
2026 is the year of change. We will keep producing our crucial research exposing how social media and AI platforms are harming young people and communities across the globe, as well as advocating for legislation that ensures safety and transparency are at the core of digital platforms, and that holds these companies and their bosses accountable (hint hint, Mark Zuckerberg).
Online safety matters to everyone. People deserve to feel safe online, and, together, we’ll make it happen.
In the New Year, we’re coming back refreshed and ready to keep making the internet safer for all. And right now, you can test your AI skills with CCDH’s new Spot the Fake game. Have fun, and see you next year!
