Track: Professional
Team: Fabrique
Brief B: Thwart and protect online
About No Minor Thing
What can designers do to help combat sexual exploitation of children? That is the question posed by WDCD in collaboration with the Dutch Public Prosecutions Service (OM) and the Ministry of Justice & Security in an invitation-only design challenge.
In No Minor Thing: The What Design Can Do Challenge to Combat Sexual Exploitation of Children, selected design teams had the opportunity to come up with new ways of tackling this issue. Read more on the results of the project and approach of Fabrique.
About Exposed – SHOOW
SHOOW is an app extension for popular chat applications (Whatsapp, Snapchat, etc.). This extension detects nudity in photos and provides these photos with a digital watermark, as well as offering users the opportunity to provide the photo with a watermark on the front, stimulating young people to treat nude photos responsibly.
Read more on this project on the No minor thing platform >
What was it like to participate in No Minor Thing?
‘No Minor Thing was an intense change compared to our daily jobs. In terms of substance, the challenge was indeed very challenging, as this topic is difficult to grasp. We also found that this project deserves more time and attention than we were able to free from our day jobs.’
‘The naive notion that this type of situation only occurs in distant countries was demolished on day 1 of the challenge.’
While working on this project, what has caught you by surprise the most?
‘How much sexual exploitation occurs in the Netherlands. We really had no idea. The naive notion that this type of situation only occurs in distant countries was demolished on day 1 of the challenge. Throughout the project, we focused on sexting. Again, we had no idea how much this is going on.’
What role do you attribute to design when it comes to this type of social issue?
‘Designers have the ability to challenge the status quo. Taking an outside, creative perspective to this type of complex problem allows us to reach new insights. We did notice that experimentation is difficult with such a high number of stakeholders.’
Do you intend to continue the project once the challenge is over?
‘Definitely. It all comes down to the technical and especially legal feasibility of our concept. We will be discussing this with various parties soon.’