The promise of the internet was open knowledge and connection; the reality includes manipulation, abuse and mistrust. This book confronts that gap with a practice-oriented guide to designing, analysing and governing safer digital ecosystems.
Authored by experts across academia, industry and government, it is organized around three pillars - (a) safety by design and provenance, (b) threat detection and analysis and (c) response and mitigation - to embed safeguards, surface emerging harms and execute effective incident response at scale. Chapters pair empirical studies with deployable techniques, from evaluation metrics and audits to governance and enforcement frameworks, situating technical advances within real-world constraints of cost, scale, privacy, equity and culture.
This resource offers researchers, policymakers, platform builders, educators and civil society a clear map of today's landscape as well as a pragmatic agenda for what can and should come next: transparent provenance, robust measurement and accountable interventions that earn user trust.
Ian McLoughlin is a professor at the Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT). His research work is in novel Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques for deployment in speech and audio systems. He has published over 300 peer-reviewed papers, contributed to research achieving industry impact in four countries and authored textbooks with Cambridge University Press and McGraw-Hill.
Carol Soon is the Deputy Head and an associate professor (Practice) in the Department of Communications and New Media, National University of Singapore. She is also Vice Chair of Singapore's Media Literacy Council and a member of the World Economic Forum's Global Future Council on Information Integrity. Her research interests are in false information, online safety, digital literacy and inclusion, media regulation, new media and activism and public engagement and deliberation.
Roy Ka-Wei Lee is an assistant professor, the Cheng Tsang Man Early Career Chair Professor and the Associate Head (Research) of the Information Systems Technology and Design (ISTD) Pillar at Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD). He leads the Social AI Studio, a dedicated research group developing cutting-edge social AI systems. Beyond academia, he is a smart nation fellow at GovTech, collaborating with public agencies to enhance the safe deployment of AI systems across government.
May Lwin is the Vice Provost (Faculty Affairs) and President's Chair Professor of Communication Studies at Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information (WKWSCI), Nanyang Technological University (NTU). She also serves as Joint Professor in the NTU LKC School of Medicine and is the director of Asian Health Behaviour Insights and Interventions (HABITS). A Fellow of the International Communication Association (ICA), she specialises in health communication and well-being of communities. Her research in online safety arena focuses on cybersafety issues regarding the young and vulnerable users, and the role of parents as well as educators in guiding the young.
Razwana Begum is the Head of the Global Security and Strategy Graduate Programme at the School of Humanities and Behavioural Sciences at the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS). Her research interests include criminology, governance and public safety. She served as a Nominated Member of Singapore's 14th Parliament (2023-2025), where she focused on advancing issues related to public safety, women and children.
Zhu Feida teaches computer science and is the Associate Dean, Partnerships and Engagement, at the Singapore Management University. One of his research areas is in safety and security, such as privacy-preserving data sharing and analytics.
