ActiveFence Experts Weigh In: 2025, A Year of Challenges, Innovations, and Progress

In 2024, we made great strides in advancing Trust and Safety, and as we look toward 2025, the road ahead is full of opportunities.

Last year, we witnessed many major threats to online safety, from political instability marked by high-stakes elections and regulation shifts to increasing global tensions, including wars and assassination attempts. Meanwhile, rising antisemitism, the evolution of generative AI, and growing concerns over child safety online added new challenges, with threat actors exploiting vulnerabilities at an alarming rate.

Throughout this turbulent year, our experts have been at the forefront, providing support to clients by strengthening trust and safety practices and offering tailored solutions, insights, and resources that enable organizations to tackle threats head-on. Looking to the year ahead, we remain focused on bolstering platform protection and improving strategies to address both traditional and new risks.

These are the key trends that will shape Trust and Safety, security, and regulation in 2025. Our experts weigh in on each one with insights on how to navigate the upcoming year:

1. Gaming Industry: Prioritizing Child Safety

In the gaming industry, 2025 will see an intensified focus on child safety, driven by regulators, parents, and the media. Tomer Poran, our VP of Strategy and Chief Evangelist explains that multiplayer gaming companies will be under more pressure to strengthen safeguards and advocate for child safety. At the same time, these platforms will need to manage costs effectively while navigating an increasingly complex regulatory environment.

2. Online Child Safety: Navigating New Threats

Dr. Avi Jager, Director of Child Safety and Human Exploitation, emphasizes the growing complexity of online child safety in 2025. Decentralized technologies and the rise of self-generated child sexual abuse material (CSAM) by minors are major concerns, made worse by the commercialization of synthetic CSAM. Stricter global laws around content and age verification will also put pressure on platforms, as they urge for greater preparation and proactive action to ensure the safety of children.

3. Generative AI: Greater Capabilities and Risks

Dr. Guy Paltieli, Head of GenAI Trust and Safety, predicts the continued rise of Agentic AI, which is designed to enhance user interaction with AI tools. He also foresees that in 2025, we’ll see the expansion of multi-modal AI systems, enabling more sophisticated models to deliver higher-quality outputs across diverse domains. The advancements offer exciting opportunities but also raise new risks that will require constant vigilance to keep AI safe and ethical.

4. Geopolitical Risk: More Information Warfare

Rachael Levy, our VP of Geopolitical Risk, warns that heightened geopolitical tensions and an increase in social unrest will be a major concern in 2025. As new governments take power following landmark elections, the risk of information warfare will escalate, potentially eroding social cohesion across nations. This will have serious implications for Trust and Safety teams, who will need to implement enhanced safeguards for protecting public discourse.

5. Cybersecurity: New Threats to Mobile

Sandra Grodensky, VP of Mobile and Cyber, points out that mobile malware will evolve with AI-driven adaptive attacks that will target interconnected ecosystems, exploiting trusted tools in new ways. Cybersecurity strategies must keep pace to address these sophisticated threats, requiring a shift in focus towards more proactive and intelligent defenses against an increasingly complex threat environment.

6. Online Extremism: A Balancing Act

Yoav Hitman, Intelligence Group Manager, warns that in 2025, repeat offenders will continue to target social media platforms. They will use advanced AI tools to bypass moderation and spread harmful content like hate speech and conspiracy theories. Platforms will need stronger, more adaptable moderation systems to keep up with these growing threats, protect users, and combat the escalation of harmful ideologies.

7. Internet Regulation: Navigating Stricter Laws

Michal Brand-Gold, VP General Counsel, stresses the importance of transparency and proactive safety measures as regulations tighten, especially regarding generative AI. In 2025, legal teams will need to act quickly and decisively by implementing safeguards from the outset to keep generative AI tools safe, trustworthy, and compliant with global regulations.

8. Violent Extremism: A Growing Concern

Dr. Ariel Koch, Director of Violent Extremism Research, anticipates a rise in antisemitism, amplified by the convergence of far-left and far-right activism and the weaponization of memes. This will challenge platforms to counteract harmful content while maintaining a free and open internet.

Looking Ahead to 2025

As 2025 begins, we remain committed to working alongside platforms to address these emerging risks, innovate solutions, and create a safer, more secure internet for everyone. We’re excited to continue our work together, building on the progress we’ve made so far.

Here’s to a year of growth, innovation, and shared success. We’re excited for what the future holds and look forward to tackling these challenges with you all in 2025.