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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: (i) Safety by Design & Provenance, (ii) Threat Detection & Analysis, and (iii) Response & 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.
List of contents
1.
Developing Human Resiliency to Cyber Misinformation through Critical Thinking2.
Improving content integrity via Provenance by Design - an overview of current and emerging approaches3.
The Dual Personas of Social Media Bots4.
Jailbreaking LLMs: Vulnerabilities, Defences, and Societal Implications5.
A practical and empirical approach to safety testing for LLM-powered apps6.
Factuality of Large Language Models: An Adversarial Perspective7.
Stamping out Child Sexual Abuse Materials: Ground Support for Victims and Industry Responses8.
Promoting Online Safety: Policy Toolkit for Mitigating Digital Threats9.
Mitigating Harm, Defending Integrity: The Social Media Disinformation Landscape in the Philippines10.
Online Harm Prevention on the Frontline11.
Information Verification Behaviour of Singaporeans in Early vs Late-pandemic Stages12.
The Use of Narratives in Cyber-safety Education of Children and Adolescents13.
News-finds-me Perception and Its Roles in Online Trust and Safety14.
Navigating Trust in the Digital Age: Addressing Technology-Facilitated Sexual Violence15.
The Psychology of Avatars: Unveiling the Hidden Risks in Virtual Playgrounds16.
Rethinking Counternarratives: Towards Preventing Online Radicalization in Southeast Asia17.
The Unexplored Role of Dramaturgy in Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) Online
About the author
Ian McLoughlin is a Professor in Singapore Institute of Technology. His research work is in novel AI techniques for deployment in speech & 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 Deputy Head and Associate Professor (Practice) at 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, Cheng Tsang Man Early Career Chair Professor, and Associate Head (Research) of the Information Systems Technology and Design (ISTD) Pillar at the 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 Chair and President's Chair Professor of Communication Studies at Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University (NTU). May is an expert on cyber safety, parental mediation and privacy issues regarding children's use of technology.
Razwana Begum is Head, Public Safety and Security Programme at the School of Humanities and Behavioural Sciences at the Singapore University of Social Sciences. 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 in Computer Science and is 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 & analytics.
