Safe Sketch app flags abuse signs hidden in children's drawings — MAD STARS 2025 Gold

Hong Kong's child-abuse cases rose more than 50% in 2023, and after a high-profile case in which a five-year-old girl's drawing helped convict her parents, a 2024 law made it mandatory for teachers to report suspected abuse. Most teachers lack the training to recognise the signs — especially those hidden in children's drawings. Save the Children and Cheil Hong Kong built a tool to close that gap.

A free app that scans a child's drawing and, against a database of 200,000+ images, flags signs of abuse that teachers were never trained to see.

Cheil analysed a database of over 200,000 drawings to identify recurring indicators — sharp fingers or teeth, exaggerated private parts, large blank eyes, floating portraits, missing arms, tiny figures, heavy use of red, weapons. The Safe Sketch app scans a drawing for combinations of these signs, red-flags possible cases, and prompts the teacher to seek further evaluation. It was developed with child psychologists, art therapists, child welfare specialists, educators and AI experts, and championed by kindergartens across Hong Kong.

The app turned an unfunded training gap into a free, concrete screening step any teacher could take before reporting: a child can be assessed simply by drawing. It won Gold in Direct at MAD STARS 2025, a Silver at LIA 2025, and was championed by kindergartens across Hong Kong.

In 2023 Hong Kong's child-abuse cases rose by more than 50%, and a 2024 law made it mandatory for teachers to report suspected abuse. The problem: most teachers have no training in recognising the signs, particularly those hidden in the drawings that children produce every day.

Save the Children and Cheil Hong Kong built Safe Sketch, a free app that scans a child's drawing and analyses it against a database of over 200,000 images. The algorithm looks for combinations of indicators drawn from child-psychology research — sharp fingers or teeth, exaggerated private parts, large blank eyes, floating portraits, missing arms, tiny figures, heavy use of red, weapons — and red-flags drawings that may signal abuse, prompting the teacher to seek further evaluation.

The tool was developed with a multidisciplinary team of child psychologists, art therapists, child welfare specialists, educators and machine-learning experts, and was taken up by kindergartens across Hong Kong. A child can now be assessed simply by letting them draw, giving educators a concrete step between noticing and reporting.

The work was recognised across the region: Gold in Direct at MAD STARS 2025, five Bronzes and ten Crystals at the same festival, and a Silver at LIA 2025.

It met a legal duty that people could not actually perform — reporting requires recognition, and recognition was the missing skill.

The database of 200,000+ drawings gave the algorithm a training base that no individual teacher could ever accumulate.

It used a child's own creative output as the evidence source, so screening required no invasive questioning.

A free app distributed to teachers scaled the fix beyond any workshop or training programme could reach.

When a new law creates a duty people cannot perform, build them the tool: regulation changed what teachers must do, and the app changed what they could do — creativity as compliance infrastructure.

Safe Sketch launched as Hong Kong's mandatory-reporting regime took effect in 2024 and kept collecting recognition through 2025: a Gold in Direct, five Bronzes and ten Crystals at MAD STARS 2025, a Silver for digital public-service work at LIA 2025, and further honours. Cheil Hong Kong's case page frames it as an ongoing tool for educators rather than a one-off campaign, and the development team included child psychologists, art therapists and welfare specialists.