The archive · Public & Social · Product decision · 2024–2025
Safe Sketch app flags abuse signs hidden in children's drawings — MAD STARS 2025 Gold
Free app scans kids' drawings against 200K+ images to flag possible abuse for teachers — MAD STARS 2025 Gold Direct.
Save the Children · Cheil Hong Kong
What it had to solve
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.
How it works
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.
Why it lands
- 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.
What it did
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.
What you can take
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.
Since then
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.
Sources
- Safe Sketch — Save the Children
- Silver Digital Public Service/Charity/NGO — 'Safe Sketch'
- Cheil wins the Network of the Year at MAD STARS
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