John Buckley
Child Safety Professional
Child Safety Professional
John Buckley is a leading expert in child safety with over 13 years of dedicated experience protecting children online and offline. He's passionate about how children's rights and child safety can be built into digital products that children use and where children are represented. He may be able to help you with your organisation's child rights and safety needs.
Key Roles
Throughout his career, John Buckley has held pivotal roles in child safety across prominent organisations. He has most recently held the role of Head of Child Safety Policy at Google. Previously, he held key management positions at Meta, including Child Safety, Investigations and Intelligence Manager and Child Safety, Programs and Partnerships Manager, where he managed teams, developed strategies, and fostered partnerships. Prior to Meta, at YouTube, he was the Child Safety Policy Enforcement Manager, leading policy development and crisis response. His experience also includes serving as Deputy Director at SpunOut.ie and as National Volunteer Coordinator/Childline at ISPCC, demonstrating a comprehensive understanding of child safety from NGO and direct support perspectives. John has also held a board seat at the Technology Coalition, as well as leading multiple working groups for the TC.
Key Skills
John Buckley possesses a comprehensive array of skills crucial for child safety, including child protection/safeguarding, crisis response and escalation management policy development, prevention strategy, intel collection and analysis, scaled operations implementation, people management of T+S professionals and child abuse case investigation. He is highly proficient in partnership building, crisis response, project management, and technical partner management. His abilities also extend to victim need response, safety product development, people development, public speaking, analysis, and strategy development, making him a versatile and effective leader in the field.
Achievements
John Buckley's achievements underscore his significant impact on child safety, notably;
Leading the development of child sexual abuse policies and protection programming for Google’s generative AI models.
He has delivered keynote presentations on best practices in Gen AI child safety at international events (2024 Crimes Against Children Conference, 2023 TSPA EMEA Conference) and for governments (U.S, EU and UK).
He played a key role in developing Thorn's Safety by Design Principles for genAI and chaired the Technology Coalition's Gen AI Working Group in 2023.
Development of effective search deterrence and prevention interventions for CSAM seekers at Meta and Google.
Planned and executed Ireland's first child sexual abuse prevention conference as an adviser to the Lucy Faithful Foundation.
Supported the launch of YouTube Kids to > 10 countries in the EU.
Aided industry understanding of people who use social media to share CSAM.
Coordinated a "yes" vote in the consistuational referrendum in Ireland on children's rights.
Developed and delivered health and safety campaigns to young people across Ireland and Europe
Director and Head of Children Rights and Safety, the LEGO Group
Head of Child Safety Policy, Google
Child Safety Investigations and Intel Manager + Programs and Partnerships Manager, Meta
Child Safety, YouTube Kids and Live Stream Policy Enforcement Manager (lead), YouTube
Child Safety Investigator + Safety Operations Specialist, Facebook/ Instagram
Deputy Director, Spunout.ie
National Volunteer Coordinator/ Childline and Leanbh Support Worker, ISPCC
"John Buckley is a smart and committed trust and safety leader who excels at building partnerships and drawing together tech, research, and community expertise to develop more effective, evidence-based policies and practices. I have always appreciated and benefited from my opportunities to collaborate with John, and look forward to future opportunities."
Michael Seto, PhD, University of Ottawa and author of "Online Sexual Offending: Theory, Practice, and Policy"
"John has a rare blend of deep academic rigour in child safety with a pragmatic, results-oriented approach to policy and product development. He's my first call for help finding an evidence-based solution when I'm navigating a tricky problem space"
Melissa Benjamin, Product Lead, Child Safety & NCII Protections @ Google
“I have worked with John on two major projects. He has a deep knowledge of the problem of online child sexual exploitation, gained on the front line as a professional tasked with preventing such abuse on major online platforms. John is committed to evidence-based strategies and recognises the value of collaboration between researchers and the Internet industry.”
Richard Wortley AM, Emeritus Professor of Security & Crime Science, University College London
"John brings unparalleled expertise in abuse deterrence, prevention, and emerging threat identification. He has helped push industry to adopt novel and research-backed solutions to child safety, while ensuring his recommendations are immediately actionable, viable to implement, and designed to scale effectively for tech companies big and small. John's work has unlocked new potential for an internet that prioritises child safety and agency."
Melissa Stroebel, Vice President of Research & Insights · Thorn
"John demonstrates a steadfast commitment to child safety, which drives his dedication to building collaborative partnerships with others in related fields who share the same mission. He is consistently accessible, engaged, and thoughtful in his approach, making him a valuable partner to work with."
Ainslie Heasman, Ph.D., C.Psych, President, Association for the Treatment & Prevention of Sexual Abuse (ATSA)
"I had the privilege of managing John during his time on Meta's Programs and Partnerships team, where he focused primarily on Child Safety strategy and programs. From the outset, he brought a rare combination of strategic thinking, deep subject matter expertise, and genuine care for the safety and well-being of vulnerable users. He consistently demonstrated respect and inclusivity, quickly building trust with teammates, cross-functional partners, and external stakeholders. With high integrity, a proven ability to navigate complex and sensitive issues, and a collaborative approach, I’d recommend John to any company looking to strengthen their strategic Child Safety initiatives."
Maggie Cook Kerr, Former Colleague at Meta; Trust and Safety Practitioner
"John Buckley is one of those exceptional professionals who consistently shows up with both excellence and empathy. He is a trusted voice in the child safety ecosystem, and has more than earned that trust. Whether it's prevention, emerging threats, or the daily labour of online safety, John has proved his leadership across the board. Any team he is a part of is lucky to have him!"
Dr. Rebecca Portnoff, Vice President - Data Science, Thorn
The Lucy Faithfull Foundation has worked with John over many years, starting when John was at Facebook and more recently whilst at Google. We are a child protection charity that works to prevent child sexual abuse, and this includes working with people who pose a risk of harm to children and diverting them from causing harm. This is not always an easy message to land with tech companies but John understands the need to do this in order to protect children and has been a great supporter of our work. John was instrumental in the implementation of a deterrence warning for child sexual abuse at Facebook and more recently in the updated CSAM Onebox at Google, the early signs from which show that it is successful in driving more people to seek help to stop. John has also been a fantastic advocate for our work amongst the wider industry and this has directly contributed to us building new partnerships. On a personal level, John has been brilliant to work with and has been very generous with his time in giving counsel. I genuinely hope that there will be many more opportunities to work with John again."
Frances Frost, Director of Advocacy and Communications, Lucy Faithfull Foundation
Research Contributions
"Understanding the intentions of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) sharers" (2021) - Meta (co author)
"Safety by Design for Generative AI: Preventing Child Sexual Abuse" (2024) - Thorn/All Tech is Human (contributor)
"Responsible AI and Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Online; Progress Update" (2025) - Google (co author)
Peer Reviews/Paper Contributions
Insoll, T., Ovaska, A. K., Nurmi, J., Aaltonen, M., & Vaaranen-Valkonen, N. (2022). Risk Factors for Child Sexual Abuse Material Users Contacting Children Online: Results of an Anonymous Multilingual Survey on the Dark Web. Journal of Online Trust and Safety, 1(2). https://doi.org/10.54501/jots.v1i2.29 (peer reviewer)
Gane, G., Watters, P., Wortley, R., & Prichard, J. (2024). Blurring the lines: the vague boundary between mainstream and deviant internet pornography tags for at-risk viewers. Journal of Sexual Aggression, 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/13552600.2024.2410352 (expert rater)
Smith, Sarah (2024). Chatbots and warning messages: innovations in the fight against online child sexual abuse https://www.lucyfaithfull.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Faithfull_Paper_Chatbots-1.pdf (peer reviwer)
Media
Pédocriminels, la traque (2025) - Arte
Event Write Ups
Stop It Now! Ireland Conference: A pivotal moment in the fight against child sexual abuse in Ireland (2023)
Tech Coalition Hosts EU Briefing and Announces Research on Generative AI (2024)
Recap: 2024 Tech Coalition Safe Online Research Fund Convening
Podcasts
Coming soon
Other Contributions
Trust & Safety Professional Association meet and greet in Dublin for Child Safety professionals
Tech Coalition Board Member (2025)
Tech Coalition Member Working Group Chair; GenAI and Innovation Working Groups
Building online child safety programming requires expertise, care and experience. John can help individuals and teams with;
Child Safety policy development, audit, and review
CSAM search prevention best practice consultations
Expert consultation on digital child sexual abuse and exploitation
Expert consultation on the intersection of genAI and child sexual abuse
Individual and manager support for working on CSAE
Child Safety events (speaker/content curation)
Lots more...just get in touch