Introducing Safe for Work? — all about T&S jobs
I'm Alice Hunsberger. Trust & Safety Insider is my weekly rundown on the topics, industry trends and workplace strategies that trust and safety professionals need to know about to do their job.
This week's newsletter looks a little different as we're launching a new series all about T&S jobs. Read on for more — and drop me a line if you want to get involved. Here we go! — Alice
Twenty years in trust and safety has taught the team at Resolver that technology can scale protection, but it can't replace human understanding.
Behind every algorithm that detects harm, there’s a person who taught it what to look for. Behind every risk model, a human judgment that defined what “safe” really means.
In our fourth instalment of our “20 Years in Online Safety” series, we explore how the balance between human intelligence and machine capability has evolved — and why empathy will always be at the centre of effective safety systems.
As we look ahead, one thing is clear: the future of online safety isn't human or machine. It’s both — working together.
Inside the 2025 T&S job market
If you’ve followed the T&S industry for a while, you’ll have noticed that investment ebbs and flows more often than an AI company updating its content policy.
When I first started in T&S in 2010, no one even knew that online moderation existed as a job. A decade later, as everyone spent more time online during COVID-19, safety teams expanded rapidly to keep up with the demand.
That year, the industry’s first professional body was formed, followed swiftly by other groups, such as the Integrity Institute. We met at more events — including the inaugural TrustCon — and connected in more ways than we’d ever done previously. Each time, it felt like there were more of us working in T&S than ever before. It was amazing.
Unfortunately, that golden era wasn’t to last. From 2023 onwards, we’ve seen massive layoffs across the tech industry, affecting thousands of workers. T&S teams have, unfortunately, been hit particularly hard. To anyone job-seeking over the last few years, it’s felt bleak. That feeling hasn’t been helped by the idea that generative AI means that fewer T&S professionals are needed.