Name: Ruth Sparkes
Company: Saferspace and Quinly
Position: Co-Founder/Founder
Website: https://www.quinly.ai
About Ruth Sparkes
I am a UK founder building safeguarding technology across workplaces and education. I started SaferSpace in 2023 with the aim of helping organisations prevent and respond to harassment, discrimination and sexual misconduct. The platform was created to address a widespread reporting gap, where many people experience harm but do not feel safe using formal routes. SaferSpace provides confidential reporting, structured case management and early stage support so organisations can identify risk patterns and act before harm escalates.
In 2025 I founded Quinly to extend this approach to children and young people aged 7 to 17. Quinly is a safeguarding focused AI support tool designed to give young people a safe and private way to ask for help. The product was built in response to growing concern about online harms including grooming, bullying, sextortion, self harm and AI generated image abuse. Quinly completed a six month pilot across six UK schools and supported over three thousand anonymised pupil conversations. The pilot showed strong use outside school hours, highlighting unmet safeguarding need in evenings and at weekends.
Building two safeguarding products has involved significant challenges. Safeguarding is a complex and high risk domain where mistakes can cause real harm. Both products had to be designed with privacy by design, safety by default and strict data protection standards. In education settings, trust from schools, parents and safeguarding leads had to be earned . In workplace settings, there is often resistance to tools that expose uncomfortable truths about culture and behaviour. Securing early partners and pilots required persistence and careful relationship building.
Another challenge has been designing AI in a responsible way. Both platforms are built to prioritise user safety over engagement. Quinly does not retain message content and does not collect personal data. SaferSpace Lite ( a tool that sits with SaferSpace) provides early stage guidance without forcing people into formal reporting before they are ready. This approach runs counter to much mainstream technology design, which often prioritises scale and engagement over safety.
The impact on industry has been practical rather than theoretical. SaferSpace has helped organisations move beyond policy and training towards real time insight into where harm is occurring. Quinly has introduced a new model for digital safeguarding support for children that complements existing pastoral and safeguarding structures. Together, these products demonstrate that AI can be used ethically in high risk contexts to reduce harm rather than amplify it.
My work focuses on closing the gap between experiencing harm and getting support. In both workplaces and schools, most incidents never reach formal reporting routes. By building early stage, confidential support tools that people trust, I aim to help organisations prevent harm earlier and build safer cultures over time.
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