Our team built and launched Spotlight in 2014 to improve investigator workflow to find child victims faster. Help us get you more of the nonprofit information you need, including: An email has been sent to the address you provided. Easy communication at scale, disposable "burner" phones, and simple photo-editing tools these are just some of the ways the digital, connected world was helping traffickers operate anonymously, one step ahead of the lawespecially those who traffic children for sex online. To build the world we believe in, we know we must: 1) Accelerate Victim Identification 2) Make Digital Environments Safer and 3) Deter Predatory Behavior. Eventually, I reached out to them, and we agreed to partner and co-teach a Spotlight Lab workshop at major conferences across the Nation to drive awareness and adoption. Spotlight helps officers identify child sex-trafficking ads much faster than the old paper-and-pencil methods., Brooke Istook, Director of Strategy and Operations, Thorn. Earlier in her career she worked for Motorolas mobile phone division and helped launch HELIO, a mobile virtual network operator. Technology can be used to enable slavery but it can also be used to disable slavery, and thats what were doing, Kutcher said to wrap up his comments. Spotlight is the #1 investigative tool I have utilized to find child victims and arrest their traffickers in countless cases. Thank you for supporting the fight to end human trafficking! There are many things you can do right now to get started in your community to support local survivor organizations.". 10 0 obj Spotlight marketing collateral, based on what law enforcement needed to know. stream And its working. He also noted that Spotlight is reducing investigation times by 60 percent. We believe that technology is a tool, one we can use for incredible good. This project was supported by Grant No. Thorn builds technology to defend children from sexual abuse. I joined a superuser with the Louisiana State Police on a human trafficking sting operation in New Orleans, to observe how they used Spotlight in the field. The good news is, this can help investigators track down traffickers. The Bureau of Justice Assistance is a component of the Department of Justice's Office of Justice Programs, which also includes the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of Justice, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the Office for Victims of Crime, and the SMART Office. Spotlight's sophisticated machine-learning capabilities save time for overworked, under-resourced investigators by automatically flagging ads likely to represent at-risk children and keeping law enforcement agents from getting lost in a sea of online data. In the last five years, we have reached more than 2.6 million people globally through our child pornography deterrence program. Technology is a powerful tool. One of the most significant obstacles is the massive volume of these ads. <> Our web-based tool is now used by over 5,000 officers in all 50 states and Canada. 7 0 obj <> ", In addition to the task of staying technologically relevant, Thorn faces another significant challenge: fundraising. This was meant to identify areas in which we could make the tool more intuitive, to minimize obstacles to adoption. Hi-fidelity prototypes of key touch points on the Spotlight website. In addition to a powerful team of experts, we work with the sharpest minds from tech, non-profit, government, and law enforcement to stop the spread of child sexual abuse material, stand up to child traffickers, and uncover new kinds of abuse. | Photos Copyright Kay Chernush, ArtWorks for Freedom. Research programs to better understand the role of technology in child sex trafficking. Kutchers company Thorn developed software to combat this challenge. The internet has made it easier for children to be bought and sold online. After the 2015 Atlanta ICAC Conference, we quickly realized that we needed a better on-boarding process that no longer relied solely on Google Sheets to manage requests. This tool will allow us to conduct faster, more precise investigations that will remove criminals from the street and, most importantly, recover victims. We work with the sharpest minds from tech, non-profit, government and law enforcement to stop the spread of child sexual abuse material, stand up to child traffickers and uncover new kinds of abuse . GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader Reports from our users show that, with the help of Spotlight, law enforcement is identifying 9 kids per day on average and those who use Spotlight daily see over 60% in time savings. Founded in 2012, Thorn builds technology to defend children from sexual abuse. Don't recognize this agency? THOR Usernames and Passwords must be maintained as confidential by the User and may not be shared. Over the past year, reports show that we are identifying on average 8 kids per dayand that law enforcement who use Spotlight daily see a 65% time savings in their process. Additionally, many new supervisors inevitably will speak with and encourage employees to ensure they take care of their . $25/mo. Password. Thorn developed Spotlight, an app that helps law enforcement close trafficking cases much faster than by using traditional manual methods. She previously served as the VP of Marketing/Communications of (RED), where she helped establish the brand as one of the most successful cause marketing initiatives in history, delivering more than $160 million to fight HIV/AIDS across Africa. Use of THOR in a manner outside the scope of these Rules is strictly prohibited. Our tool Spotlight accelerates law enforcements ability to identify victims of child sex trafficking. How can law enforcement sift through massive amounts of data to focus their time on the most vulnerable victims? 1 0 obj I gathered additional information through phone call interviews with customers who were familiar with Spotlight and the other two products to get a sense of what features and design they liked. Both products had been around longer than Spotlight and had a few hundred more users than us at the time. Click here to resend it.). The software, called Spotlight, is now used across all 50 states by more than 4,000 law enforcement officers, according to Thorn's website. "Permitted Use" means any use of the Services by an Authorized User for the benefit of Customer solely for supporting his or her law enforcement, social services, academic or other similar professional role, including to detect criminal actions, identify missing/exploited victims, or measure statistical trends surrounding the adult services . Kelbi Ervin, Development Associate at Thorn, works with a team to develop partnerships and identify funding opportunities to sustain Thorn's work. Thorn Helps Law Enforcement Identify Child Sex-Trafficking Victims Faster on AWS Answering the Challenge Using AWS $120/yr. Journey map of users navigating htspotlight.com. A virtual team based in the U.S., Thorn employs 25 people. ", In a YouTube video describing Thorns use of technology to fight child pornography and sex trafficking, Thorn Co-founder Ashton Kutcher said, We have to stay on the front cutting edge of that technology, because the criminals, theyre on the front cutting edge., I asked Kelbi what challenges Spotlight faces in keeping at the front of the technological curve. Somewhere in that pile of data are children who are bought and sold online for sex. With just over 20% of users reporting, we are confident these numbers represent the low end of our impact. <> According to our most recent survey, it is helping find more human trafficking victims, faster. While learning the ins and outs of Spotlight, and shipping features from our product backlog, I began to focus on ways to improve our on-boarding process for increased acquisition and adoption. endobj $180/yr. Additionally, through my stakeholder analysis, I focused on Fox Valley Technical College (FVTC) - a leading law enforcement education center - and the DOJ (both of whom I know, because I currently consult for them on human trafficking). Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Register now. Kelbi writes, "We are philanthropically funded, which means that donations and grants like yours directly fund our products that we provide to law enforcement for free. endstream xKk@aZp &@z(=6M5h6N0]|V^c DY: $ I~^_az{}n{wN2r0 G$?Df'QK(s[,3o@o Ecw]\Q sIIb4`W*4)zka0Xm?adhga$P0A*+F#JExueU\|%|Q(2TW,+ h[ QFSv`eDShjJ} x|c' $wGdX308@Ng/UTf Have you recently published a useful resource? Throughout this process, I worked collaboratively with Media Cause and Digital Reasoning to set timelines and execute. Furthermore, by making sure users were engaged and properly trained, user surveys have shown that Spotlight has since been able to reduce the time it takes to investigate a human trafficking case by 43%, identified close to 2,000 children, and over 2,000 traffickers. endobj ", Spotlight was made to combat a difficult problem, and the data Spotlight handles is unsettling to say the least. Copyright Human Trafficking Search 2023. AWS support for Internet Explorer ends on 07/31/2022. Try a low commitment monthly plan today. Spotlight Data How often is the information in Spotlight refreshed? According to our most recent user survey, Spotlight is helping find more child victims of human trafficking, faster. BACKGROUND Spotlight is a robust search tool that uses machine learning to help law enforcement identify victims of trafficking online. endstream Click here to return to Amazon Web Services homepage, Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) C5 instances, Identified 18,000 victims, including over 6,000 children. A verification email has been sent to you. Spotlight is like a investigative partner in human trafficking investigations. It is the Google Search for combating human sex trafficking. Spotlight is used by more than 6,000 law enforcement officers in all 50 I agree to the terms of use, privacy policy and agree to receive promotional emails, reminders and updates from Thorn Spotlight has been used in 21,044 cases identifying 12,328 adults, 5,791 children, and 6,553 traffickers in the past two years. 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