Before presenting the first award of the night, "The Ranch" star Ashton Kutcher walked the red carpet in Dolce & Gabbana. 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. Armed with this data, we worked with our technology partners and law enforcement to understand how these existing digital footprints could assist law enforcement in faster victim identification. $15/mo. The Amazon Rekognition team has been very responsive in helping us address any challenges we encounter.". "When I asked if Spotlight was available to law enforcement in other countries, Kelbi said no, not yet, "But were constantly evaluating the landscape to understand where it can have impact internationally as well.". <> FOLLOW MORE IBT NEWS ON THE BELOW CHANNELS, IBT Fast Start - Let the best of International News come to you. Top 5 IRS CI Enforcement Priorities. Research programs to better understand the role of technology in child sex trafficking. With only a 25% response rate, were confident these numbers represent the low end of our impact. When we surveyed underage sex trafficking victims, 3 out of 4 who entered the life in the past decade said they had been advertised online at some point in their trafficking situation. This project was supported by Grant No. The rise of the internet has done for child sexual abusers the exact same thing it has done for everyone else - made it easier to share images, and build a community. The organization's co-leader identifies as: Already have a GuideStar Account? Most locations in the United States are updated every six hours. endobj Empowering law enforcement to collaborate beyond jurisdictions or national borders is a key to success in identifying victims who are moved frequently, or are broadcast through peer-to-peer platforms (P2P) on the dark web from a hidden location. Please continue to fund this very important resource; it saves lives. You can have your biggest impact in the community where you live thats where you know the most about the environment, the opportunities, the dangers. 2016-MU-BX-K005 awarded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance. The organization collaborates with law enforcement agencies, tech companies, and nonprofits. 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). Spotlight, a tool developed by Thorn, is a web-based platform that assists law enforcement in identifying sex trafficking victims faster. Learn more about Spotlight. GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader The Law Enforcement Family. Somewhere in that pile of data are children who are bought and sold online for sex. Please check your inbox in order to proceed. Spotlight is a robust search tool that uses machine learning to help law enforcement identify victims of trafficking online. Similarly, The Tote Project, sells their bags, which helps them pay expenses. We are dedicated to ending child sex trafficking and eliminating child sexual abuse from the internet, and we wont stop until every child can simply be a kid. Spotlight is a web tool used by law enforcement agencies to more efficiently search the internet for victim and trafficker information. Expanded partnerships with law enforcement. Thorn also works to speed the identification of children featured in sexually abusive material. Output - describing our activities and reach. Copyright IBTimes 2023. The software, called Spotlight, is now used across all 50 states by more than 4,000 law enforcement officers, according to Thorns website. 2 0 obj Need the ability to download nonprofit data and more advanced search options? Moreover, users wanted to learn from a law enforcement investigator currently using our tool - so we made sure to co-teach with a superuser. Get free shipping on all Thorne products, connect with health professionals and clients, and read Take 5 Daily to get the latest news in the health and technology industry. Email or Username. Powered by 3.0 GHz Intel Xeon Scalable processors, Amazon EC2 C5 instances offer a memory-to-vCPU ratio that is ideal for demanding inference applications. Thorn is a team of issue experts, business leaders, and engineers who build technology to defend children from sexual abuse. We do all of this so every child can be safe, curious, and happy. Officers, directors, trustees, and key employees. It is the Google Search for combating human sex trafficking. endobj The app does this on a serverless Amazon Web Services (AWS) architecture that includes Amazon Rekognition, a deep learningbased image and video analysis service, and Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) C5 instances. Julie was raised in Lindsay, California, a small farming community in Californias Central Valley. Candid has made improvements to the race and ethnicity options. What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, On AWS, we can also respond to feature requests from officers in weeks or daysnot a level of responsiveness public-sector agencies are used to seeing. Hear more from investigators using Spotlight on the front lines. 11 0 obj ", In addition to the task of staying technologically relevant, Thorn faces another significant challenge: fundraising. Lucas Moore is a writer in Los Angeles. Forgot your username or password? I was given the goal of on-boarding 250 users in the next six months. Our tool Spotlight accelerates law enforcements ability to identify victims of child sex trafficking. 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. <> With over 150,000 ads posted online every day, we know that law enforcement doesnt have enough time to navigate the online commercial sex market to find children and identify their traffickers. Sign in. Spotlight is invaluable as a tool/resource. Registration is open for Dressember 2018 and fundraising has already started! Law enforcement doesnt have enough time to navigate the online commercial sex market to find children and identify their traffickers. According to our most recent survey, it is helping find more human trafficking victims, faster. On Wednesday, Kutcher testified before a Senate Foreign Relations Committee along with the CEO and President of the organization Human Rights First, Elisa Massimino, to ask the United States Government for help fighting trafficking and sexual exploitation. All rights reserved. Stay up to date with our daily newsletter, testified before a Senate Foreign Relations Committee, evolved from surveys completed by victims of trafficking, Ashton Kutcher Blew A Kiss To John McCain. Equipped more than 8,500 law enforcement officers across 2,000 law enforcement agencies in 35 countries with its tools, Tools speed investigation time by up to 65 percent, 2022 Skoll Foundation. To help investigators overcome these and other hurdles, Thorn collaborated with AWS and Digital Reasoning, a company specializing in cognitive-computing solutions, to build Spotlight. And its working. He also noted that Spotlight is reducing investigation times by 60 percent. Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? stream 4 0 obj 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. Our work has three pillars and one guiding vision. With the approval of the Thorn CEO, I led the design of a Spotlight product website and managed our vendors, Media Cause and Digital Reasoning - who were in charge of graphic design and engineering development. Other Amount: Donate now Yes, accountability matters. endobj SOURCE: Self-reported; last updated 6/9/2021. Thorn was founded in 2012 to build technology to defend children from sexual abuse. For this phase of the project, I used the data I already gathered from Spotlight users to create a journey for those seeking to learn more about Spotlight, request a demo, request access, and to log in. Thanks to Spotlight I have returned victims to their families and put bad guys where they belong. The internet has made it easier for children to be bought and sold online. $10/mo. Helped officers identify over 10,000 child victims of sexual trafficking and children whose abuse was recorded and distributed. GuideStar partnered on this section with CHANGE Philanthropy and Equity in the Center. There are many things you can do right now to get started in your community to support local survivor organizations.". Thorn Helps Law Enforcement Identify Child Sex-Trafficking Victims Faster on AWS. Kutchers company Thorn developed software to combat this challenge. % Have you recently published a useful resource? This organization is required to file an IRS Form 990 or 990-EZ. to get more GuideStar Nonprofit Profile data today! Initially, they had about 100 users from three U.S. states who were using Spotlight for their human-trafficking investigations. Use of THOR is periodically audited for compliance with these Rules. Spotlight could never have been so successful without substantial investment and support from AWS, or the underlying technologies that Intel has created.. We choose to use it for good. Spotlight's machine-learning models are trained and run on Amazon EC2 C5 instances. Our tools are currently used by over 8,000 law enforcement officers in 37 countries, resulting in the identification of 10,000+ child sex trafficking victims and 847+ victims of child sexual abuse material. With only a 25% average response rate, were confident these numbers represent the low end of our impact. The solution uses Amazon Simple Notification Service (Amazon SNS) to send alerts to law enforcement agents. The Tennessee Fusion Center may share information contained within THOR with other law . Sign In. Password. Our programs and products find child abuse victims faster, make online environments safer, and deter criminal behavior. Building is a core value that informs every strategy in our organization. Spotlight, on the other hand, is a complex piece of software that doesn't have any sales to help fund its production. Powered by 3.0 GHz Intel Xeon Scalable processors, Amazon EC2 C5 instances offer a memory-to-vCPU ratio that is ideal for demanding inference applications. Share it with us and well add it to the database! Through my competitive analysis, I identified two major competing products, Traffic Jam and Rescue Forensics. How does this organization measure their results? Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Thorn is a registered 501(c)(3) organizationEIN: 27-0943677, 2023 Thorn. We recently asked human trafficking investigators and prosecutors how Spotlight has impacted their investigations within the last 12 months here are a few highlights: It is the Google Search for combating human sex trafficking. This process was relatively ad hoc, however, with no identified workflow to drive rapid acquisition and adoption. Potts adds, "We built Spotlight because we wanted to use advanced technology to help law enforcement turn the tables and find these children faster.". Amazon Rekognition, which uses deep learning to accurately identify objects, people, activities, and events in images and videos stored in Amazon S3, is at the heart of one of Spotlights most crucial capabilities. An improved product and UX journey delivers a seamless onboarding and training process for our users and admin staff, Streamlining the onboarding process for law enforcement, Designing a user experience for human trafficking investigators to help them solve cases faster than ever. One aspect of law enforcement often discussed during an in-briefing or at a recruiting event is the idea that by joining the organization, you are being accepted into that agency's "family.". Spotlight's machine-learning models analyze new escort ads in real time and use intelligent image analysis and natural-language processing (NLP) to flag those that match risk profiles developed in cooperation with law enforcement agencies. This website is funded through a grant from the Bureau of Justice Assistance, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. Matt Damon wants clean water for all, Shailene Woodley was arrested protesting the Dakota Access pipeline, and Ashton Kutcher is the co-founder of a tech company fighting human trafficking and sexual exploitation. Nokia's New G22 Phone Allows You To Repair Broken Parts Yourself; A Knack For Storytelling: Should AI Take Over What Makes Us Human? This combination of streamlining workflows and increasing successful victim identification is what has propelled Spotlight to its large user base. Click on the link in that email Empowering law enforcement to collaborate beyond jurisdictions or national borders, is a key to success in identifying victims who are moved frequently, or are broadcast in P2P onthe dark web from a hidden location. and who do the programs serve? Its a neuralnet, it gets smarter over time, it gets better and it gets more efficient as people use it. We piloted our workshop at the 2015 Atlanta ICAC Conference and received additional feedback on how to improve Spotlight Lab. Click here to resend it.). Earlier in her career she worked for Motorolas mobile phone division and helped launch HELIO, a mobile virtual network operator. There is a small group of people abusing our children, and we are a large community standing in strong opposition. Hear more from investigators using Spotlight on the front lines. Additionally, many new supervisors inevitably will speak with and encourage employees to ensure they take care of their . 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? Copyright 2023 IBTimes LLC. We hate spam too, unless it's on a sandwich with some eggs. With the approval of the Thorn CEO, I led the design of a Spotlight product website and managed our vendors, Media Cause and Digital Reasoning - who were in charge of graphic design and engineering development. 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. However, the following six districts Register. The National Policing Institute, formerly known as the National Police Foundation, is an independent non-profit, non-partisan institution based in Arlington, Virginia that has been dedicated to advancing policing through innovation and science for over half a century, and works to translate those findings to practice through technical assistance, training, and dissemination. ", 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. The software makes tracking down traffickers easier and faster for law enforcement, which can cut down on the amount of time it takes to find victims. Thorn Helps Law Enforcement Identify Child Sex-Trafficking Victims Faster on AWS Answering the Challenge Using AWS Leadership Spotlight: A System Focus. There are over 150,000 escort ads posted daily, and Spotlight takes this massive amount of data and turns it into an asset for law enforcement. "Spotlight was designed based on insights from our first survivor survey. Based on IRS CI's FY 2021 Annual Report, here are five top enforcement priorities that are likely to carry over into 2022: 1. To request technical assistance, training, or other resources through this initiative, agency POCs shouldemail usor call 202-833-1460. We can use this tool to gather intelligence and plot trends prior to conducting an operation, during the operation we can allocate resources effectively and tighten our investigative vision to have the greatest immediate impact, and following this operation we can couple Spotlight with information gathered in interviews to develop a more complete picture of the scope of Human Trafficking in our area.. "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 . <> So much so that we launched Spotlight nationwide in October 2014. Officer Wellness Spotlight: Police Chaplains - An Integral Part of Law Enforcement. The success of Spotlight would not be possible without the countless hours that investigators spend looking for our kids; the technology partners who influenced and encouraged its development and our donors. Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? In Wednesdays hearing Kutcher discussed the wide use of the dark web by traffickers, and the difficulties law enforcement officials face in navigating the expanse of content. 1 0 obj The objective of Spotlight is to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of domestic sex trafficking investigations and increase the number of children who are identified and connected with help resources. Dont see a resource that you know exists? Sign up and stay up to date with our daily newsletter. Spotlight is used by more than 6,000 law enforcement officers in all 50 This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. The organization collaborates with law enforcement agencies, tech companies, and nonprofits. Numbers are to date since the launch of our tool in 2014. 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 Julie holds a B.A. Sign in or create a new account. Leadership Spotlight: Leading with the Pen - The Handwritten Note. 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. All rights reserved. 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. Be a part of the impact for our local and global partners by creating your campaign page today! We are only one player in a critical ecosystem working on behalf of our children. Activation of the tech industry helps eliminate abuse content from their platforms. Spotlight is a web-based application that helps law enforcement prioritize leads in their sex trafficking investigations. A 2012 Thorn survey of child sex-trafficking survivors found that 75 percent had been sold online, most of them through escort websites. $180/yr. We believe that technology is a tool, one we can use for incredible good. This tool will allow us to conduct faster, more precise investigations that will remove criminals from the street and, most importantly, recover victims. Law enforcement doesnt have enough time to navigate the online commercial sex market to find children and identify their traffickers. We'll keep it out of your inbox, promise. $25/mo. My background in law enforcement and anti-human trafficking was well suited for the needs of Spotlight when I first joined the team. From there, I created an information architecture for the content on the website, put together a website design inspiration board, sketched wireframes by hand and through an online tool - and then wrote the content itself. We found that sixty-three percent of underage sex trafficking victims reported they had been bought or sold online. country every day, law enforcement cannot manually keep up with the volume of ads as they work to identify and track potential victims. Value that informs every strategy in our organization online commercial sex market to children. Issue experts, business leaders, and key employees Integral Part of enforcement!, U.S. Department of Justice Assistance, Office of Justice Assistance, training, or other resources this! 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