Half of our 26 person staff are engineers and product managers focused on technology innovation and deployment. endobj
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. The Amazon Rekognition team has been very responsive in helping us address any challenges we encounter.". Spotlight, which is offered free of charge to law enforcement and allied organizations, uses Amazon Cognito to provide a secure user directory that can scale to millions of users. Spotlight, a tool developed by Thorn, is a web-based platform that assists law enforcement in identifying sex trafficking victims faster. Spotlight does investigative work in minutes that can take hours sometimes to collect. $120 $180 $300 Other Other. Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Initially, they had about 100 users from three U.S. states who were using Spotlight for their human-trafficking investigations. 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. Our work has three pillars and one guiding vision. Learn More To find children faster, they have created two online tools, Spotlight and Solis, for law enforcement agencies across the world, for free. A verification email has been sent to you. Access is available for free to law enforcement agencies and can be requested at: htspotlight.com. One of the most significant obstacles is the massive volume of these ads. There are many things you can do right now to get started in your community to support local survivor organizations.". Washington D.C. tax attorney Kevin E. Thorn, Managing Partner of Thorn Law Group, explains. endstream
The software, called Spotlight, is now used across all 50 states by more than 4,000 law enforcement officers, according to Thorns website. Sign in or create an account to view Form(s) 990 for 2020, 2019 and 2018. Registration is open for Dressember 2018 and fundraising has already started! I was given the goal of on-boarding 250 users in the next six months. Research programs to better understand the role of technology in child sex trafficking. THOR Usernames and Passwords must be maintained as confidential by the User and may not be shared. BACKGROUND Spotlight is a robust search tool that uses machine learning to help law enforcement identify victims of trafficking online. Output - describing our activities and reach. endstream
Thanks to Spotlight I have returned victims to their families and put bad guys where they belong. Key results from our multi-channel strategy led to 19x the projected customer acquisition goal from all 50 states, by the end of 2015 (easily surpassing the initial goal of 250 users in six months). Connecticut Institute for Refugees and Immigrants (CIRI) founded in 1918, is a statewide nonprofit human services agency that addresses the need to provide new immigrants and refugees in Connecticut with services to help them become self-sufficient, integrated and contributing members of the community. Leadership Spotlight: A System Focus. Trafficking in human beings: protect women and children and focus on sexual exploitation, Desperate for Cash, Afghans Toil in Mines That Are Deadlier Than Ever, Forced to Beg: Tanzanias Trafficked Kids. Identifying the best product and UX design to onboard users, so that Spotlight could become the leading machine learning tool for human trafficking investigators. 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. 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. Leadership Spotlight: Leading Through Tragedy. <>
Used by law enforcement in all 50 states and Canada, Spotlight has assisted in over 25,000 cases in 2019 alone and has helped to identify nearly 5,500 child sex trafficking victims and nearly 6,500 child sex traffickers. Other Amount: Donate now Yes, accountability matters. Thorn runs the countrys most extensive online deterrence program, communicating directly with people searching for CSAM, disrupting their sense of anonymity and encouraging them to seek help. Candid has made improvements to the race and ethnicity options. Our web-based tool is now used by over 5,000 officers in all 50 states and Canada. ", Spotlight was made to combat a difficult problem, and the data Spotlight handles is unsettling to say the least. We are only one player in a critical ecosystem working on behalf of our children. This combination of streamlining workflows and increasing successful victim identification is what has propelled Spotlight to continue to grow its user base. endobj
Nothing makes my job more rewarding when a victim says "thank you" and tells me about her rebuilt life. Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Be a part of the impact for our local and global partners by creating your campaign page today! Problems of scale like this cry out for automated processes, but another big obstacle is the fact that escort ad data is anything but consistent: traffickers use code words, slang, and reused content to complicate detection by machines. 1 0 obj
Thorn has created a program called Spotlight. <>
", 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. Education and engagement with the public change risky and abusive behaviors. Before presenting the first award of the night, "The Ranch" star Ashton Kutcher walked the red carpet in Dolce & Gabbana. To design the curriculum for Spotlight Lab, I conducted preliminary research. 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. Earlier in her career she worked for Motorolas mobile phone division and helped launch HELIO, a mobile virtual network operator. Spotlight is the #1 investigative tool I have utilized to find child victims and arrest their traffickers in countless cases. Initially, they had about 100 users from three U.S. states who were using Spotlight for their human-trafficking investigations. I was part of the team that was responsible for designing the UX/UI and rolling out the product Nationwide, along with our partners -Digital Reasoning- whose machine learning technology, Spotlight was built on. 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. stream
To date, Spotlight has helped officers reduce investigative time by up to 65% and has helped identify 18,119 trafficking victims (including 5,791 children) and 6,553 traffickers. Thorn is a registered 501(c)(3) organizationEIN: 27-0943677, 2023 Thorn. "With the flexibility and easy integration of AWS, we can experiment and prototype new products like Spotlight that would otherwise be cost-prohibitive to develop. And its working. He also noted that Spotlight is reducing investigation times by 60 percent. After the sting operation, we sat down with FVTC and the DOJ to put together the curriculum for Spotlight Lab. Spotlight has been used in 21,044 cases identifying 12,328 adults, 5,791 children, and 6,553 traffickers in the past two years. As Thorn started work on a tool that could help investigators identify children being exploited, more than 150,000 new escort ads were being posted online every day in the United States. Click on the link in that email I started by conducting a competitive and stakeholder analysis to help with the overall discovery of where we were with our current process. Our programs and products find child abuse victims faster, make online environments safer, and deter criminal behavior. <>
Our tools take massive amounts of data and turns it into an asset for law enforcement. 4 0 obj
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A virtual team based in the U.S., Thorn employs 25 people. 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. The organization collaborates with law enforcement agencies, tech companies, and nonprofits. 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. This process was relatively ad hoc, however, with no identified workflow to drive rapid acquisition and adoption. Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Both products had been around longer than Spotlight and had a few hundred more users than us at the time. We couldnt recommend it more taking time away from what is hard helps us all sustain our efforts to achieve our goals. 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. Register. HTS creates a blog, publishes research, and hosts a global resource database on human trafficking and modern-day slavery. With only a 25% response rate, were confident these numbers represent the low end of our impact. 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. Julie was raised in Lindsay, California, a small farming community in Californias Central Valley. Sign In. All of our technology partners are making crucial contributions to this fight. Journey map of users navigating htspotlight.com. Kutcher elaborate on the software during the hearing, Its a tool that can be used by law enforcement to prioritize their caseload. FOLLOW MORE IBT NEWS ON THE BELOW CHANNELS, IBT Fast Start - Let the best of International News come to you. My background in law enforcement and anti-human trafficking was well suited for the needs of Spotlight when I first joined the team. Vietnam. Our product Safer is the first holistic solution for tech companies to detect, remove, and report child sexual abuse material at scale. It is the greatest tool we have in the fight against human trafficking., Special Agent, Wisconsin Human Trafficking Task Force. She shared, "Maintaining any technology product is always challenging because technology is constantly changing. 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. Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Throughout this process, I worked collaboratively with Media Cause and Digital Reasoning to set timelines and execute. Use of THOR is periodically audited for compliance with these Rules. Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues. Spotlight is a robust search tool that uses machine learning to help law enforcement identify victims of trafficking online. 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. An infographic detailing the reach that Spotlight has gained, since its national roll-out in February 2015. Register now. Our team continues to monitor new and emerging trends that will help make sure our tool remains relevant for investigators to do their jobs efficiently and ultimately help the kids we serve. 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. Spotlight was designed for law enforcement and prosecutors who investigate human trafficking networks so that victims can be identified and connected to services. 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. <>
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According to our most recent survey, it is helping find more human trafficking victims, faster. I started by conducting a competitive and stakeholder analysis to help with the overall discovery of where we were with our current process. Hopeful that investigators could use technology to identify victims more quickly, we tested an early version of a potential tool among key agencies with promising results. Thorn was founded in 2012 by Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore to combat online child abuse. How does this organization measure their results? How can law enforcement sift through massive amounts of data to focus their time on the most vulnerable victims? Moreover, users wanted to learn from a law enforcement investigator currently using our tool - so we made sure to co-teach with a superuser. Help us get you more of the nonprofit information you need, including: An email has been sent to the address you provided. 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. Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? $180/yr. %
The Tennessee Fusion Center may share information contained within THOR with other law . We piloted our workshop at the 2015 Atlanta ICAC Conference and received additional feedback on how to improve Spotlight Lab. Kutchers company Thorn developed software to combat this challenge. Spotlight's machine-learning models are trained and run on Amazon EC2 C5 instances. $10/mo. Per Kristin, "The genesis of Spotlight started after we conducted a sex trafficking Survivor Survey in 2012, seeking to learn directly from victims how technology was used throughout their trafficking situation. More From Thorn About the Spotlight Technology. 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. 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. about GuideStar Pro. What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick. These recent survey results confirm our initial hypothesis that Spotlight has indeed been an asset for law enforcement in earlier victim identification, collaboration and productivity. Commit to wearing a dress or tie every day in December. Based on IRS CI's FY 2021 Annual Report, here are five top enforcement priorities that are likely to carry over into 2022: 1. It is the Google Search for combating human sex trafficking. 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. Nokia's New G22 Phone Allows You To Repair Broken Parts Yourself; A Knack For Storytelling: Should AI Take Over What Makes Us Human? 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 . Spotlight could never have been so successful without substantial investment and support from AWS, or the underlying technologies that Intel has created.. Build relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Thorn Helps Law Enforcement Identify Child Sex-Trafficking Victims Faster on AWS. With just over 20% of users reporting, we are confident these numbers represent the low end of our impact. I agree to the terms of use, privacy policy and agree to receive promotional emails, reminders and updates from Thorn We have resource guides for researchers across the globe on all forms of trafficking for various stakeholders. Password. 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. Facial analysis in Amazon Rekognition helps investigators find photos of the same person that have been edited to defeat less intelligent image-search engines. 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. 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. 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