At Dressember, we release a line of dresses each year, but those products are sold. 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. 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. Moreover, users wanted to learn from a law enforcement investigator currently using our tool - so we made sure to co-teach with a superuser. %PDF-1.7 Spotlight is the #1 investigative tool I have utilized to find child victims and arrest their traffickers in countless cases. Candid has made improvements to the race and ethnicity options. After I completed this phase of research, I used the information to iterate on the workshop design, and improve the overall usability of Spotlight. With only a 25% response rate, were confident these numbers represent the low end of our impact. This organization is required to file an IRS Form 990 or 990-EZ. To request technical assistance, training, or other resources through this initiative, agency POCs shouldemail usor call 202-833-1460. Since 2016 alone, Spotlight has helped officers in the United States and Canada open more than 21,000 trafficking cases and identify about 18,000 victims, including more than 6,000 children. This project was supported by Grant No. Law enforcement doesnt have enough time to navigate the online commercial sex market to find children and identify their traffickers. 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. Sign in or create a new account. This process was relatively ad hoc, however, with no identified workflow to drive rapid acquisition and adoption. 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. 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. 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 Our web-based tool is now used by over 5,000 officers in all 50 states and Canada. 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. From what I gathered, Spotlight was by far the most intuitive and robust, providing a better user experience, despite having a ways to go itself. "Fighting human trafficking starts where you live. Helped officers identify over 10,000 child victims of sexual trafficking and children whose abuse was recorded and distributed. 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. 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. According to our most recent user survey, Spotlight is helping find more child victims of human trafficking, faster. 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. Our product Safer is the first holistic solution for tech companies to detect, remove, and report child sexual abuse material at scale. Sign In. Spotlight is a web-based application that helps law enforcement prioritize leads in their sex trafficking investigations. Spotlight marketing collateral, based on what law enforcement needed to know. Thorn was founded in 2012 to build technology to defend children from sexual abuse. Click on the link in that email Use of THOR is periodically audited for compliance with these Rules. Most locations in the United States are updated every six hours. According to our most recent survey, it is helping find more human trafficking victims, faster. endobj ", In addition to the task of staying technologically relevant, Thorn faces another significant challenge: fundraising. $120/yr. Expanded partnerships with law enforcement. From there the software developed further to better analyze and track data that can lead to building strong cases against traffickers and finding the victims. Law enforcement doesnt have enough time to navigate the online commercial sex market to find children and identify their traffickers. Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Spotlight is a web tool used by law enforcement agencies to more efficiently search the internet for victim and trafficker information. Spotlight has been used in 21,044 cases identifying 12,328 adults, 5,791 children, and 6,553 traffickers in the past two years. 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. about GuideStar Pro. Using this data the company worked with law enforcement to understand how such digital footprints could lead to the discovery of victims and their traffickers. Both products had been around longer than Spotlight and had a few hundred more users than us at the time. Thorn has created a program called Spotlight. Due to the sensitivity of the product itself, I will not be using this case study to highlight the product design or development of Spotlight, the tool. Leadership Spotlight: Leading with the Pen - The Handwritten Note. Learn More Thorn is a team of issue experts, business leaders, and engineers who build technology to defend children from sexual abuse. 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. The organization's co-leader identifies as: Already have a GuideStar Account? 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. endobj Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics, Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools, Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations, Revenue and expense data for the current fiscal year, CEO, Board Chair, and Board of Directors information, *with the ability to download the data for 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016. Here are samples of the Spotlight product website: home page, request access page, and request demo page. 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.. A virtual team based in the U.S., Thorn employs 25 people. FOLLOW MORE IBT NEWS ON THE BELOW CHANNELS, IBT Fast Start - Let the best of International News come to you. $300/yr. Founded in 2012, Thorn builds technology to defend children from sexual abuse. 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. 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. He likes Neo-noir films, running and cycling, classic American novels, small venue music shows, and burritos. $25/mo. Nothing makes my job more rewarding when a victim says "thank you" and tells me about her rebuilt life. 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). Hear more from investigators using Spotlight on the front lines. Registration is open for Dressember 2018 and fundraising has already started! Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? All Rights Reserved. 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. Earlier in her career she worked for Motorolas mobile phone division and helped launch HELIO, a mobile virtual network operator. We depend on the anti-trafficking community to keep our resource hub up to date. about GuideStar Pro. 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. Thorn developed Spotlight, an app that helps law enforcement close trafficking cases much faster than by using traditional manual methods. $10/mo. 2 0 obj $120 $180 $300 Other Other. All Rights Reserved. Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? HTS creates a blog, publishes research, and hosts a global resource database on human trafficking and modern-day slavery. We piloted our workshop at the 2015 Atlanta ICAC Conference and received additional feedback on how to improve Spotlight Lab. Copyright Human Trafficking Search 2023. All of our technology partners are making crucial contributions to this fight. ", Spotlight was made to combat a difficult problem, and the data Spotlight handles is unsettling to say the least. Leadership Spotlight: A System Focus. Spotlight's machine-learning models are trained and run on Amazon EC2 C5 instances. Use of THOR in a manner outside the scope of these Rules is strictly prohibited. 2023, Amazon Web Services, Inc. or its affiliates. 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. How can people reading this help Thorn fight against child sex trafficking? Spotlight was designed for law enforcement and prosecutors who investigate human trafficking networks so that victims can be identified and connected to services. 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. Officers, directors, trustees, and key employees. This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. "Our law enforcement partners say Spotlight helps officers identify child sex-trafficking ads much faster than the old paper-and-pencil methods," says Brooke Istook, director of strategy and operations at Thorn. Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? s#fDr$G#;3s/U@q~}NHO. You'll challenge yourself, expand your knowledge on modern slavery, and be equipped to lead your community in the fight to end human trafficking. 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. Thorn was founded in 2012 by Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore to combat online child abuse. Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress. 7 0 obj 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. stream To design the curriculum for Spotlight Lab, I conducted preliminary research. Thorn has created a program called Spotlight. Our brand NoFiltr reaches youth directly with prevention and support messaging to help them better recognize online grooming. You can view our, Meet the 2019 Skoll Awardees for Social Entrepreneurship. Hi-fidelity prototypes of key touch points on the Spotlight website. 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. My background in law enforcement and anti-human trafficking was well suited for the needs of Spotlight when I first joined the team. Julie was raised in Lindsay, California, a small farming community in Californias Central Valley. COVID-19 Fraud. We believe that technology is a tool, one we can use for incredible good. Help us get you more of the nonprofit information you need, including: An email has been sent to the address you provided. I agree to the terms of use, privacy policy and agree to receive promotional emails, reminders and updates from Thorn Learn more about Amazon EC2 C5 Instances. My background in law enforcement and anti-human trafficking was well suited for the needs of Spotlight when I first joined the team. Spotlight is a robust search tool that uses machine learning to help law enforcement identify victims of trafficking online. Spotlight is used by more than 6,000 law enforcement officers in all 50 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. Just within the last 12 months investigators reported: Officers who login weekly report a time savings of 60% in their human trafficking investigations. my.evidence.com. 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. ", Combating online child sex trafficking is a team effort, according to Istook. " We choose to use it for good. 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. Lucas Moore is a writer in Los Angeles. We are only one player in a critical ecosystem working on behalf of our children. Spotlight is a web tool used by law enforcement agencies to more efficiently search the internet for victim and trafficker information. in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section. In 2013, we published the first version of The Thorn Sound Practices Guide, which educates companies about proven practices, tools and resources that exist to identify, remove, report and prevent child sexual abuse material and abusive behavior on their platforms. Sign up and stay up to date with our daily newsletter. "Abusers had figured out how to use advanced technology to facilitate their exploitation of children," says Sarah Potts, the head of marketing and communications for Thorn, the California-based nonprofit that created Spotlight. Supported browsers are Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Safari. Leadership Spotlight: Leading Through Tragedy. We do all of this so every child can be safe, curious, and happy. A leading assumption was that users wanted to learn by doing, so we used the outcomes from the New Orleans sting operation as a hands-on case study. Spotlight, on the other hand, is a complex piece of software that doesn't have any sales to help fund its production. The good news is, this can help investigators track down traffickers. x Om7 '

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