We refuse to live in a world where the technology exists to help kids but simply isn’t being used. We build powerful products, lead new programs, maintain essential resources, and develop awareness campaigns to attack the issue from all sides. We want tech companies, law enforcement, and NGOs to leverage everything we do.
Getting the best advantage into the right hands.
Our work is guided by three principles.
accelerate
victim identification
deter
abusers
disrupt
platforms
Our Products
Predators are tech-savvy. But we won’t let them win.
Spotlight
Our first product, Spotlight, was designed based on insights from our first survivor survey. It accelerates victim identification and helps law enforcement make the best use of the critical time they have to find child sex trafficking victims.
In 2016, Spotlight helped law enforcement:
Identify an average of 5 kids per day
Reduce critical search times by 60%
Find a total of 1,980 victimized kids
Project Vic
Partnership on programs like Project Vic are critical to success. This collaborative effort works to create a central repository of identified child sexual abuse images. This reduces the amount of time it takes law enforcement to analyze seized content and allows them to quickly eliminate around 85% of content and focus on the 15% that have not already been classified.
BEFREE Text Shortcode
Kids in danger might not be able to make a call, but they might be able to text. BEFREE is a text shortcode for the National Human Trafficking Hotline number developed by Thorn in partnership with the Polaris, Twilio and the Salesforce Foundation. BEFREE aims to give kids a life-line on their phones and create an outlet for those who might see suspicious behavior.
programs & resources
Here’s where we share what we’ve learned. It’s all about preventing further abuse. We offer clear insights and best practices for companies, platforms, and individuals.
Sound Practices Guide
Many small and mid-size companies do not have the resources or knowledge to implement child safety procedures and tools, making their platforms vulnerable to abusive content and behavior. We offer guidance and concrete steps to for companies of all sizes to help protect kids on their platforms, including the Industry Hash Sharing program and PhotoDNA.
Online Deterrence
With the sheer volume of illicit child abuse material online, law enforcement isn’t equipped to find and identify all the people searching for this content. The result is that people search and share with a seemingly low risk of getting caught. We work to intercept this behavior and change it – reducing the demand for abuse content overall.
Industry Hash Sharing
Most image sharing platforms independently screen for child sexual abuse images, but don’t share intelligence, resulting in the slow and inefficient removal of abusive content. Our hash-sharing program was developed to help companies share intelligence quickly and speed the identification and removal of bad content.
Campaigns
We’re getting the word out – increasing awareness and starting conversations.
stop sextortion campaign
Our latest campaign seeks to increase awareness about sextortion, destigmatize the issue, and encourage individuals to reach out for help and support their friends.