The Internet has proven fertile ground for exploitation. Reported child sexual abuse content in the U.S. alone has grown seven-fold since 2011. It is violent, features younger children, and is globally networked. In the dark corners of the web, online marketplaces cultivate dedicated communities that normalize abuse, create demand for new abuse, and groom new abusers. Law enforcement lacks capacity and up-to-date tools to identify perpetrators and victims, and many of the tech companies built on user-generated content have failed to root out abuse on their platforms.
Thorn builds technology to defend children from sexual abuse. Thorn’s Spotlight tool combines publicly available classified ad and online forum data with smart algorithms to help law enforcement identify an average of eight child sex trafficking victims every day. Thorn also works to speed the identification of children featured in sexually abusive material. Thorn also leverages its growing dataset to deliver deterrence campaigns designed to reach potential consumers of abusive content.
Law enforcement in every U.S. state and in over 30 countries now use these tools, facilitating interagency and cross-border collaboration that speeds investigations. Thorn is building a future in which abusers can no longer act with impunity, where the problem of child sexual abuse is brought into the light, and the networks that support it disintegrate.