A 2012 Thorn survey of child sex-trafficking survivors found that 75 percent had been sold online, most of them through escort websites. The Law Enforcement Family. 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. Hear more from investigators using Spotlight on the front lines. 8 0 obj 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 is me at a conference booth, preparing to hold several usability testing sessions with human trafficking investigators. According to our most recent survey, it is helping find more human trafficking victims, faster. All rights reserved. Founded in 2012, Thorn builds technology to defend children from sexual abuse. Julie was raised in Lindsay, California, a small farming community in Californias Central Valley. 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. 6 0 obj We have resource guides for researchers across the globe on all forms of trafficking for various stakeholders. Here are samples of the Spotlight product website: home page, request access page, and request demo page. ", Spotlight was made to combat a difficult problem, and the data Spotlight handles is unsettling to say the least. 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. There are more than 150,000 escort ads posted every day in this country. 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. Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues. Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress. "Spotlight was designed based on insights from our first survivor survey. So when I came on, I got caught up to speed by reviewing that material, along with learning the product inside out by receiving, and then conducting, Spotlight demos and online trainings. Leadership Spotlight: Leading Through Tragedy. 1 0 obj By the end of my first year at Thorn, I had played a role in developing strategic partnerships with FVTC and the DOJ, designing a Spotlight Lab to effectively train potential and new users, and designing a Spotlight product website and a corresponding on-boarding process. Dont see a resource that you know exists? Sign up and stay up to date with our daily newsletter. Spotlight, on the other hand, is a complex piece of software that doesn't have any sales to help fund its production. "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. 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. Through my competitive analysis, I identified two major competing products, Traffic Jam and Rescue Forensics. Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results. 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. 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. Activation of the tech industry helps eliminate abuse content from their platforms. Be a part of the impact for our local and global partners by creating your campaign page today! Leadership Spotlight: Leading with the Pen - The Handwritten Note. Hear more from investigators using Spotlight on the front lines. 7 0 obj I agree to the terms of use, privacy policy and agree to receive promotional emails, reminders and updates from Thorn "Day to day, we strive to balance hard work with care for ourselves and each other so that we have the resiliency we need to keep fighting," Kelbi writes, "At Thorn, we are invested in a team wellness plan where we carve out time to discuss how were feeling and how were approaching our work. endobj Leadership Spotlight Compassion in Law Enforcement Compassion is characterized by a willingness to purposely assist others on an emotional level and to selflessly put the needs of others before. $25/mo. Raise your voice against slavery this December! Please check your inbox in order to proceed. The bad news is that law enforcement just doesnt have the time, energy, or manpower to efficiently pursue the information available online. You'll challenge yourself, expand your knowledge on modern slavery, and be equipped to lead your community in the fight to end human trafficking. Human Trafficking Search (HTS) seeks to raise awareness and help prevent and eliminate human trafficking worldwide. ", 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. 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. Thorn was founded in 2012 to build technology to defend children from sexual abuse. "Fighting human trafficking starts where you live. 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? BACKGROUND Spotlight is a robust search tool that uses machine learning to help law enforcement identify victims of trafficking online. 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. country every day, law enforcement cannot manually keep up with the volume of ads as they work to identify and track potential victims. Learn More What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, 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. 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. 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. Learn more about Spotlight. According to our most recent user survey, Spotlight is helping find more child victims of human trafficking, faster. 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. Learn more One of the most significant obstacles is the massive volume of these ads. 3 0 obj Spotlight is a web tool used by law enforcement agencies to more efficiently search the internet for victim and trafficker information. This combination of streamlining workflows and increasing successful victim identification is what has propelled Spotlight to its large user base. Thank you for supporting the fight to end human trafficking! endobj At Dressember, we release a line of dresses each year, but those products are sold. Our tool Spotlight accelerates law enforcements ability to identify victims of child sex trafficking. 4 0 obj Use of THOR is periodically audited for compliance with these Rules. Sign in. A verification email has been sent to you. Spotlight Data How often is the information in Spotlight refreshed? Points of view or opinions in this document are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. endobj stream Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Use of THOR in a manner outside the scope of these Rules is strictly prohibited. "We tested multiple facial-recognition services and found Amazon Rekognition was extremely accurate," says Kristin Boorse, the director of product management for Thorn. Telehealth Startup Cerebral To Cut 15% Of Staff, PlayStation's New Game To Feature Shiba Inu As 'Savior' Of 'Humanity', China Aims To Reach 'World-Leading Levels' Of Tech By 2035: CCP. x["Yn 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. <> (Don't see an email in your inbox? Initially, they had about 100 users from three U.S. states who were using Spotlight for their human-trafficking investigations. Journey map of users navigating htspotlight.com. To build the world we believe in, we know we must: 1) Accelerate Victim Identification 2) Make Digital Environments Safer and 3) Deter Predatory Behavior. Spotlight's machine-learning models are trained and run on Amazon EC2 C5 instances. Spotlight is invaluable as a tool/resource. Identifying the best product and UX design to onboard users, so that Spotlight could become the leading machine learning tool for human trafficking investigators. Monthly Yearly One time only. Copyright Human Trafficking Search 2023. I was given the goal of on-boarding 250 users in the next six months. We believe that every child has the right to be safe, to be curious, to be happy. 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. How does this organization measure their results? There are many things you can do right now to get started in your community to support local survivor organizations.". Spotlight helps officers identify child sex-trafficking ads much faster than the old paper-and-pencil methods., Brooke Istook, Director of Strategy and Operations, Thorn. 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. <> "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. Somewhere in that pile of data are children who are bought and sold online for sex. Thorn developed Spotlight, an app that helps law enforcement close trafficking cases much faster than by using traditional manual methods. Register. 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. Lucas Moore is a writer in Los Angeles. 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. Both products had been around longer than Spotlight and had a few hundred more users than us at the time. All rights reserved. Spotlight is a robust search tool that uses machine learning to help law enforcement identify victims of trafficking online. 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. How can people reading this help Thorn fight against child sex trafficking? This year, Dressember is proud to partner with Thorn, an organization that uses technology to combat child sex trafficking. 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. Its a neuralnet, it gets smarter over time, it gets better and it gets more efficient as people use it. And its working. He also noted that Spotlight is reducing investigation times by 60 percent. Help us get you more of the nonprofit information you need, including: An email has been sent to the address you provided. Sign in or create a new account. 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. Streamlining the onboarding process for law enforcement An infographic detailing the reach that Spotlight has gained, since its national roll-out in February 2015. The software, called Spotlight, is now used across all 50 states by more than 4,000 law enforcement officers, according to Thorn's website. %PDF-1.7 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. my.evidence.com. Editor's Pick Leise Hook / For Spotlight PA After the sting operation, we sat down with FVTC and the DOJ to put together the curriculum for Spotlight Lab. It is the greatest tool we have in the fight against human trafficking., Special Agent, Wisconsin Human Trafficking Task Force. and who do the programs serve? stream 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. Our work has three pillars and one guiding vision. Just within the last 12 months investigators reported: Officers who login weekly report a time savings of 60% in their human trafficking investigations. ", In addition to the task of staying technologically relevant, Thorn faces another significant challenge: fundraising. about GuideStar Pro. In addition to a powerful team of experts, 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. All Rights Reserved, thorn.org, launched Spotlight nationwide in October 2014, Spotlight assisted in the identification of 1,980 children and over 2,186 traffickers. Thorn Helps Law Enforcement Identify Child Sex-Trafficking Victims Faster on AWS. I was given the goal of on-boarding 250 users in the next six months. s#fDr$G#;3s/U@q~}NHO. endobj 11 0 obj However, the following six districts % That's where Thorn comes in. Spotlight marketing collateral, based on what law enforcement needed to know. 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 goal was to not only design a workshop that increased adoption but to build a tool that added value for current users through an intuitive user experience and user interface - which would then translate to more victims identified in a shorter amount of time. 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. 2021 Dressember | Dressember is a 501 (C)(3) | design by anne agency + marrow design, Grant Partners, Dressember2018, human trafficking, modern day slavery, child advocacy, buisnesses ending slavery and trafficking, BEST, Danyella Wilder. We believe that every child has the right to be safe, to be curious, to be happy. The internet has become a widely used place for sex traffickers to advertise. But Thorn stays positive in the midst of engaging directly with such data. COVID-19 Fraud. Spotlight is a web-based application that helps law enforcement prioritize leads in their sex trafficking investigations. 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. 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 products would not be successful without the partnership we receive from the law enforcement users in every state, at every level of government, and in 37 other countries who use our products, give us feedback, and work tirelessly to identify children. 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. Officers can set customized alerts and search Spotlights constantly growing database of ads to aid in their investigations. Hi-fidelity prototypes of key touch points on the Spotlight website. stream Spotlight does investigative work in minutes that can take hours sometimes to collect. 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.". Helped officers identify over 10,000 child victims of sexual trafficking and children whose abuse was recorded and distributed. 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. Officers, directors, trustees, and key employees. Our web-based tool is now used by over 5,000 officers in all 50 states and Canada. This combination of streamlining workflows and increasing successful victim identification is what has propelled Spotlight to continue to grow its user base. Technology is a powerful tool. 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. This project was supported by Grant No. 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. Its not uncommon for celebrities to act on a social or political issue theyre passionate about. Moreover, users wanted to learn from a law enforcement investigator currently using our tool - so we made sure to co-teach with a superuser. Spotlight has been used in 21,044 cases identifying 12,328 adults, 5,791 children, and 6,553 traffickers in the past two years. Leadership Spotlight: A System Focus. We depend on the anti-trafficking community to keep our resource hub up to date. Spotlight's sophisticated machine-learning capabilities save time for overworked, under-resourced investigators by automatically flagging ads likely to represent at-risk children and keeping law enforcement agents from getting lost in a sea of online data. Thorn is a registered 501(c)(3) organizationEIN: 27-0943677, 2023 Thorn. 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. "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. I started by conducting a competitive and stakeholder analysis to help with the overall discovery of where we were with our current process. Our brand NoFiltr reaches youth directly with prevention and support messaging to help them better recognize online grooming. A GuideStar Pro report containing the following information is available for this organization: This information is only available for subscribers and in Premium reports. I also conducted guerrilla usability testing to learn about the major pain points of the product itself. 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. <> I also created high-fidelity prototypes of key touchpoints on our site, whose content I validated through additional user feedback. This organization is required to file an IRS Form 990 or 990-EZ. "It didn't make sense to build our own facial-recognition service when AWS already offers a best-in-breed solution like Amazon Rekognition. Half of our 26 person staff are engineers and product managers focused on technology innovation and deployment. Thorn has created a program called Spotlight. 2 0 obj Click here to resend it.). 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. All of our technology partners are making crucial contributions to this fight. endstream We found that sixty-three percent of underage sex trafficking victims reported they had been bought or sold online. Register now. GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader With just over 20% of users reporting, we are confident these numbers represent the low end of our impact. 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. <> Spotlight can connect contacts in minutes where it would take me weeks, if not months to do the same thing. Officer Wellness Spotlight: Police Chaplains - An Integral Part of Law Enforcement. Spotlight could never have been so successful without substantial investment and support from AWS, or the underlying technologies that Intel has created.. This website is funded through a grant from the Bureau of Justice Assistance, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. The Tennessee Fusion Center may share information contained within THOR with other law . GuideStar partnered on this section with CHANGE Philanthropy and Equity in the Center. After I completed this phase of research, I used the information to iterate on the workshop design, and improve the overall usability of Spotlight. Leadership Spotlight: Leading At-Risk Employees - Law Enforcement and the Addiction Crisis. 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. Nothing makes my job more rewarding when a victim says "thank you" and tells me about her rebuilt life. 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. Thorn has created a program called Spotlight. 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. Spotlight is the #1 investigative tool I have utilized to find child victims and arrest their traffickers in countless cases. 10 0 obj Spotlight evolved from surveys completed by victims of trafficking that showed 63 percent of underage victims were bought or sold online at some point. 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. This was meant to identify areas in which we could make the tool more intuitive, to minimize obstacles to adoption. Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? 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 <> Research programs to better understand the role of technology in child sex trafficking. Sign In. Thorn Helps Law Enforcement Identify Child Sex-Trafficking Victims Faster on AWS Answering the Challenge Using AWS 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). $180/yr. Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? More From Thorn About the Spotlight Technology. AWS support for Internet Explorer ends on 07/31/2022. Our team built and launched Spotlight in 2014 to improve investigator workflow to find child victims faster. 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 organization's co-leader identifies as: Already have a GuideStar Account? Initially, they had about 100 users from three U.S. states who were using Spotlight for their human-trafficking investigations. 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. Similarly, The Tote Project, sells their bags, which helps them pay expenses. 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. We'll keep it out of your inbox, promise. Earlier in her career she worked for Motorolas mobile phone division and helped launch HELIO, a mobile virtual network operator. AWS Lambda functions orchestrate Amazon Simple Queueing Service (Amazon SQS) to queue new ads for processing by the app's analytics engine, Digital Reasoning Synthesys. One way for law enforcement agents to catch traffickers and rescue kids would be to identify and investigate escort ads that seem to feature minors, but there are many obstacles to doing this. He likes Neo-noir films, running and cycling, classic American novels, small venue music shows, and burritos. Thorn builds technology to defend children from sexual abuse. It went from beta in Summer 2014, to extended beta in Fall 2014, to a national roll-out in Winter 2015. to get more GuideStar Nonprofit Profile data today! Nokia's New G22 Phone Allows You To Repair Broken Parts Yourself; A Knack For Storytelling: Should AI Take Over What Makes Us Human? endobj from UCLA and an M.B.A. from Northwestern. We reached out to her for more information about Spotlight. Spotlight is a web-based application that helps law enforcement prioritize leads in their sex trafficking investigations. Kelbi Ervin, Development Associate at Thorn, works with a team to develop partnerships and identify funding opportunities to sustain Thorn's work. Our web-based tool is now used by over 5,000 officers in all 50 states and Canada. Law enforcement doesnt have enough time to navigate the online commercial sex market to find children and identify their traffickers. Used by officers in all 50 states and Canada, our web-based tool has helped in identifying 17,092 child victims of human trafficking in the past four years. To design the curriculum for Spotlight Lab, I conducted preliminary research. We are only one player in a critical ecosystem working on behalf of our children. Building is a core value that informs every strategy in our organization. The solution uses Amazon Simple Notification Service (Amazon SNS) to send alerts to law enforcement agents. Most Popular Stories. <>/Metadata 508 0 R/ViewerPreferences 509 0 R>> Click on the link in that email Access is available for free to law enforcement agencies and can be requested at: htspotlight.com. Our tools take massive amounts of data and turns it into an asset for law enforcement. endstream SOURCE: Self-reported; last updated 6/9/2021. Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Spotlight is a robust search tool that uses machine learning to help law enforcement identify victims of trafficking online. 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. Spotlights analytics pipeline begins with a third-party solution that ingests more than 100,000 new online escort ads each day, storing text and image data as objects in Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) buckets. We couldnt recommend it more taking time away from what is hard helps us all sustain our efforts to achieve our goals. Don't recognize this agency? I joined a superuser with the Louisiana State Police on a human trafficking sting operation in New Orleans, to observe how they used Spotlight in the field. In 2012, we learned that 75% of child sex trafficking victims were being bought and sold online. Education and engagement with the public change risky and abusive behaviors.