THORN

El Segundo, California, 90245 United States

Mission Statement

We build technology to defend children from sexual abuse. By partnering with leading technology companies, law enforcement and NGOs, we build cutting-edge technology tools that find child victims faster, make online environments safer, and deter criminal behavior.

About This Cause

Technology has democratized the sexual exploitation of children. Everyday, technologies are increasingly being used as a means to gain access to children, distribute child sexual abuse material, and protect the anonymity of perpetrators. When we began our work in 2012, it was clear that technology innovation to protect children was lagging behind the tools already available to technically-savvy abusers. Thorn houses the first engineering and data science team solely focused on developing new technologies to combat child sexual exploitation. We are able to quickly assess whether new technologies, which may have been built initially for a different purpose, can be repurposed to protect children from sexual exploitation. Where there is a gap, we build and manage a new tool to meet the need. In less than five years, we have reached more than 2.6 million people through our child sexual abuse deterrence program and helped law enforcement identify more than 10,081 children who have been sex trafficking victims and whose sexual abuse was recorded and distributed online. Privacy policy: https://www.thorn.org/privacy-policy/

THORN
222 Pacific Coast Highway, 10Th Floor
El Segundo, California 90245
United States
Twitter @thorn
Unique Identifier 270943677