Actor Ashton Kutcher, co-founder of an organization that helps combat predatory behavior, during a Tuesday Senate hearing on human trafficking, said the Department of Homeland Security came to his company for help on a case, one where a 7-year-old girl was being sexually abused.
"We were the last line of defense, an actor and his foundation were the potential last line of defense," Kutcher said.
"She'd been being abused, and they'd watched her for three years, and they could not find the perpetrator. Asking us for help."
Kutcher is the co-founder of Thorn, an organization that works with a group of tech partners to build barriers to intercept potentially abusive behavior and create initiatives to help find victims of sex abuse faster and to stop possible future abuse, as the Independent Journal Review reported. Its web-based tool, Spotlight, was created for law enforcement to help find more human traffic victims faster.
Over a period of six months, the use of Spotlight has resulted in the identification of over 6,000 trafficking victims, including 2,000 minors. The tool also reduced investigation time by 60 percent.
"When the Department of Homeland Security called us, and asked for our help and asked if we had a tool, I had to say no," Kutcher said of a different case. "It devastated me. It haunted me because for the next three months I had to go to sleep every night and think about that little girl that was still being abused. And, the fact that if I built the right thing, we could save her.
"So, that's what we did, and now if I got that phone call, the answer would be yes."
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