HOW IT STARTED More than a decade ago, our co-founder, Ashton Kutcher, saw a TV special about the atrocities of child sex trafficking. Unable to look away, Ashton knew at that moment that he had no choice but to do everything in his power to help defend children experiencing these horrific abuses. After extensive research and conversations with experts across disciplines, Ashton discovered the need to revolutionize the fight against child sexual abuse with technology. The technologies existed; they simply needed to be honed and deployed on a mission to defend children. The vision that every child has a right to simply be a kid, safeguarded by digital defenders, gave life to the non-profit organization: Thorn. HOW IT'S GOING Thorn has grown and evolved significantly over the years. Still, our mission as a non-profit organization remains as clear as ever: to build technology to defend children from sexual abuse. Today, we’re a team of more than 100 people, working collaboratively on a global scale to solve this problem. We help law enforcement accelerate the identification of victims, provide the tech industry with the tools and resources they need to eliminate child sexual abuse material (CSAM) from the internet, conduct ground-breaking research, and work directly with youth and their caregivers to prevent and address online sexual exploitation.