Ashton Kutcher , Roberta Metsola meet at European Parliament

Europe: The President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, met with the American actor Christopher Ashton Kutcher at the Parliament, where the two discussed the European efforts in the field of child protection from trafficking and abuse, both off and online. Metsola took to her social media handle, where she penned:

 “It was great meeting Ashton Kutcher in the European Parliament today to discuss Europe’s efforts to protect children off and online. We share determination to stamp out these crimes. To make children’s world a little bit safer. Grateful for his tireless commitment and determination in the fight against child abuse and trafficking.” 

Notably, Ashton Kutcher, besides being a prominent film and TV actor, is one of the leading voices in the fight against child abuse and trafficking. Kutcher, along with his then-wife Demi Moore, had established an international human rights organization in 2009, named DNA, which was later renamed to Thorn: Digital Defenders of Children in 2012.

As Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore describe, a documentary they watched on the issue of child sex trafficking with children in Cambodia had left a really deep impact, leaving an urge to do something to address the global issue of child abuse. Digging further into the issue, they found that technology had a role to play in enhancing crime against children. 

At the same time, the solution to the menace was also the technology itself. Since then, Thorn: The Digital Defenders of Children has been moving ahead with an aim to curb online child sexual abuse. 

In 2014, Thorn’s team developed a prototyped product which identified child sex trafficking victims, which was sold online. The product was provided at no cost to law enforcement agencies to deploy for the service to humanity.

Thorn has been working with global tech-experts to develop technology to combat online child sexual abuse and assessing the efficiency of the technology in three major parameters, i.e. accelerated victim identification, equipping platforms and empowering the public.