The name Ashton Kutcher is synonymous with acting and his huge fan base indicates that he is no run-of-the-mill actor but one to be reckoned with. The actor who has a huge fan following will definitely increase the number of fans that he has with the new role that he is committed to; that of helping victims of human trafficking.
Kutcher’s non-profit organization Thorn: Digital Defenders of Children, of which his ex-wife Demi Moore is a co-founder, has taken a huge leap in helping victims of human trafficking.
The organization’s efforts have been so effective that with their help, law enforcement has been able to identify 5,894 child sex trafficking victims. 103 children were also rescued from grievous situations of sexual abuse in 2017.
According to data published in the organization’s 2017 impact report, Thorn claims to have upset the plans of 6,608 perpetrators. Through its Stop Sextortion campaign, the organization has also been able to educate 3.5 million teens and has also encouraged more than 140,000 individuals who have been looking for material on child sexual abuse.
The organization which was previously called DNA foundation was started in 2009 with Demi Moore to try and put the brakes on the huge market that exploits children for sex. Kutcher realizes that this grievous issue has swelled to gigantic proportions in recent years because of the internet.
When speaking to 48 Hours about the work that he is doing he commented.
“What we do at our core is we build technology to help fight sexual exploitation of children.” He went on to explain. “You can roll up your sleeves and go try to be like a hero and go save one person, or you can build a tool that allows one person to save a lot of people.”
In February 2017, Kutcher gave a 15-minute speech on modern-day slavery to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in the hope of compelling Congress to take some concrete steps towards ending the horrors faced by women and children around the world.
In his speech, he not only spoke about the rights of these women and children that have constantly been violated but also touched upon how he has been trolled and criticized for the stand that he has taken. He has often been told to ‘stick to his day job’ by these critics but he says that what he does now and what his organization stands for is his day job.
He also recounted horrific incidents of young children under the age of ten being raped and content being shared on the dark internet. The Department of Homeland Security had also enlisted the help of his organization in trying to track down the perpetrator of a 7-year-old victim who they had been trying to nab for the past three years.
Ashton Kurcher on Technology
