Case Study: Thorn identifies child sex trafficking victims faster with Connotate

Thorn - Customer Case Study

Thorn is a nonprofit focused on fighting child sexual exploitation, and it needed a way to rapidly identify potential victims and traffickers from online commercial sex ads. Working with Connotate and Digital Reasoning, Thorn used web harvesting technology to collect and analyze content from classified and escort sites, helping address the challenge of tracking illegal ads in a messy, fast-moving web environment.

Connotate helped power Thorn’s Spotlight tool, which detects new ads, flags suspicious content, and gives law enforcement a searchable database for investigations. The solution has supported more than 800 investigations and is used by over 1,800 law enforcement officials, with measurable impact including 300 child victims identified, more than 50 traffickers brought to justice, and a 45% reduction in investigation times.

Thorn

Brooke Istook

Director of Strategy and Operations