Joy Worth Building For: Thorn’s Refreshed Brand Reinforces our Mission

At Thorn, we envision a world where every child is free to simply be a kid. Where kids experience the joy of childhood free from the threat of sexual abuse. And where child sexual abuse material is eliminated from the internet.

Every day, we show up committed to this cause.

That’s why today, we’re proud to announce a new milestone in Thorn’s journey: A fresh, revamped brand for Thorn and the launch of our newly redesigned website. This transformation is an important step for our organization, reflecting our relentless commitment to defend children amid a rapidly advancing digital era. 

While we remain deeply committed to the same mission — to build technology to defend children from sexual abuse — this evolution further reinforces our commitment to meet emerging threats with innovative solutions.

Our holistic solutions tackle the issue at all levels of child protection. From working with tech companies, government and law enforcement to engaging parents and youth, we empower the child safety ecosystem with the cutting-edge technologies, research and resources to safeguard children now and into the future. 

Thorn is uniquely positioned to combat child sexual abuse where it intersects with technology. Our refreshed brand offers a more dynamic expression of the many ways we do that, allowing you to engage with the different facets of our work.

Every day, children are sexually abused and the internet only makes it worse. But it doesn’t have to be this way. At Thorn, we face the unthinkable, daring to make a difference and employing the radical ingenuity that creates a brighter future for kids. After all, that’s joy worth building for.

A multifaceted approach: Thorn’s five key initiatives

Kids deserve to have the brightest minds defending them. Our staff includes experts in child safety technology, research, data science, policy, and youth empowerment. Through their efforts, we have proof that building innovative technology works to defend children from sexual abuse. That’s why Thorn’s working to:

Make the internet safer and stop the cycle of abuse

Even after a child is rescued, images and videos of their abuse can circulate online for years, continuing the cycle of trauma. We equip tech platforms with advanced tools, insights, and connections to halt the spread of abusive content and prevent revictimization. 

To date, Thorn’s Safer solution has helped the tech industry detect and flag for removal more than 5 million child sexual abuse files from the open web – and we continue to develop new products and provide consulting services create safer online environments, even as the internet evolves.

Empower parents and youth to prevent abuse

Today’s children grow up with phones in their hands and — depending on their ages — near-constant access to social networking, messaging, and gaming platforms. 

Thorn for Parents helps equip parents with the skills and resources they need to have important, productive, and judgment-free conversations to prevent abuse. 

Our youth-centered prevention program, NoFiltr, increases awareness among youth about the risks of sharing nudes online. It also seeks to change toxic attitudes that shame victims, and provide knowledge and tools youth need to resist online threats. 

Find children faster

Child sexual abuse material (CSAM) found online is evidence of a child’s real-life sexual abuse. Thorn’s solutions, like our CSAM Classifier, drastically reduce the time it takes to find child victims. Our tools directly connect investigators and NGOs with critical information to help them solve cases faster and remove children from harm.

Connect and move the entire child safety ecosystem with original research

Abusers take advantage of new technology to exploit children. Thorn conducts original research that allows us and our partners across the child safety ecosystem to better understand the tactics of bad actors, and what children experience and perceive today so we can create tools and programs to help kids and their communities. 

Our research findings provide powerful insights. They allow us to be nimble in the ever-changing technology space and respond to emerging threats quickly.

Influence policy

Thorn works with politicians globally — especially in the U.S. and EU — to help them understand why it’s critical to protect children from harm, and why technology must be part of the solution. Thorn helps ensure that lawmakers have all the information they need to create policies designed to keep children safe.

Get to know the issue: The evolution of CSAM

To stop the spread of CSAM online, we must understand how it starts. Our Issue page dives into a dynamic narrative on the digital evolution of child sexual abuse. Where once the trade of CSAM was nearly eliminated, the birth of the internet set a new stage for easily trading CSAM among abusers, accelerating the creation and spread of CSAM in new ways and leading to other crimes, like sextortion.

The truth is, child sexual abuse is happening everywhere. It’s happening in our communities and to the people we know.

To truly understand Thorn’s cause and the scale of the issue, we invite you to explore our Issue page. The immersive storytelling explores the pathways of abuse that lead to CSAM’s creation and details CSAM’s origins. It also provides context that deepens our collective understanding of child sexual abuse today and how we can respond to defend children. 

Explore the Issue

Dive deeper: Explore our Research Center

Want to see the data and insights that inform our work? Our new Research Center provides access to Thorn’s original research as well as research from our partners that together are driving the child safety ecosystem forward. 

Thorn’s research team conducts qualitative and quantitative research directly with youth to understand their attitudes and behaviors online, their experiences with harmful encounters, and much more. 

In the Research Center, you can dive deeper into topics such as youth perspectives on sharing nudes, their experiences with online grooming, and how self-produced sexual imagery is a rising trend among youth with inherent risks for their safety. This research helps us understand the tools, resources and advocacy needed to protect children online – and off. 

Visit the Research Center

Take the pledge: “I believe in the right to childhood joy”

Thorn is working to support and activate the child safety ecosystem by building the tools and programs to defend children from sexual abuse. We are all part of that ecosystem. Each one of us has a role to play in keeping kids safe in our families, our communities and our world.  

If we work together, we can protect the most essential promise of childhood — the right to simply be a kid. It starts with our belief in a better future and our collective courage to make it a reality. We can end this public health crisis and create a better world for every child, now and for generations to come.

We hope you’ll show your support for children and this mission by joining us in our pledge. Because this is joy worth building for.

Take the Pledge