Aspects of psychology involved in helping identify potential online sex trafficked victims Thorn is a non-profit organization created by a group of individuals who are committed to finding and ending online sites aimed at child sexual exploitation. The types of child sexual exploitation that the project targets are child pornography and child sex trafficking. The Thorn organization includes members of the community, law enforcement, tech community, and volunteers that work together to identify any sites that can be flagged as being potential targets for advertising children.
Child pornography is any content that portrays sexually explicit activities involving a minor. Thorn states, “visual content includes photographs, videos, digital or computer-generated images” (2018). Due to the expanding technologies of the internet, live-streaming sexual abuse is a newly developing type of pornography that is difficult to track down. This would be because it streams media and does not leave a digital footprint. Child sex trafficking or the commercial sexual exploitation of children has vastly expanded within the online communities.
The improvement of technology and the internet has made the issue of child sex trafficking easier. Children can now be bought and sold online more easily. Sellers use the same technology and websites that people use to sell their bike, find a roommate, or list a local garage sale. The way that the tech communities at Thorn have narrowed down a way to identify potential advertisements of children victims is by using one of their technologies called Spotlight. Thorn stated they used “informed research collected in the field” (Overview, 2018) that facilitated the tactical combat of minor sex trafficking.
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Spotlight is a technical program that has been programmed to distinguish between adult and child written language. The insight given from survivors that were saved by those at the Thorn organization helped them realize that many of the children being advertised online were also made to write their own statements. The Spotlight program can identify differences between child and adult written statements. This information and extensive research helped Thorn to find ways of implementing code into their technology that has learned how to process language and learn the differences between adult and adolescent written language.
A research study conducted by Doctor Vanessa Bouché from Texas Christian University who partnered with Thorn determined that “among those who advertised on the internet, 73 percent wrote the text of the ads themselves” (Survivor Insights, 2018). The majority of the victim’s ads were noted to have used various words that could indicate they were young. Some of the most common words included “fresh,” “new,” “tender,” and “young.” Those at Thorn took the initiative to build their Spotlight program which has successfully identified differences between adult and child language. Many studies state that “learning may continue to develop until early adulthood” (Hanten, 2007) providing evidence that there will be differences in adult and minor written language.
A research study conducted by Wing and Scholnick (1986) tested the difference in comprehension of certain sentence structures. The researchers tested sentence interpretation and stated, “developmental differences reflect factors that underlie sentence interpretation such as information processing load” (Wing, 1986). In the study, college students scored better in the task than young students. This signifies a difference in sentence interpretation through information processing capacity and shows an increase with age. A second study conducted by Hartshorne and Germine (2015) tested differences in cognitive development and ability in multiple verbal tests. They found that “differences in biological maturation and aging shows continued improvement past early adulthood” (Hartshorne, 2015). This allows the statement that cognitive development shows improvement for verbal tasks, with an improvement in adulthood.
To conclude, studies show that cognitive development and learning increases with age, providing Thorn with enough research to pursue their Spotlight program. These studies provide enough evidence to support that there is a difference in adult and child written language due to cognitive differences in brain development. This information then helped the Thorn organization to accurately identify ways to scan websites online without taking too much manpower. With the help of survivor insight and technical developments, Thorn can provide law enforcement with a tool that diminishes the exhaustion of labor and time. Their Spotlight tech scans hundreds of words within minutes and helps pinpoint any potential child advertisements by comparing adult and child language. Authorities can use valuable time processing this information through the program and can identify and shut down any child sex traffickers without exhausting too much time.
References
- Hanten, G., Li, X., Chapman, S. B., Swank, P., Gamino, J., Roberson, G., & Levin, H. S. (2007). Development of verbal selective learning. Developmental Neuropsychology, 32(1), 585–596. https://doi-org.lib-proxy.fullerton.edu/10.1080/87565640701361112
- Hartshorne, J. K., & Germine, L. T. (2015). When does cognitive functioning peak? The asynchronous rise and fall of different cognitive abilities across the life span. Psychological Science, 26(4), 433–443. https://doi-org.lib-proxy.fullerton.edu/10.1177/0956797614567339
- Overview. Thorn. 2018. https://www.thorn.org/child-sexual-exploitation-and-technology/
- Survivor Insights. Thorn. 2018. www.thorn.org/wpcontent/uploads/2018/06/Thorn_Survivor
- Wing, C. S., & Scholnick, E. K. (1986). Understanding the language of reasoning: Cognitive, linguistic, and developmental influences. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 15(5), 383–401. https://doi-org.lib-proxy.fullerton.edu/10.1007/BF01067721
