Posted by Catherine Ibrahim
 
Ashton Kutcher, philanthropist and actor, was one of the numerous speakers at the Rotary International Convention this year in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, whose main goal was to speak to convention goers and the world at large about the menace of human trafficking and the sexual exploitation of children. During a Panel discussion, he expressed his sadness about this global menace.
 
Kutcher is the Co-Founder of THORN: Digital Defenders of Children.  During his speech at the Rotary Convention, Kutcher in his own words confessed: “As a young man coming up in the public school system in the United States, I thought slavery was done, a thing of the past.  When I realized this was happening even right here in Atlanta, a hotbed for trafficking as a travel hub, I was floored and set out to learn as much as I could about it.”
 
He further stressed that vulnerability and poverty often acts as catalysts for human trafficking and sexual slavery of children.  In the United States, most children who ends up in the ‘system’ have no one in their lives to love them.  They are the ones who are most vulnerable to this menace.
 
Thorn is dedicated mainly to preventing sexual exploitation and eliminating child pornography and the conditions that cause it specifically on the internet. Thorn has a high tech lab which it uses to combat this global menace. Thorn targets the internet because it plays a significant role in promoting child pornography as well as the sexual slavery of children on a global scale.
 
Other members of the panel included Gary Hauhen, Bob Corker and Rebecca Bender, who herself is a survivor of human trafficking.
 
Learn more about how Rotary, in partnership with Thorn and millions of Rotarians worldwide, are working to fight this global menace.
 
 
 
Rotary International News
 
Highlights from Rotary International Convention