Hollywood actor Ashton Kutcher testified at a hearing at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in Washington DC in hopes of urging US legislators on Wednesday to drum up government support for the development of new technology to fight online sex trafficking.
Acknowledging trolls who might ask him to stick to his “day job”, Kutcher explained that his day job was being the chairman and co-founder of Thorn, a tech non-profit that has produced web-based tools to help police officers identify and locate victims of trafficking.
The actor is married to actress Mila Kunis, with whom he has two children.
In a strong introduction to his cause, Ashton Kutcher said:
The right to pursue happiness for so many is stripped away, it’s raped, it’s abused, it’s taken by force, fraud or coercion - it is sold for the momentary happiness of another.
Holding back tears, Kutcher narrated his experience on dealing with child trafficking during his travels, to stress on the seriousness of the crime.
“I’ve seen video content of a child that’s the same age as mine being raped by an American man that was a sex tourist in Cambodia. This child was so conditioned by her environment that she thought she was engaging in play,” he said.
The "Spotlight" tool, which Kutcher said has helped identify 6,000 victims in six months, was created after a 2012 sex trafficking survey found that 63 percent of underage victims reported being bought or sold online.
Each year, up to 300,000 children are at risk of being trafficked for commercial sex in the United States, according to the US Department of Justice.
Most sex trafficking victims are advertised or sold online, according to a US Senate subcommittee report that was released last month.
(With inputs from Reuters)
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