A sunny September afternoon on a golf course is probably not the place where you’d expect to be making a tangible impact in the global fight to keep our children safe from online predators. However, that’s exactly what happened on Friday, September 25th.
Earlier in the year, I received a call where I learned the employees of Magnet Forensics had selected the Kids Internet Safety Alliance (KINSA), the organization I founded and serve as President and CEO of, as the beneficiary of their annual charitable giving program. This news was timely given that KINSA was about to launch a new initiative: the Digital Soldier Program, which would train Canadian Forces veterans as digital forensics investigators and help place them in agencies that need additional support.
With the mass proliferation of smartphones, other connected devices, and “apps”, almost every type of law enforcement case has a digital component. This has placed an immense strain on law enforcement around the world, resulting in the need for more digital forensic investigators. One area of crime that has exploded in this digital age is child exploitation.
The magnitude of this issue is both staggering and sickening. The United Nations released a report in 2009 asserting that there are approximately 750,000 sexual predators using the Internet to try to make contact with children for the purpose of sexually exploiting them.
The National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), located in the US, assists law enforcement in its efforts to locate and rescue child victims in abusive images. They have reviewed more than 147 million images and videos. In 2013, NCMEC reviewed 22 million images and videos of suspected child sexual abuse imagery alone. This is more than a 5000% increase from 2007.
Ten years ago, when KINSA was created, we wanted to create a charity that said “no – this is wrong and something has to be done”. Ever since, we have been on the frontlines fighting for better legislation to protect children from exploitation and training officers in the developing world where much of the illegal content is being created. While these efforts have saved lives, there is much more work to be done to eradicate these heinous crimes against children.
The $25,000 raised at Magnet Forensics’ charity golf tournament is an important step forward. It will enable 2 Canadian Forces veterans to be trained as digital forensics investigators at a leading global training institution and placed in agencies requiring support. This is the kick-start needed to get the Digital Soldier Program off the ground. We’re hopeful that other donors will follow in Magnet Forensics footsteps and get behind veterans seeking their next mission.
While Magnet Forensics’ charitable efforts to raise funds and awareness of this important cause at their golf tournament is commendable, we at KINSA recognize them as a daily contributor in the global fight to end child exploitation online.
At the closing ceremonies of the tournament, a leading global digital forensics investigator, with experience in child exploitation, murder, and terrorism-related cases, spoke about how Magnet Forensics’ products have become integral to the investigations he and his colleagues from around the world work on every day. In fact, he stated that without them, some of his investigations would take years to complete and wouldn’t likely produce the evidence required to secure convictions.
From the beginning, Magnet Forensics has been a partner of law enforcement, developing the tools required that help officers get to the evidence they need. We at KINSA thank them for hosting their charity golf tournament to our benefit and the benefit of the Canadian Forces veterans who will receive training as digital forensics investigators. But more so, we thank them for the work they do, every day, to make the world safer for children around the world.
By Paul Gillespie
Paul Gillespie is the President and CEO of the Kids Internet Safety Alliance (KINSA) and former head of the Toronto Police Service’s Child Exploitation Unit
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