TV AND FILM actor Ashton Kutcher was close to tears this week as he urged US lawmakers to support efforts aimed at bringing an end to child sexual exploitation.
Kutcher was speaking at a US senate hearing on Wednesday in his role as co-founder and chairman of Thorn – a company that develops software to help locate victims of abuse.
The 39-year-old gave an emotional speech to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee about the plight of people who suffer from sexual exploitation.
“The right to pursue happiness for so many is stripped away, it’s raped, it’s abused, it’s taken by force,” he said.
The star of Two and a Half Men recounted the stories of people who have suffered at the hands of traffickers
“I’ve been on FBI raids where I’ve seen things that no person should ever see,” he said.
He pointed to tools created by Thorn that have helped victims in the past.
He said that one piece of software – called Spotlight – had helped to identify over 16,000 trafficking victims, 2,000 of whom were minors.
He told the Ending Modern Slavery hearing that he and his organisation had responded to a need and developed the technology to help victims of trafficking.
Kutcher described being asked for help from the Department of Homeland Security in helping to locate victims and perpetrators of sexual exploitation.
“We were their last line of his defence,” he said.
“An actor and his foundation were the potential last line of defence.
That’s my day job – and I’m sticking to it.
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