Irex Partners with the National Child Protection Task Force to Leverage AI to Fight Human Trafficking and Locate Missing Children

SANTA CLARA, CA / ACCESSWIRE / November 25, 2020 / IREX will partner with National Child Protection Task Force (NCPTF) to increase actionable intelligence across numerous data platforms to help identify and track missing and exploited children and help law enforcement communities to investigate and disrupt trafficking networks in order to bring to justice today's criminal traffickers and complicit facilitators.

Children are trafficked into or out of the United States from all corners of the world. While still largely an underreported crime, it is believed that every year thousands of American children in our country are commercially sexually exploited including runaways, many between the ages of 13 and 17. Children 12 and younger also suffer commercial sexual abuse at the hands of criminal traffickers.

"Artificial Intelligence has unlimited possibilities, we must prioritize it for the world's most pressing problems. Nothing needs the world's attention more", says Irex CEO Gary Fowler.

Across the country, many children and young adults will continue to be coerced, exploited, kidnapped, and forced into servitude every day by predatory pimps, gang leaders, and criminal syndicates who will target and lure them on the Internet and social media (e.g., leveraging messaging apps), at schools, malls, fast food restaurants, or other places of opportunity to profit from such heinous acts and horrific crimes. During COVID-19, online child abuse and exploitation have increased as children have stayed at home and spent more time across the digital world.

Given the somber reality that a myriad of dangers and violence often lurk around the corner, including the perverse criminality associated with human trafficking, we must be ever vigilant to safeguard the welfare of our children against the evil lure of gangs and traffickers who target our children for sexual exploitation and other forced labors.

"No child is immune to becoming a victim of human trafficking and child sexual exploitation, irrespective of race, socioeconomic status, gender, age or location. No person should ever have a price tag attached to their heart and soul nor be restricted, abused, and violated against their physical integrity and free will," said David M. Luna, Irex Anti-Illicit Trade Advisor.

Irex and NCPTF will harness new energies and work together, along with other committed partners, against these criminal threats by leveraging AI-driven data, machine learning, facial recognition, computer vision, and other innovative technologies to identify patterns of criminal behaviors across sectors to generate actionable intelligence. These neural networks can help to detect human trafficking incidents and child sexual exploitation, and to bring victims home and into safer, secure environments.

"Human trafficking and child exploitation networks are constantly looking for ways to use technology to their advantage and we have to be ready. The NCPTF is pushing the limits of the intersection between technology and criminal investigations to find more effective ways to rescue children and hunt child predators. Investigators everywhere must be able to adapt to changes in the criminal use of technology and tactics as quickly as possible and the application of artificial intelligence is a vital step in that process", explains NCPTF President Kevin Metcalf

About IREX: IREX's video-based cloud service is a powerful tool for monitoring and protecting large populations. With over 20 AI modules built in, including Facial Analytics, Searchveillance, etc. IREX.ai helps mitigate terrorism threats, illicit trade, criminalized markets and to find a person of interest. Powered by machine learning, IREX provides contact tracing, social distancing and crowd management. In October 2020, IREX joined forces with Luna Global Networks and Convergence Strategies LLC to introduce revolutionary AI-driven technologies to fight illicit trade including human trafficking across cities and communities.

About National Child Protection Task Force (NCPTF): The National Child Protection Task Force, a registered 501c3, was founded to provide detectives, analysts and officers access to investigative expertise and resources that are unavailable or under-funded in most law enforcement organizations. The members of our Task Force volunteer their time to any agency — small or large, international or local — on important, time-sensitive cases focusing on human trafficking, child exploitation and missing persons cases.

For more information email Derek Distenfield, derek@Irex.ai

SOURCE: Irex

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