A new phenomenon is spreading like an epidemic: Webcam Child Sex Tourism (WCST). Men from rich countries pay children in poor countries to perform sexual acts in front of webcams.

We conducted the first in-depth research into WCST. We discovered that these crimes happen tens of thousands of times each day, but before this campaign, only 6 men had been convicted. Police don't enforce existing anti-WCST laws because they wait for victims to report the crime before investigating. But kids don't report this abuse. The challenge was to pressure governments and police to stop predators before kids are hurt.

Our solution: pro-active policing.

To raise awareness, to show how easy it is to catch predators, and to pressure governments to take action, we created "Sweetie," an interactive 3D model that looks and moves like a 10-year-old girl. We used her to catch in the act 1,000 predators from 71 countries. Then we gave their dossiers to Interpol during an international press conference. We made a film about the process, translated it into 8 languages, and posted it on a designated YouTube channel. Because the predators came from so many countries, journalists everywhere found it highly newsworthy, earning us free media coverage on every continent (CNN, NBC, BBC, Al Jazeera, O Globo, Allgemeine Zeitung, El Pais, etc.).

The results: 1 billion people saw the campaign. This global PR coverage and the awareness raised by our viral video and petition mobilized citizens and pressured governments to act. Governments are now taking action.

Sweetie's effectiveness depended on her design quality and believability. To catch pedophiles we had to convince them that Sweetie was real. So we brought her to life using 3D technology, making her look and move exactly like a real 10-year-old girl. Using motion capture, we translated movements of an actor to Sweetie. Each of Sweetie's movements is a separate film that started and ended with the same frame to avoid glitches between movements. Using an interactive video application we controlled her movements as we chatted on webcam with pedophiles. Sweetie's design and her real-time interaction capabilities made pedophile's experiences realistic.

Over 1 billion people saw the campaign. We proved that our solution is effective in stopping predators. Our petition has already gotten over half a million signatures and will be used in the coming months to pressure governments to do more. WCST is on the world agenda and governments are already taking action:

Police in the UK, US, Canada, Australia, Ireland, Belgium, and South Africa arrested predators based on evidence we collected. The Philippines Police announced that WCST is the country’s #1 crime. Argentina increased penalties for perpetrators of WCST. Dozens of children have been rescued in the Philippines.