“Confessions of a Predator” is a highly targeted campaign that turned child predators into their own whistleblowers by using their own data against them. Child Rescue Coalition’s (CRC) technology identifies predators in the moment they share child sexual abuse material. Through an innovative mailing intelligence system, we transformed predator data into email confessions from predators to legislators with the power to catch them. In this targeted approach, legislators received predator leads they had the power to act on, and the ability to reply directly to the confession to contact CRC and begin a relationship to rescue future children from abuse.

There are more than 500,000+ child predators online every day. Child predators have access to child sexual abuse material (CSAM) due to the easy, anonymous, and on-demand availability of these illicit graphic images and videos of child victims — with an alarming 85% of online predators also committing hands-on abuse. To fight this crisis, Child Rescue Coalition (CRC) built technology that detects sharing of CSAM in real time. In the hands of law enforcement, it can be used to identify, locate, and arrest predators. But too often, police departments lack the resources to adopt the free technology and act on it. Lawmakers routinely neglect the crisis of CSAM, avoiding it entirely or making goodwill gestures without allocating funds to address the immense problem of CSAM. We needed to make the invisible problem of CSAM visible to the lawmakers who hold the power to make real change possible.

“Confessions of a Predator” is a first-of-its-kind, real-time demonstration of Child Rescue Coalition’s (CRC) predator identification technology, transforming data into a confession to the legislators with the power to fight them. Through the creation of a proprietary mailing intelligence system, every time a predator shared child sexual abuse material (CSAM) an email was automatically triggered from the predator confessing their own crimes with their file names, time stamp, and location. The confession was directed to their local legislators in real time, providing a real lead and a proven and free solution to fight it—CRC’s free technology. Legislators were empowered to take action by replying right to the email in their inbox to learn how they could use their influence to allocate resources to protect the children in their area.

On average, Child Rescue Coalition (CRC) identifies 27,000 records each minute relating to the trade of child sexual abuse material (CSAM), with 78% depicting children under 12. In spite of the devastating prevalence of CSAM, a New York Times exposé wrote that the problem “gets scant attention because few people want to confront the enormity and horror of the content.” The sheer enormity of the crisis has caused retreat even among the lawmakers with the responsibility to solve it. To engage our target of legislators, it was critical to bring the data to life one case at a time without overwhelming them. Our strategy was built on the principles of salience and chunking- we needed to create engagement through small, actionable steps. We also needed to increase awareness of the CSAM crisis and its solution to constituents, the everyday people who can keep legislators accountable to solving the problem.

“Confessions of a Predator” launched during National Child Abuse Prevention Month, targeting the legislator inboxes of the 10 states leading in number of predators. We created email templates pulling in real-time predator data, transforming their activity logged into 842 email leads. In each confession, legislators could reply directly to learn how they could adopt Child Rescue Coalition’s free technology. Additionally:

- To create public awareness and accountability, we seeded the campaign with local and national news outlets, and posted regular social media reminders for legislators to check their inboxes.

- A campaign video was created for social media to educate the public on the crisis of child sexual abuse material, inform them of our efforts and urge them to write their own emails to local legislators and urge them to #adoptCRCTech.

- A Change.org campaign also grew awareness of the issue and public demand for adoption of CRC technology.

“Confessions of a Predator” transformed hidden predator behavior across 10 states into 842 criminal leads included in the letters showed the scale of the problem to legislators. Each lead was sent to multiple key legislators, resulting in 24,452 appeals to fight the crisis of child sexual abuse material (CSAM). Although our audience of legislators has historically avoided CSAM, the open email rate on launch day was 30%, surpassing industry benchmarks by 50%. “Confessions of a Predator” launched on April 11th. As of April 20th, 11 predator investigations have been initiated and more will follow. For every predator arrested, CRC estimates 50-150 of their future victims rescued. If these investigations reach fruition, up to 1,650 future child sexual abuse victims will be rescued.

Child Rescue Coalition is a nonprofit organization. Their mission is made possible through individual and corporate donations, allowing their technology to be available to law enforcement in all 50 U.S. States and 97 countries free of charge. Given the nature of our client, there was no budget allocated for “Confessions of a Predator.” The agency took on the work pro-bono, and there was no media budget or paid media whatsoever. All coverage was 100% earned or donated media.

The Internet has created an explosion in child sexual abuse material (CSAM). Child predators have infinite access to CSAM due to the easy, anonymous, and on-demand availability of these illicit graphic images and videos of child victims. Each individual file of CSAM documents a crime, and possession is a felony. Social media platforms have a primary role in facilitating the spread of CSAM, but lack regulation to monitor it. Platforms deflect responsibility, and prioritization of privacy enables predators to share material and educate new predators under the cloak of encryption. Social platforms should take responsibility for enabling predators, but with an alarming 85% of online predators also committing hands-on sexual abuse, there’s no time to wait for platforms to act. It falls on lawmakers to allocate the resources for law enforcement to curb the exponential spread of CSAM and identify and arrest child sexual predators to prevent further abuse.