John Starr

John Starr is a prominent figure in the field of child protection and technology, currently serving as the Vice President of Industry Sector Strategy at Thorn, a leading organization dedicated to defending children from online sexual exploitation.12

Professional Background

Starr's career has spanned various sectors, all focused on combating child sexual exploitation and abuse:

1. NGO Experience: He began his career as an analyst at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC).2

2. Government Work: Starr then moved to the FBI, where he worked as an analyst.2

3. Tech Industry: He spent 6.5 years at Twitter, where he helped build the team and efforts to stop the spread of child sexual abuse material (CSAM). By the time he left, he was responsible for Safety and Integrity policies for the service.2

4. Current Role: At Thorn, Starr leads the industry sector strategy and serves as the General Manager of SAFER, a key tool developed by Thorn to help companies remove CSAM from their platforms.12

Expertise and Focus

John Starr is known for his expertise in:

• Trust and safety management
• Strategic industry sector planning
• Developing technology to combat online child sexual exploitation
• Building partnerships between tech companies, NGOs, and government agencies

Vision and Approach

Starr is committed to leveraging technology to protect children online. He emphasizes:

• The importance of collaboration across industries and sectors
• Using technology to make platforms safer
• Ensuring accessibility of child protection technology to all platforms, regardless of size
• Encouraging transparency and courage in the tech industry's efforts to combat CSAM2

John Starr's work at Thorn focuses on eliminating gaps in child protection efforts, developing new detection techniques, and working with the ecosystem to perfect these technologies over time.2