What does it mean to be a "woman of worth"? Before this esteemed recognition by L'Oréal Paris, I had never self-identified as anyone other than a daughter, a wife, a mother, a student, and more recently, founder of a nonprofit whose aim is to protect children from online predators. Rather, I simply just focused on my passion - that a child's innocence and worth must be protected.
You could say that my fight for innocence was passed down to me at an early age from my father, the late Hank Asher. He was a giant among men in my eyes. My father's upbringing was vastly different from my own. Physical abuse, at the hands of his own father, was a common experience for him. Needless to say, these events had a tremendous impact on my father, and inspired him to dedicate his life to standing up against bullies and those who harm children.
My father had great success in the tech industry and after his death in 2013, I retained ownership of the child protective technology that developed into the most cutting edge software in catching predators and anyone trading child pornography in the world. With this innovative technology, I founded the nonprofit, Child Rescue Coalition, an organization dedicated to helping global law enforcement officials rescue children from online sexual predators and potential sexual abuse. We have not just maintained this technology platform, we have grown and expanded its usage.
The issue is more common than you would ever fathom. To date, we have tracked 44 million in possession of child pornography worldwide. These criminals are all around us. Some you can see and some you cannot, but our technology can see these offenders and track to their location which provides investigators the needed evidence to prosecute. They live among us and can even be in our own families.
Now, I recognize my worth is being discovered in knowing that we have over 9,000 law enforcement officers in all 50 states in the U.S., and in 64 countries around the world utilizing and trained on our technology. Saving one child from the hands of abuse would be a victory, but I'm blessed that we have saved so many more. To date, 8,391 predators have been arrested and over 1,900 children have been rescued from abuse in the last four years as a result of Child Rescue Coalition's efforts.
At Child Rescue Coalition, we address the problem head on by providing law enforcement with free technology to track and arrest those who use the internet to harm children. As a mother, I know that children have something that we all wish we could get back- innocence. Our nonprofit exists to protect that innocence.
Currently, one in four girls and one in six boys will be sexually abused before the age of 18. This equivocates to 300,000 children being sexually abused in the United States each year - it's enough for anyone to stand up and fight on their behalf. The landscape of the problem has been intensified by the Internet, which is normalizing this deviant behavior and fostering a global online predator "fellowship." The pandemic of child sexual abuse and exploitation is real and law enforcement officials need our help.
At Child Rescue Coalition, our technology has helped officers arrest a pediatric oncologist, a gymnastics coach, a music teacher, a guidance counselor and thousands of others who have flown under the radar for far too long.
When I'm asked about what it means to be named a 2016 L'Oréal Paris Woman of Worth, my response is simple: my worth is not at all found in how much money I have, how successful I am, or how many followers we have on social media; rather, it is found in the fact that our technology was able to help convict an offender in court, and save a young victim of sexual abuse the emotional wreckage of having to testify in court. This is my worth.