2023-06-07
Cyber Dive has partnered with the Phoenix Dream Center to support victims of human trafficking. This partnership allows Cyber Dive to tap into the Phoenix Dream Center’s expertise as national experts on human trafficking and gain firsthand accounts that reveal the tactics used by internet predators to target victims.
PHOENIX, June 7, 2023 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — Cyber Dive, the creators of the Aqua One smartphone for kids, partners with the Phoenix Dream Center to collaborate on proactive steps to be taken against cases of human trafficking that are initiated online. The Phoenix Dream Center is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to stop human trafficking, rehabilitate those who have fallen victim to it and mitigate the spread of human trafficking online through education.
“Social media has allowed the explosion of trafficking to occur due to the lack of oversight, safety, moderation and awareness. The prevalence of trafficking and grooming of both boys and girls is unprecedented in a world where predators can find victims in a matter of seconds through platforms that parents don’t even know exist,” Cyber Dive Co-Founder and CEO Jeff Gottfurcht said. “Our goal is to arm them with the ultimate tool to help protect their children from a digital world that is proving to be more and more fraught with complexities and dangers we could never have imagined even a decade ago. Trafficking can happen in any community. All it takes is your child accepting a friend request from the wrong person.”
This partnership enables Cyber Dive to get first hand accounts from the Phoenix Dream Center who are national experts on revealing the tactics used by internet predators to prey on victims and understand this global issue directly from those involved.
“No one understands how predators groom victims better than the victims themselves. That’s why we partnered with the Dream Center so that the Aqua One isn’t just built using analysis tradecraft, but it’s powered by the real-life stories of boys and girls who experienced severe trauma because of social media,” Cyber Dive Co-Founder and CTO Derek Jackson said.
The Polaris Project identified a 22% increase in online recruitment of human trafficking victims in 2020. Their analysis saw a 125% increase in reports of recruitment on Facebook over the previous year and a 95% increase on Instagram.
“Over the last year, our team at the Dream Center has witnessed Aqua One benefit parents, children, and even survivors rescued from human trafficking. The online landscape has changed faster than parents can keep up with, and traffickers have taken advantage of that, with over a 40% increase in attempts by traffickers trying to recruit children online during the pandemic. Aqua One acts as a comprehensive shield from so many online threats while also encouraging positive mental health,” Phoenix Dream Center Chief Development Officer Carols Daniel said. “We first gave Aqua One to one of the survivors in our Human Trafficking Recovery Program, who was finally ready to get a job and a smartphone, but still needed some safeguards due to the trafficker that was trying to reach her. Thanks to the dashboard, our program staff knows who is communicating with her online and her location while she is working allowing her to successfully transition. We look forward to utilizing Aqua One as more survivors transition through our Human Trafficking Recovery Program.”
Cyber Dive and the Phoenix Dream Center continue to push forward to eradicate human trafficking and the major complexities kids face today on social media as evidenced by the office of the U.S. Surgeon General and their analysis of social media and youth mental health.
About Cyber Dive
Cyber Dive is a progressive technology company that is the preeminent pioneer in making the digital world safer and healthier for millions of children through tech-forward innovations. The company created Aqua One, the first-ever smartphone for children that empowers parents to monitor all of their children’s online activities through a single, comprehensive dashboard. Technology changed children and now Aqua One is changing parenting by empowering parents to go places in their child’s digital world they never thought they’d go.
Learn more at http://www.cyberdive.co.
For more information on the Phoenix Dream Center, visit https://phoenixdreamcenter.org/.
Media Contact
Cyber Dive, Cyber Dive, 1 6236801945, media@cyberdive.co
SOURCE Cyber Dive
