India slowly confronts epidemic of missing children

India slowly confronts epidemic of missing children:
NEW DELHI — Every six minutes, a child goes missing in India.
They are boys like Irfan, drugged and abducted at the age of 9 by two men on a motorbike as he walked home one day after playing with friends.
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Google Ideas targets human trafficking, illicit networks

http://www.ungift.org/knowledgehub/en/stories/august2012/google-ideas-targets-human-trafficking.html 

Google Ideas, the online giant's think tank, has set its focus on optimizing technology to curb the power of illicit networks, including their role in human trafficking.

In partnership with the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and the Tribeca Film Festival, Google Ideas convened a major summit on Illicit Networks: Forces in Opposition (INFO) in Los Angeles, California last month. According to the CFR Blog, the INFO summit "explored the potential of technology to 'expose, map, and disrupt' illicit networks around the world, and to empower individuals, civil society, governments, and corporations to fight back."

Under the umbrella of violent illicit networks, Google Ideas is targeting narco-trafficking, human trafficking, organ harvesting and arms dealing.

"Too often illicit networks are seen only in the silos of those who study them," Google said in an online statement. "[The INFO summit sought] to break down those silos by bringing together a full-range of stakeholders, from survivors of organ trafficking, sex trafficking and forced labor to government officials, dozens of engineers, tech leaders and product managers from Google and beyond. Through the summit…we hope to discover ways that technology can be used to expose and disrupt these networks as a whole-and to put some of these ideas into practice."

Watch a video (featuring UN.GIFT Special Advisor for Victims Rani Hong) about the summit here:

In addition to illicit networks, Google Ideas also focuses on counter-radicalization and fragile states.

Google tries to help stop human traffickers, drug cartels - DailyHerald.com

Google tries to help stop human traffickers, drug cartels - DailyHerald.com

Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt speaks Tuesday, July 17, 2012, during the Illicit Networks Forces in Opposition conference organized by Google Inc.ís think tank Google Ideas, in partnership with the Council of Foreign Relations, in Westlake Village, Calif. Google wants to take on Mexico’s powerful drug cartels, offering technological solutions to a grinding drug war that has horrified the country for the past six years.

Forget videos of cute kittens or good deals on iPads. For the past few months, Google has been quietly turning its search capabilities to something far more challenging: criminals.

Drug cartels, money launderers and human traffickers run their sophisticated operations online — and Google Ideas, Google Inc.’s think tank, is working with the Council on Foreign Relations and other organizations to look for ways to use technology to disrupt international crime.

Officials from Google and groups that combat illicit networks met in Westlake Village, Calif., to develop strategies for fighting global crime.

“Google is in a great position to take these on,” said Rani Hong, a survivor of child trafficking in India who is now a special adviser to the United Nations. “They’re a powerful medium and they have great tools to solve this problem.”

Dozens will attend the summit, including Kimmie Weeks, a former abducted child soldier from Liberia; Juan Pablo Escobar, son of slain Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar; assistant U.S. defense secretary Andrew Weber; and Brian Dodd, who directs the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s counter-terrorism and transnational crime efforts.

“It might sound like a different path for Google, but technology companies today have a lot of powerful tools for bringing transparency to these illicit networks, to fight back against corruption and empower those who are trying to combat transnational crime,” said Stewart Patrick, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations who helped organize the conference.

“We all know that bad guys use the Internet, but now we’re saying the Internet can also help stop these criminals, and help survivors and advocates find each other and work together,” said Pardis Mahdavi, an assistant professor of anthropology at Pomona College who is working with Google to put a human face to criminal networks on the Web.

This week’s gathering follows a conference held in Dublin, Ireland, last year that brought together more than 60 former gang members to focus on how to end violent extremism.