What we did
Media Relations
Thought Leadership
Message Development
Research Promotion
Newsjacking
Policy Communications
Industry
Background
Thorn is a nonprofit dedicated to defending children from sexual abuse. As generative AI tools spread, a new threat emerged with them: AI-generated child sexual abuse material, or AIG-CSAM. Thorn partnered with Gregory to raise public awareness of the risk and to establish itself as the authoritative voice on child safety in the AI era.
The centerpiece of that effort was Thorn’s “Safety by Design” framework, developed in partnership with All Tech is Human. The initiative called on tech companies to build child protection measures into AI development from the start, rather than retrofitting them after harm occurred. Thorn needed the framework to land with force — in national headlines and inside the companies building these systems.
Challenge
AIG-CSAM was a little-known risk competing for attention in a crowded AI news cycle. Most generative AI coverage focused on jobs and copyright fights. Child safety rarely made the story. Thorn needed sustained national visibility and a way to keep the issue in front of reporters long after a single launch moment passed.
Gregory built the campaign around Thorn’s subject matter experts, led by Dr. Rebecca Portnoff, VP of Data Science. We developed a multi-spokesperson approach with customized messaging and a curated media list built from deep research into the trust and safety, AI, and child protection beats. Newsjacking and policy response moments kept Thorn visible well beyond the launch.
Solution
Gregory secured an exclusive with The Wall Street Journal to launch the Safety by Design framework, then followed with briefings across national, tech, policy, and parenting media that landed interviews for Thorn’s key spokespeople. When breaking policy news hit — including the Take It Down Act — we moved fast to position Thorn’s experts as go-to sources.
Over the course of the year, we launched two research reports on deepfakes and placed Thorn experts in coverage tied to lawsuits and federal legislation. Dr. Portnoff appeared in 75% of all coverage. She was named to MIT Technology Review’s “Innovators Under 35” and Fast Company’s “AI 20,” and TechCrunch profiled her in its “Women In AI” series. The Safety by Design framework drew public commitments from Amazon, Meta, Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, and others, moving the industry toward meaningful change on an issue few had heard of a year earlier.
By the Numbers
