The launch of the Child Exploitation Tracking System (CETS) in Toronto in 2005.

Click here to learn more about CETS.

Child Exploitation Tracking System (CETS)

In 2003, Kinsa’s founder, Paul Gillespie, sent an email to Bill Gates, the founder and Chairman of Microsoft, to solicit his support in stopping the exploitation of children on the Internet. At the time Paul was the head of the Child Exploitation Section of the Toronto Police Service Sex Crimes Unit. "With the Internet, the bad guys had figured out a better way to hide their tracks while committing crime at new levels. Law enforcement hadn't learned how to use the Internet to gain the upper hand", said Gillespie about the increasing challenges that his department was facing when trying to fight online sexual exploitation of children.

Mr. Gates responded to Gillespie’s passionate email, and as a result, law enforcement from around the world and Microsoft collaborated to create CETS – the Child Exploitation Tracking System – which is now widely regarded as the most advanced investigative tool available to law enforcement. Using Web-based technology, CETS was designed by investigators for investigators, to enable them to search, share, and collaborate on investigations. Based on Extensible Markup Language (XML), CETS gives investigators the ability to provide and receive information from any law enforcement agency in the world regardless of the type of hardware or software they are using. CETS is a powerful tool that brings together the global community to work in partnership, investigating computer facilitated crimes against children.

CETS is being used by over 40 agencies in Canada and has been deployed in Indonesia, Italy, The United Kingdom, Brazil, Chile, Spain, Romania, Poland and Australia. It has become a central component of the Kinsa International Law Enforcement Training.