Meet the Woman Making it Easier for Police to Put Child Predators Behind Bars

Via her Boca Raton-based nonprofit Child Rescue Coalition (CRC), Carly Yoost has put thousands of predators behind bars and prevented the abuse of more than 500,000 kids. That's pretty badass.

She provides technology to law enforcement agencies in 91 countries that works to identify child pornography traders, which is how they ultimately get caught and stopped. In 2016, Yoost was named a L’Oréal Paris Women of Worth National Honoree for her dedication to protecting children and putting offenders behind bars. “Knowing that we're making three arrests a day of dangerous predators and preventing the abuse of children really motivates me,” she tells InStyle.

Now, the coalition is hard at work developing new, game-changing technology called Nuela that will make it easier for investigators to recover deleted files and eventually prosecute and convict offenders. “This technology is saving children’s lives,” she says. “That’s something we should all be fighting for.”

Getting started: Yoost’s father, Hank Asher, initially developed technology that her organization now utilizes. After he passed away suddenly, Yoost founded the CRC in 2013. “The most badass thing I’ve ever done is just start this organization,” Yoost says. “After my father passed away, it really wasn't a question of should we do something. I jumped in with both feet because I knew that this technology was saving children's lives and it just had to continue. I didn't even realize how hard it would be to run an international non-profit, but I didn’t think twice about it.” Now Yoost says she and her sister are proud to carry on her father’s legacy of protecting children.

How it works: CRC's technology is offered to police for free to help them identify child pornography traders outright, rather than waiting for victims to come forward. “By identifying people who trade child pornography, law enforcement is able to go and make the arrest and it immediately stops any hands-on abuse that's actually occurring,” Yoost says, adding that 85 percent of people who trade child pornography are already perpetrating child abuse. Yoost says her company keeps digital maps with tiny red lights to show child-pornography traders who are online in real time, and this keeps her motivated. "I'm on a mission. I feel driven to keep going until we train enough officers to be able to identify all these individuals and to make sure that we're finding the worst ones who are posing the highest risk to children."

Ladies of L’Oréal: When Yoost became a L’Oréal Paris Women of Worth National Honoree in 2016, she was paired with Blake Lively who gave Yoost her award and became an advocate for the organization. “She's stayed a great friend to our organization,” Yoost says. “We were able to train 79 new officers throughout the United States with the money she personally donated.”

Women in power: “Women, I think, are the biggest drivers of change,” Yoost says, when asked about her female-led organization. “They have so much kindness and compassion, which draws them to be in nonprofits. And I don't consider kindness and compassion a weakness. I think it's a strength of women who want to change the world.”

For more information on CRC, resources for parents, businesses, and more visit childrescuecoalition.org.