ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 26,
2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Imagine your child goes
missing—they run away, are abducted, or vanish while playing
outside. Or imagine being a child, sexually abused, with videos of
your suffering distributed online. Or a teenager who's being
sextorted online, feeling helpless and alone. As a law enforcement
officer, you might face your first missing child case or need help
identifying a child seen in a sexually abusive image. The
hopelessness would be overwhelming.
![NCMEC Logo (PRNewsfoto/National Center for Missing & Exploited Children) NCMEC Logo (PRNewsfoto/National Center for Missing & Exploited Children)](https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1768233/NCMEC_Heart_Logo__002_Logo.jpg)
Four decades ago, Congress recognized the urgent need for a
national resource center to help parents, child victims, and law
enforcement when a child goes missing or is exploited. After John
and Revé Walsh's son Adam was abducted and murdered, they dedicated
themselves to making the world safer for children. Congress
responded in 1984 by designating and funding the National Center
for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) to serve as the
nation's clearinghouse to protect children. Last week, President
Biden reauthorized funding for NCMEC, underscoring its critical
role.
Many know NCMEC for our vital work disseminating AMBER Alerts,
circulating missing child posters in the media or responding to
reports of online child sexual exploitation via our CyberTipline.
In fact, NCMEC's efforts extend far beyond these critical programs.
This year, as we mark our 40th anniversary, we continue to operate
16 diverse child protection programs under our Congressional
authorization. NCMEC operates a 24/7 Call Center, manages public
leads on missing children, and provides free training to Federal,
state, local, and Tribal law enforcement and safety education to
schools and communities. Our Child Victim Identification Program
assists law enforcement in identifying children depicted in
sexually explicit imagery, and we offer crucial support to parents
facing the crises of missing or sexually exploited
children.
NCMEC's assistance touches every town and state, with calls for
help rising from a few hundred in 1984 to over 148,000 in 2023;
missing child cases increasing from a few dozen to over 28,000 last
year, and CyberTipline reports surging from 4,500 in 1998 to over
36 million in 2023. New threats, including child sex trafficking,
online enticement, and AI-generated child sexual abuse material,
are constantly emerging and challenging our team to innovate new
ways to protect America's children.
Throughout NCMEC's four decades, we have been able to rely on
our Congressional supporters to help fund our activities and to
work across the chambers and across the aisle to pass child
protection legislation that strengthens the capabilities of law
enforcement, private attorneys, prosecutors, social service
workers, and NCMEC. Our organization is fortunate to be a
public-private partnership, which enables us to also work closely
with and benefit from the support of corporate and private
supporters. As detailed in NCMEC's new reauthorization, this
public-private partnership allows us to more rapidly distribute
geolocated missing child posters, support survivors of child
abduction and child sexual exploitation, run innovative programs
like Take It Down to remove explicit images of children from the
internet, and improve reporting of online child sexual exploitation
as set forth in the recently enacted REPORT Act.
Utilizing our authorization, technology, and partnerships, we
quickly provide resources to families and law enforcement to help
find missing children; create and share massive lists of "digital
fingerprints" of child sexual abuse material with tech companies to
voluntarily detect, report, and remove this harmful content from
their platforms; and educate the public on emerging trends as the
landscape of child protection changes.
We appreciate our Congressional champions who have fought with
us to protect children. We are especially thankful to members of
the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations
Subcommittee, including the leadership of Senator Shaheen, Senator
Moran, Congressman Rogers, and Congressman
Cartwright.
Today, more than ever, Congress, the private sector, and the
public must work together to thwart offenders who seek to abduct,
entice, sextort, traffic, and sexually exploit and abuse America's
children. As challenges to child safety continue to evolve, NCMEC,
law enforcement, and all our child protection partners must
continue our efforts to keep children safer. Only by working
together can we help ensure that every child enjoys a safe
childhood.
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SOURCE The National Center for Missing & Exploited
Children