A 17-year-old Michigan boy kills himself after he’s financially sextorted online by someone in Nigeria. A 5-year-old Iowa girl is repeatedly re-victimized as images and videos of her being sexually abused are shared online in other countries, including Denmark, Australia and Germany. The sexual exploitation of a 9-year-old North Carolina girl is being live streamed in Brazil.
Children today face dangers not just in this country but from around the world. With the internet, child predators have found new ways to sexually exploit children and share images and videos of this abuse online with little fear of getting caught. As a result, child protection in the United States has become a global challenge that has steadily intensified. As the internet has removed borders and barriers to how U.S. children are sexually abused online, NCMEC has stepped up to meet this challenge and to address the global threat of online child sexual exploitation.
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) operates the CyberTipline, the designated place in the U.S. to report suspected online child sexual exploitation. Last year alone, it received a staggering 32 million reports, with more than 93% linked to other countries. With each new emerging online threat, NCMEC has developed innovative ways to help protect and rescue children and bring their abusers to justice, not just in this country but around the world.
