Bending the Arc

Earlier this week, the Senate Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism held a hearing entitled, "Lost and Exploited: Confronting Child Trafficking and the Failure to Protect America's Most Vulnerable."  

During the hearing, the following testimony was presented:

• Tim Tebow, Founder and Chairman of the Tim Tebow Foundation showed a map of the U.S. displaying 338,984 unique Internet addresses that have shared Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) of children under the age of 12 being tied up, tortured, and raped.
• Yasmin Vafa, Executive Director of Rights4Girls shared that one survivor from Los Angeles spent six months at age 16 telling every one of her adult buyers that she was being trafficked against her will and that she needed help. Not one buyer helped her. Each year hundreds of American children are arrested for prostitution— despite the fact that no child can legally consent to sex. The arrests leave survivors vulnerable to further victimization and trauma in the youth justice system.
• A Mother of CSAM Victim described how her child, a victim of familial exploitation and trafficking, is revictimized every day through sexual abuse in online images that were created when she was an infant.
• Julia Einbond, Chief Executive Officer, Covenant House New Jersey advocated emphasized that identification of vulnerabilities and of trafficking itself is a needed intervention for children.
• Staca Shehan, Vice President, Analytical Services Division, National Center for Missing & Exploited Children anticipates that reports of online child sex trafficking will continue to increase and the identification of child victims of online exploitation will require a sophisticated blend of technology, human analytical review, and post-recovery resources for victimized children.

Given these realities, we encourage you to contact your Senators and Representatives to encourage passage of the following suite of bills:

• H.R. 1144: Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act of 2025 which includes education and prevention provisions, would support a survivors’ employment and education program, and authorize housing assistance grants for survivors.
• H.R. 6998: Renewed Hope Act for the Department of Homeland Security to hire forensics analysts and child exploitation investigators to investigate child trafficking and exploitation.
• S. 1829/H.R. 3921:STOP CSAM Act to combat the sexual exploitation of children by supporting victims and promoting accountability and transparency by the technology industry.
• S.2012/H.R. 3856: Runaway and Homeless Youth and Trafficking Prevention Act (RHYTPA) to reauthorize housing and transitional living grants.
   

ACT NOW