Featuring Testimony from Tim Tebow, Experts, and Parents
WASHINGTON — Today, U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism, held a hearing exposing the rampant child trafficking that exploits and abuses the most vulnerable among us. Senator Hawley heard testimony from Tim Tebow, Founder and CEO of the Tim Tebow Foundation, on the courageous work he and his organization do to rescue children and combat corrupt trafficking networks.
“Let me ask you about some folks who are in the dark hour of need,” Senator Hawley said. “I’ve got a chart… showing the increase in the production of child sex abuse material just in the United States online… in 2023 alone, there were 104,370,572 separate images and videos of suspected child abuse reported in the United States of America… How many kids are unidentified?”
Tim Tebow responded, “Well, it’s really hard to know. What I was going on was strictly just the ICSE (International Child Sexual Exploitation) database and in that we know that there are 89,000… but that’s just one database. And so one of the things that we would ask and plead this committee to work on is an international treaty of getting all of the different databases to work together, to deconflict so we actually get a ground truth on what the number is.”
“Can you tell us what this image depicts?” Senator Hawley asked, referencing a map of the United States covered in red pinpoints.
Tebow answered, “That’s a DOJ database. In every one of those red dot maps is a unique IP address that has downloaded, shared or distributed child rape images, almost all under the age of 12. And that’s just a six month screenshot of it. There are over 338,000 on there.”
“What does Operation Renewed Hope do?” Senator Hawley questioned.
Tebow replied, “It’s bringing together law enforcement and victim identification specialists from all over the world to work together in the same room with the best technology and the best training. And it’s amazing what happens when you do that, to be able to see the results.”
Senator Hawley asked Jane Doe, the mother of a survivor, “Have you had any experience with the social media platforms where this material often circulates? And this is child sex abuse material. Have you worked with them? Have you asked them to take down your daughter’s pictures? What’s your experience with them been like?”
Jane Doe responded, “I’ve been fighting since day one. That’s all I do. I contact people. I hound people down. I said, if we were famous if she was a celebrity, those pictures would be down. I said, she’s not famous. She’s famous to me, but evidently not famous enough to the world unless people here do something about it. I’ve asked repeatedly, I’ve hired lawyers… I had a fight with Google about it, saying, for the safety of my child, you have to get these images off.”
Senator Hawley replied, “Why do you think these social media companies aren’t more proactive in taking down this material?”
Jane Doe responded, “Because they’re making money off of it. They’re profiting.”
Senator Hawley concluded, “We could pass legislation that would fully fund new victim identification specialists/analysts on a permanent basis into the Department of Homeland Security and wherever else they might be helpful. We could do that on a permanent basis and that would have a tremendous effect in identifying these kids, rescuing these kids, and bringing their perpetrators to justice… It’s time for Congress to pass legislation that removes the section 230 shield that prevents these companies from ever being held accountable… No victim in here today, not a one of you can get into court against these social media companies. That is just wrong, and I’ll tell you why it is. It’s because the amount of money that flows to this body from those companies keeps the courtroom door shut for you. We need to open it up, and we need to say that you are more important than any amount of money. The Senate has the chance to do that.”
Watch the full hearing here.