[House Hearing, 118 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]


                         PROTECTING MISSING AND
                           EXPLOITED CHILDREN

=======================================================================

                                HEARING

                               BEFORE THE

                    SUBCOMMITTEE ON EARLY CHILDHOOD, 
                    ELEMENTARY, SECONDARY EDUCATION

                                 OF THE

                COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND THE WORKFORCE
                     U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                    ONE HUNDRED EIGHTEENTH CONGRESS

                             SECOND SESSION

                               __________

            HEARING HELD IN WASHINGTON, DC, FEBRUARY 6, 2024

                               __________

                           Serial No. 118-35

                               __________

  Printed for the use of the Committee on Education and the Workforce
  
[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]  


        Available via: edworkforce.house.gov or www.govinfo.gov
        
                               __________

                   U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE                    
56-414 PDF                  WASHINGTON : 2024                    
          
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------         
       
                COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND THE WORKFORCE

               VIRGINIA FOXX, North Carolina, Chairwoman

JOE WILSON, South Carolina           ROBERT C. ``BOBBY'' SCOTT, 
GLENN THOMPSON, Pennsylvania             Virginia,
TIM WALBERG, Michigan                  Ranking Member
GLENN GROTHMAN, Wisconsin            RAUL M. GRIJALVA, Arizona
ELISE M. STEFANIK, New York          JOE COURTNEY, Connecticut
RICK W. ALLEN, Georgia               GREGORIO KILILI CAMACHO SABLAN,
JIM BANKS, Indiana                     Northern Mariana Islands
JAMES COMER, Kentucky                FREDERICA S. WILSON, Florida
LLOYD SMUCKER, Pennsylvania          SUZANNE BONAMICI, Oregon
BURGESS OWENS, Utah                  MARK TAKANO, California
BOB GOOD, Virginia                   ALMA S. ADAMS, North Carolina
LISA McCLAIN, Michigan               MARK DeSAULNIER, California
MARY MILLER, Illinois                DONALD NORCROSS, New Jersey
MICHELLE STEEL, California           PRAMILA JAYAPAL, Washington
RON ESTES, Kansas                    SUSAN WILD, Pennsylvania
JULIA LETLOW, Louisiana              LUCY McBATH, Georgia
KEVIN KILEY, California              JAHANA HAYES, Connecticut
AARON BEAN, Florida                  ILHAN OMAR, Minnesota
ERIC BURLISON, Missouri              HALEY M. STEVENS, Michigan
NATHANIEL MORAN, Texas               TERESA LEGER FERNANDEZ, New Mexico
JOHN JAMES, Michigan                 KATHY E. MANNING, North Carolina
LORI CHAVEZ-DeREMER, Oregon          FRANK J. MRVAN, Indiana
BRANDON WILLIAMS, New York           JAMAAL BOWMAN, New York
ERIN HOUCHIN, Indiana

                       Cyrus Artz, Staff Director
              Veronique Pluviose, Minority Staff Director
                                 ------                                

  SUBCOMMITTEE ON EARLY CHILDHOOD, ELEMENTARY, AND SECONDARY EDUCATION

                     AARON BEAN, Florida, Chairman

GLENN THOMPSON, Pennsylvania         SUZANNE BONAMICI, Oregon,
BURGESS OWENS, Utah                    Ranking Member
LISA McCLAIN, Michigan               RAUL GRIJALVA, Arizona
MARY MILLER, Illinois                GREGORIO KILILI CAMACHO SABLAN,
MICHELLE STEEL, California             Northern Mariana Islands
KEVIN KILEY, California              JAHANA HAYES, Connecticut
NATHANIEL MORAN, Texas               JAMAAL BOWMAN, New York
BRANDON WILLIAMS, New York           FREDERICA WILSON, Florida
VIRGINIA FOXX, North Carolina        MARK DeSAULNIER, California
                                     DONALD NORCROSS, New Jersey
                        
                        
                        C  O  N  T  E  N  T  S

                              ----------                              
                                                                   Page

Hearing held on February 6, 2024.................................     1

                           OPENING STATEMENTS

    Bean, Hon. Aaron, Chairman, Subcommittee on Early Childhood, 
      Elementary, and Secondary Education........................     1
        Prepared statement of....................................     4
    Bonamici, Hon. Suzanne, Ranking Member, Subcommittee on Early 
      Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education.............     6
        Prepared statement of....................................     8

                               WITNESSES

    DeLaune, Michelle C., President and CEO, The National Center 
      for Missing and Exploited Children.........................    10
        Prepared statement of....................................    13

                        QUESTIONS FOR THE RECORD

    Responses to questions submitted for the record by:
        Ms. Michelle DeLaune.....................................    49

 
                         PROTECTING MISSING AND
                           EXPLOITED CHILDREN

                              ----------                              


                       Tuesday, February 6, 2024

                  House of Representatives,
  Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and 
                               Secondary Education,
                  Committee on Education and the Workforce,
                                                    Washington, DC.
    The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:15, a.m., 
2175 Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Aaron Bean [Chairman 
of the Subcommittee] presiding.
    Present: Representatives Bean, Owens, Miller, Kiley, Moran, 
Foxx, Bonamici, Sablan, Hayes, DeSaulnier, Norcross, and Scott.
    Staff present: Cyrus Artz, Staff Director; Mindy Barry, 
General Counsel; Isabel Foster, Press Assistant; Georgie 
Littlefair, Clerk; RJ Martin, Professional Staff Member; Hannah 
Matesic, Deputy Staff Director; Audra McGeorge, Communications 
Director; Eli Mitchell, Legislative Assistant; Rebecca Powell, 
Staff Assistant; Brad Thomas, Deputy Director of Education and 
Human Services Policy; Maura Williams, Director of Operations; 
Nekea Brown, Minority Director of Operations; Rashage Green, 
Minority Director of Education Policy & Counsel; Christian 
Haines, Minority General Counsel; Joan Hoyte, Minority NLRB 
Detailee; Stephanie Lalle, Minority Communications Director; 
Olivia McDonald, Minority Staff Assistant; Kota Mizutani, 
Minority Deputy Communications Director; Veronique Pluviose, 
Minority Staff Director; Theresa Tilling-Thompson, Minority 
Professional Staff; Adrianna Toma, Minority Intern; Banyon 
Vassar, Minority IT.
    Chairman Bean. A very good morning ladies and gentlemen, 
and welcome to the Subcommittee on Early Childhood Elementary 
and Secondary Education. The Committee will now come to order. 
A quorum is present. Without objection, the Chair is authorized 
to call a recess at any time.
    We have got a serious topic, ladies and gentlemen, that we 
are about to engage in. It is discussing the National Center 
for Missing and Exploited Children, or NCMEC as some will say. 
I want to present a picture of the world for anybody that is 
over 40, I would guess.
    There was a time when we grew up that we could play in the 
street, play ball in the street until dark unsupervised, or 
play tag in the wood. Then something happened. Something 
happened to our Nation where darkness came upon us, and evil 
raised its ugly head, and children became less safe.
    One of those evil acts that was taken against children 
happened sometime in the 80's. Adam Walsh, and this is just a 
horrible, horrible case, but out of it--out of it came 
legislation by this Congress where Ronald Reagan, then 
President Ronald Reagan signed the Missing Children Assistant 
Act. The MCAA allowed NCMEC to become the national resource 
center in 1984 with the goal of protecting children from 
abduction, exploitation and abuse.
    Last year--last year NCMEC helped authorities with 30,000 
cases. The NCMEC mission encompasses a range of vital 
activities from helping locate missing children, to providing 
support for victims of abduction, and sexual exploitation. The 
organization works tirelessly to prevent these tragedies from 
occurring in the first place, creating a safer world for our 
children.
    The organization operates the cyber tip line, 24/7 cyber 
tip line, and that has assisted law enforcement across the 
country in the investigation of suspected child exploitation. 
Since it was established in 1998, the cyber tip line has 
received more than 183 million reports. It has proven 
instrumental in combatting the crazy world, online world, that 
we talked about, Ms. DeLaune, just a few minutes ago about how 
the world is changing.
    The NCMEC offers hope in times of unimaginable despair. 
Furthermore, NCMEC actively engaged in prevention education 
initiatives through efforts of Team Hope, NCMEC raises 
awareness about online safety, human trafficking, and the 
various risks children may face in today's digital age.
    In an online era, which brings with it new opportunities 
and challenges, NCMEC stands at the forefront combatting child 
exploitation on social media through partnerships with law 
enforcement and the private sector NCMEC has developed 
innovative solutions to address the evolving landscape of 
online threats against our children.
    Just last week the country watched as big tech CEOs 
received sharp criticism for rampant child exploitation on 
their platforms. NCMEC is more important now than ever. Their 
commitment extends beyond the home front collaborating with 
international organizations to combat the global issue of child 
exploitation in a world that is increasingly interconnected, 
such collaboration ensures the united effort against 
international trafficking threats.
    By supporting NCMEC we contribute to the safety and well-
being of all children, ensuring that they can grow up in an 
environment where they are protected, nurtured and allowed to 
flourish. That is why I introduced the Missing Children's 
Assistance Act of 2023, which would update the law and give 
NCMEC additional tools to achieve its mission.
    At the opening ceremony for NCMEC, President Reagan 
remarked, ``All Americans, especially our youth, should have 
the right and opportunity to walk our streets, to play, to 
grow, and to live their lives without being at risk.'' To echo 
Reagan, I want to--I want that same, safe upbringing for future 
generations, and NCMEC, I believe, is the indispensable partner 
in achieving that goal.
    With that, I look forward to talking, and having a 
conversation. For her testimony, Michelle DeLaune, about her 
work, about leading NCMEC. Right now, I yield to Ranking Member 
Bonamici for an opening statement. Good morning.
    [The prepared statement of Chairman Bean follows:]
    [GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
    
    Ms. Bonamici. Good morning. Thank you, Chairman Bean, and 
thank you, Ms. DeLaune for your leadership, and for your 
testimony today. I appreciate that we are addressing an issue 
that demands our attention, and bipartisan action. Every child 
deserves a safe, loving home to have their basic needs met. 
When a child goes missing or suffers abuse, families experience 
unimaginable pain and horror, and for children the trauma is 
much worse.
    Many survivors of exploitation or abuse fear showing their 
face, socializing, or even leaving the home. This pain has 
multiplied in recent years. We have seen a disturbing rise in 
reported exploitation and child abuse cases, particularly 
online, as the Chairman was saying, for example.
    In 2023, NCMEC received a staggering 36 million reports of 
child sexual exploitation from public and electronic service 
providers, like Apple, Facebook and Google to its CyberTip 
line. That is almost 100,000 tips a day. Unfortunately, more 
than 6,700 of these reports were from my home State of Oregon. 
These reports include videos, photos, and other heinous 
content, containing child sexual abuse material, and materials 
intended to entice traffic and abuse minors.
    I recently visited Amani Center, it's in St. Helens, 
Oregon. As a child advocacy center, the staff at Amani provide 
forensic child abuse assessments in support for children and 
their families who may have been affected by abuse or neglect. 
During my visit I heard about the particular challenges that 
the Amani Center faces serving primarily rural communities.
    This visit reaffirmed my commitment that Congress can and 
should do more to help save lives by providing the investment 
and improvements needed to prevent child abuse and neglect, and 
to help families flourish. Today these issues have become more 
complex and challenging, making our work even more critical.
    Cell phones, and other technology play a crucial role in 
improving communication between parents and children, 
oftentimes allowing parents to know the whereabouts of their 
children, but that same technology is also a gateway for sexual 
perpetrators on social media to have unfettered access to our 
children.
    Artificial intelligence can help search for and identify 
problems, but privacy issues add a layer of complication. We 
know that NCMEC has reported an exponential growth in reports 
of online enticement, including sextortion, growing from 80,000 
in 2022 to 186,000 in 2023.
    We know that online providers are required by law to 
disclose cases of child sexual exploitation. They are, however, 
not required to proactively monitor or remove sexual abusive or 
exploitive content from their platforms. Needless to say, this 
creates significant gaps in protecting students online.
    As we saw from last week's Senate Judiciary hearing, these 
companies are not able to adequately address the exploitation 
of children on their platforms. Vulnerable youth are at 
heightened risk of endangerment. Children of color are 
overrepresented in missing children's cases. From 2016 to 2020, 
31 percent of children reported missing to NCMEC were black, 
despite making up only 14 percent of the U.S. population. 
Additionally as we have discussed in this Committee before, 
LGBTQI+ youth face disproportionate rates of experiencing 
homelessness, often caused by fleeing abuse or rejection by 
family.
    No child should be in harm's way, or exploited because of 
who they are, or who they love. Members on both sides of the 
aisle have long agreed that NCMEC is essential to protecting 
and supporting exploited children, as well as restoring hope 
for parents and loved ones.
    Today, NCMEC is working diligently to keep pace with 
innovative technology and get ahead of evolving threats to our 
children's safety. Ms. DeLaune, under your leadership NCMEC has 
implemented new programs such as Take it Down, a wonderful 
program I must say.
    This very important, certainly necessary tool to combat the 
growing problem of online child sexual exploitation, by 
assisting families and survivors with removing sexually 
explicit images of children from the internet. Thank you for 
that program.
    You should be able to count on Congress for the support you 
need to continue this critical work, and frankly, it is 
unacceptable that we have let NCMEC's authorization lapse. My 
colleagues, Representative Courtney, and of course Subcommittee 
Chair Bean have introduced the Missing Children's Assistance 
Reauthorization Act of 2023, which makes several important 
improvements to NCMEC, and importantly reauthorizes NCMEC's 
grant program.
    I am proud to cosponsor this bill, and call on my 
colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support this 
legislation, and help it move to the full House for a vote. 
NCMEC is also an important partner in supporting runaway youth, 
support of both the National Runaway Safe Line, and the 
expansion of evidence-based practices and interventions for 
families will allow our Nation to better support youth who are 
at the greatest risk of running away or experiencing 
homelessness.
    I look forward to also discussing my bipartisan bicameral 
Runaway and Homeless Youth and Trafficking Prevent Act. The 
bottom line is that protecting the safety of our Nation's 
children requires all of us to do this work together, and I 
know we can. Congress must fulfill its duty to reauthorize 
critical programs like the Missing Children's Assistance Act 
which funds NCMEC.
    The work of NCMEC is too critical to be caught up in the 
dysfunction of Congress. I look forward to continuing to work 
with NCMEC and all of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle 
to protect missing and exploited children. Thank you again for 
being here, and I yield back the balance of my time.
    [The prepared statement of Ranking Member Bonamici 
follows:]
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

    Chairman Bean. Ranking Member Bonamici, thank you very 
much. Great remarks, and most Committee members have signed on 
to the bill, and if you have not, we would welcome that. 
Pursuant to Committee Rule 8(c), all Committee members who wish 
to insert written statements for the record may do so by 
submitting them to Committee Clerk electronically in Microsoft 
Word format by 5 p.m. after 14 days of the date of the hearing 
which is February 20, 2024.
    Without objection, the hearing will remain open for 14 days 
after the date of the hearing to allow such statements and 
other extraneous materials referenced in the hearing to be 
submitted for the official record. I note for the Subcommittee 
that some of my colleagues who are not permanent members of the 
Committee may be waving on for the purpose of today's hearing.
    Now I have the privilege of introducing today's witness. 
Michelle DeLaune was appointed President and CEO of NCMEC in 
April 2022. Since she began her career at NCMEC two decades 
ago, Ms. DeLaune has held numerous positions, most recently 
serving 8 years as the Chief Operating Officer.
    Under her leadership new programs have been implemented to 
better serve our vulnerable populations, including child sex 
trafficking, recovering planning team, and NCMEC's child victim 
identification program, which has contributed to the 
identification and rescue of thousands of children from 
sexually abusive situations.
    On numerous occasions, Ms. DeLaune has testified before 
Congress about matters pertaining to the sexual exploitation of 
children and has represented NCMEC at high-level events around 
the world. She has written articles regarding the importance of 
identifying child victims depicted in sexually abusive 
materials. She received her BA with a major in psychology from 
George Mason University, and an MA in criminology from the 
University of Maryland at College Park.
    Ms. DeLaune, welcome. We are glad to have you here, and you 
are--ooh, pursuant to Committee Rules, I would ask you limit 
your oral testimony to 5 minutes of summary of written 
statement. I want to remind the witness to be aware of her 
responsibility to provide accurate information to the 
Subcommittee.
    We met earlier, and you are a pro at this, and you have got 
a great story to tell. Michelle DeLaune, welcome to the 
Committee, and you are recognized.

   STATEMENT OF MS. MICHELLE DELAUNE, PRESIDENT AND CEO, THE 
NATIONAL CENTER FOR MISSING AND EXPLOITED CHILDREN, ARLINGTON, 
                            VIRGINIA

    Ms. DeLaune. Thank you very much, Chairman. Good morning, 
Chairman Bean, Ranking Member Bonamici and members of the 
Subcommittee. My name is Michelle DeLaune, and I am the 
President and CEO at the National Center for Missing and 
Exploited Children, often called NCMEC.
    I am honored to be here today to share NCMEC's essential 
work to ensure that children are safe from abduction and 
exploitation, and to discuss the emerging dangers facing our 
children.
    I would like to thank the Committee for its vital role in 
authorizing NCMEC's vital work. Without your support we would 
not be able to provide lifesaving programs and services to 
hundreds of thousands of children, family, law enforcement, and 
child serving professionals every year.
    NCMEC is a non-profit organization created 40 years ago in 
response to the unthinkable tragedy that the Chairman 
mentioned, the abduction and murder of 6-year-old Adam Walsh. 
Today, NCMEC operates as a public, private partnership with 
over 450 employees working to help find missing children, stop 
child sexual exploitation, and prevent child victimization.
    In my written testimony, I provide additional details of 
our many programs to protect children, but this morning I would 
like to focus on how NCMEC is addressing the current threats 
facing our children.
    Finding missing children has always been core to our 
mission. Last year we assisted with 28,000 cases of missing 
children, by providing customized case management services, 
analytical resources, photo distribution, and mental health 
peer and recovery support.
    We continue to see substantial increases in children going 
missing from foster care, including over 22,000 reports just 
last year. Children who run from foster care are especially 
susceptible to endangerments.
    Last year 19 percent of the children who went missing from 
foster care were likely victims of child sex trafficking. We 
continue to evolve to address these emerging trends to find 
missing children and facilitate their safe recovery.
    For example, one technology has allowed us to hyper 
localize missing child posters. In fact, we created a universal 
QR code that allows members of the public to receive photos of 
the children that went missing within a 50-mile radius of their 
location. We are also developing a major update right now to 
our electronic reporting system to help social service agencies 
more easily report children who are missing from care.
    We are also very proud of our unique recovery services team 
that works hand in hand with social service agencies. We can 
personalize a recovery plan for individual missing children who 
are being victimized by child sex trafficking. We appreciate--I 
am sorry, the Committee's recognition of this important program 
by adding it to our reauthorization.
    We also play a vital role in combatting online child sexual 
exploitation. Our CyberTipline is the congressionally 
designated mechanism for reports of online and suspected child 
sexual exploitation. Last year the CyberTipline received more 
than 36 million reports containing more than 105 million images 
and videos of suspected child sexual exploitation.
    To put that in context, that is equivalent to receiving one 
report every second of every day for the entire year. Incidents 
of children who are being enticed online continue to grow. In 
the past 5 years we have seen a 500 percent increase in these 
types of reports. Sextortion is an especially dangerous type of 
enticement.
    When somebody threatens to distribute nude or sexual images 
of a child to their family and friends unless that child 
provides more explicit images. We were also among the first to 
recognize financial sextortion, which is a form of enticement 
where an offender blackmails a child for money instead of 
images.
    This crime aggressively targets often teenage boys. 
Tragically, NCMEC is aware of more than a dozen children who 
have taken their lives in the past 2 years after falling victim 
to financial sextortion. We are also familiar with the immense 
uncertainty caused by the explosion of artificial intelligence. 
At NCMEC we are starting to see our worst fears about this 
technology come to fruition.
    Last year we received over 4,700 reports in which AI tools 
were used to create sexually explicit images of children, and 
we anticipate that the dramatic increases will continue as AI 
tools become more accessible, and easier to use. End to end 
encryption poses another challenge to online child protection.
    We strongly impose the implementation of end-to-end 
encryption without the proven ability to detect, report and 
remove child sexual abuse material. Because of these threats, 
we continue to evolve our programmatic response.
    Last year, NCMEC built a new lifesaving program called Take 
it Down. When a child believes that nude or sexual images in 
which they are depicted may be shared online, we will provide 
tech companies with critical information they need to detect 
and take down the images.
    Two, we have incorporated sophisticated machine learning 
into the CyberTipline. These tools help us elevate reports with 
imminent harm facing a child, so they can be addressed by law 
enforcement immediately. Three, we will continue to partner 
with diverse stakeholders to find solutions to ensure a child's 
safety is prioritized in encrypted platforms.
    In closing, Chairman Bean, Congressman Courtney, I thank 
you for your leadership in introducing the Missing Children 
Assistance Reauthorization Act. This legislation provides vital 
funding to NCMEC's core operations, and much needed updates to 
our programs to protect children because like you, everyone at 
NCMEC, we believe that children deserve a safe childhood.
    Thank you for the opportunity to appear today. I look 
forward to answering any questions you may have on NCMEC's 
programs and reauthorization.
    [The prepared statement of Michelle DeLaune follows:]
    [GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
    
    Chairman Bean. Ms. DeLaune, thank you so much. That was 
excellent. I want to note to everybody that your written 
testimony is 17 pages, it has charts, graphs, it has State 
specific information, and our members have been looking at all 
of the work that you do. As I mentioned that I grew up in the 
70's and 80's, and we played in the street, but we did not have 
to worry about the internet, or being held hostage by some 
stranger having a picture or something.
    Your tool, Ranking Bonamici mentioned it, you talked about 
it in testimony to the Senate, the Take it Down. Take it Down 
were in these instances of a picture, or some type of 
discontent that you help young people get these pictures 
removed. Will you--can you tell us, or walk us through how you 
do it, and how I can, or we can get the message out that this 
is an available service?
    Ms. DeLaune. Thank you, Chairman. It is an innovative 
program, really a first of its kind for children. It really 
developed out of this growing reports that we were receiving 
from children who were saying that somebody asked them to take 
a photograph, and now they cannot get it back. The aggressive 
nature in which it occurs is frightening.
    For many years sextortion was happening. It was happening 
more often to young girls asking for images. Now, in the last 
few years, we have seen it really kind of flipped on its head. 
For money, it is financial sextortion, and very often targeting 
teen boys.
    Over the years, all of our internet safety messaging has 
been do not send a photo. Once you put it out there you cannot 
get it back. While this is true, we will continue to advise not 
to send explicit images. Of course, kids will make mistakes. 
When those images actually get out there it is a very 
disheartening thing to think it is never gone, there is no 
recourse.
    We created Take it Down. We created Take it Down as an 
empowerment tool for kids that if they are in an image that 
they believe is being shared, or could be shared, they can come 
to our website. It is a very simple process, three questions. 
There is no personal identifying information included. Are you 
under the age of 18? Were you depicted in the imagery of sexual 
explicit content?
    Do you think that the images might be out there? If yes to 
all of those questions, it will allow the program to select--
the child can select the images they are concerned of. It does 
not send us the pictures. It sends us digital fingerprints of 
those files. We now have ten companies, ten big tech companies 
who voluntarily are agreeing to ingest these digital 
fingerprints, and if they detect them on their platform, they 
will remove them.
    We are, at this point, we launched the program in March of 
last year, little less than a year. Kids have asked for help 
with 100,000 videos and images that they are concerned are out 
there.
    Chairman Bean. Wow.
    Ms. DeLaune. This is something we have translated into many 
languages. It is a tool we need everybody to know about, and 
know it was mentioned often last week in the Senate Judiciary 
hearing. It is something schools need to be aware of, SROs need 
to be aware of, parents need to be aware of.
    Because it may not be your child, but it may be a child 
that is happening at schools everywhere, so we need to get this 
word out.
    Chairman Bean. Part of that is you mentioned it that we 
need to warn kids not to think twice about doing this. Ms. 
DeLaune, you have done something that few can do, which is 
unite this Committee. Unite a Congress, and Congressman 
Courtney and I have entered this bill to renew the partnership 
of the mission of NCMEC going forward.
    I am excited. I think everybody is coming together. We all 
stand against kids. Tell me some of the ways you work with law 
enforcement that we could jeopardize if we do not continue the 
mission of what is out there, what NCMEC, how you do what you 
do?
    Ms. DeLaune. Well, law enforcement is right there at the 
frontlines, working with these children who are being 
exploited, certainly doing their job, identifying and holding 
the offenders accountable. We provide an immense amount of 
technical assistance to law enforcement across all of our 
programs.
    Not only--you have 18,000 law enforcement agencies across 
this country. We provide in our clearinghouse role, a very 
important function of deconfliction, to ensure that if one law 
enforcement agency is working a particular case, that another 
agency indicates that they have information on, or need to know 
more about, we connect these agencies.
    We provide not only technical assistance from our offices, 
but also in the field. When there is a critical missing child 
case, we have a cadre of retired law enforcement with 
specialized subject matter expertise that we can deploy to work 
amongst law enforcement on the ground with these critical cases 
to bring all of our resources actually into the community.
    Chairman Bean. Nice. On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being 
extremely concerned, zero not concerned at all. How concerned 
are you about AI coming on the net right now?
    Ms. DeLaune. 11.
    Chairman Bean. 11. Very good. I know you are also gearing 
up, we talked earlier about you gearing up, and that your team 
is racing to counter what is--looks like it is on the horizon 
upcoming. You were so kind to invite me to visit the center, 
and I am going to be so bold as to share your invitation with 
all of the Committee members.
    Ms. DeLaune. Yes.
    Chairman Bean. Ms. DeLaune and her team have--has invited 
me, but invited all Committee members to come to headquarters, 
which is in Alexandria, 20 minutes, depending on traffic, right 
up the street, to come and see firsthand. She said, not my 
words, ``You'll be blown away about the work they do.'' 
Hopefully, members I am going to do it, and hopefully everybody 
else will do it. I yield now to Ranking Member Bonamici.
    Ms. Bonamici. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you for 
the invitation, Ms. DeLaune. I look forward to a visit. In 
2023, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, 
assisted with more than 28,000 cases of missing children, and 
approximately 90 percent of these cases dealt with endangered 
runaways who are highly vulnerable to exploitation, and of 
course face a number of risks, including homelessness and child 
sex trafficking.
    This Congress, I am pleased to lead, it is H.R. 6041, it is 
the bipartisan Runaway and Homeless Youth Trafficking 
Prevention Act, which would reauthorize key Federal grant 
programs to provide states with funding and services to help 
thousands of homeless young people, and survivors of sex 
trafficking.
    How critical is it to provide this at-risk population with 
services? In what ways can enhancing training and trauma 
informed care at shelters better deliver services for this 
population, which is connected, of course, to the work that you 
do at NCMEC.
    Ms. DeLaune. Thank you, Congresswoman, and thank you for 
your leadership on this issue. You touched on an incredibly 
important aspect of our missing child case work. There are a 
large number of our children who are running away from State 
care, from foster homes, from group homes. These children are 
in group homes in the child welfare system because of trauma 
that they have experienced, whether it being violence, sexual 
abuse, neglect.
    A whole host of reasons why they may be in that situation. 
All of our cases that we worked, each individual child will 
have an individualized plan based upon the endangerments facing 
that child because no two children are the same, and those are 
the endangerments that we are going to have to use when we are 
working with law enforcement and conducting our programs to try 
to search for that child.
    Having training and education within the shelters, within 
the child welfare community, is critical. This is a game sport, 
or a team sport. This is everybody in their respective roles 
being able to share information so we can better protect these 
children. We have a running list of endangerments that we are 
continually asking as a child is being intaked as missing with 
us.
    We can work directly with the child welfare officials, who 
are case managing that child, to provide them the details that 
we have, the endangerments that they have, and the experience 
that we see across the continuum with these cases.
    I will also mention about the individualized attention for 
each missing child, again, every child is different. In the 
child welfare system, they may have a new placement. They may 
have a new case worker. They may have a new law enforcement 
agency.
    NCMEC does serve as a point of continuity for these 
children, that if they do go missing that we have the details 
on them going back as long as we have known, to try to work 
with the officials to find them, not only to bring them back, 
but also to give them the necessary services that they need to 
try to break the cycle.
    Ms. Bonamici. So critical. Thank you so much for that work. 
I was surprised at what seemed like a staggering number coming 
from the child welfare system. I wanted to mention a recent 
case from my home State of Oregon. Just last month, a man was 
sentenced to 6 years in prison for possessing and distributing 
thousands of photos and videos depicting child sexual abuse.
    The investigation actually started in Ohio, but it was 
successful because they found six individual CyberTip line 
reports from NCMEC that had traced back to an IP address in the 
perpetrator's Oregon home. This is a success story, and I think 
it shows how your work is so critical. Thank you on behalf of 
Oregon, and that CyberTip line really made this case--it solved 
the case, and it got the perpetrator incarcerated.
    Can you detail how the CyberTip line works with law 
enforcement to address these cases? How can Congress improve 
this service?
    Ms. DeLaune. Oh, excellent question, and just that case 
example details what we see every day. When we receive CyberTip 
line reports that indicate that there is a possible child 
sexual exploitation occurring here in the United States, we 
work very closely with the Internet Crimes Against Children 
Task Forces, who are highly trained law enforcement officers in 
every State of the Nation.
    Not only do they respond to the cases we receive, they also 
conduct proactive investigations, which it sounds similar to 
the case that you described, and they network with each other. 
They network for best practices. In the case that you have 
described, it is not uncommon for one lead in one State to lead 
to another State.
    If you are thinking about the 36 million reports we 
received just last year, we have a lot of information that is 
valuable to law enforcement to bolster the cases that they may 
be working, or in many cases, to inform them of something 
happening in their backyard that they would not have known 
about otherwise.
    Ms. Bonamici. I assume you work with all levels, State, 
local, Federal.
    Ms. DeLaune. Yes. We work with every law enforcement agency 
that is actively working to protect children, Federal, State 
and local.
    Ms. Bonamici. In my final few seconds, how many do you have 
on your staff because it sounds like you do a lot of work.
    Ms. DeLaune. We do a lot of work. We have 460 employees, 
24-hour organization.
    Ms. Bonamici. Wonderful.
    Ms. DeLaune. Honestly, the most passionate people you will 
ever meet.
    Ms. Bonamici. I thank each and every one of them, and you 
for your leadership, and I yield back.
    Ms. DeLaune. Thank you.
    Chairman Bean. Thank you very much. Order of question is 
going to be Owens, then Hayes. From the great State of Utah, 
Representative Owens, you are recognized for questions.
    Mr. Owens. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. First of all, I 
want to thank you, Ms. DeLaune, for the work you and the 
National Center of Missing and Exploited Children, NCMEC, are 
doing to protect children, and take them out of dangerous 
situations.
    The efforts of you and your colleagues have led to the safe 
return of children across the country, including Utah. I read 
in your testimony the account of a 15-year-old girl that went 
missing from Utah and was later discovered when she and her 
boyfriend were pulled over at an immigration checkpoint.
    The daughter was restored to her family thanks to NCMEC and 
the law enforcement. I am sure families around this country are 
grateful for the work that you and your organization are doing. 
Let me just say this. The State of our culture is defined by 
how we look at our most vulnerable, and I really do appreciate 
what you guys are doing.
    I want to also accept that invitation, because I will make 
sure we take part in that. I read through--one of my first 
questions will be about sexploitation, but it looks like you 
have answered that pretty well. My question is the Take it Down 
campaign. I remember back in the days when Just Say No was a 
big deal across the country, and everybody understood it and 
saw it.
    Is there a Federal nexus where we can help in that regard 
to make sure that it becomes such a common conversation, since 
this is prevalent throughout our country right now. Is there 
something you might see in that regard that we could help to 
expand that piece out a little bit?
    Ms. DeLaune. I appreciate that, Congressman. It is such an 
important tool that is brand new, and just starting to gain 
steam, but we realize there is such a need for it. There is 
proposed legislation that is currently would fix and improve 
the Take it Down program.
    Currently, the way that it works is the child would 
indicate which images or videos they're concerned about, and we 
will take the hash values of those images because it is illegal 
for an individual to send contraband, images of a child that 
are sexually explicit.
    There is proposed legislation at this point that would 
actually allow a child to send us the images and the videos, 
which is--I cannot overState how important that would be. Right 
now, we are receiving digital fingerprints of 100,000 images 
and videos. We do not know what are in those images and videos. 
By actually seeing the content, we would have a better 
opportunity to be able to work with the tech industry to get 
those images taken down, and give these children some hope.
    Mr. Owens. Well, thanks for that. It was mentioned earlier 
by the Chairman, but we just had this hearing just recently 
with the big tech, because that is a big piece of making sure 
this all works out also. Can you tell me more about the 
partnerships and programs that NCMEC has with local communities 
and schools where to raise awareness of the threats that are 
facing our children right now?
    Ms. DeLaune. Thank you, Congressman. Yes. We have while we 
are working to find missing children, stop sexual exploitation, 
we also put great emphasis on preventing these crimes from 
happening in the first place. We have so many cases, so much 
data, so many lessons that we have learned as an organization 
over the years.
    What we do is we take the cases, we analyze them, we learn 
the lessons, and then we convert them into safety and 
prevention programming that we then need to be able to 
distribute across the country, getting them into schools, 
getting them into after school programs. Being able to teach 
children, educate children, the teachers, their families, law 
enforcement, what we see at a macro level of child exploitation 
and missing children, and provide that into the communities.
    Understandably, we are 460 people in an organization. We 
have to rely on our community partners. We have a community 
education program where we are onboarding national 
organizations, child advocacy centers, law enforcement 
entities, train them on the material that we have. Educate them 
on how they can actually deliver the programs, and then put 
them into the schools.
    All of our material is age appropriate. It is all 
bilingual. It starts at age 5, kindergarten, all the way up 
through the teenage years, with again, not scary lessons, 
rooted in fact, data driven, but very specific information for 
keeping kids safe. Our community education partners that we 
have worked with, reached an additional 25,000 children last 
year alone, so we are always going to continue to onboard the 
community members who are in the communities, at the schools, 
working with the children.
    It is our job as a clearinghouse to develop the materials, 
and make it accessible, and make as many partners as we can to 
get them into the hands of kids.
    Mr. Owens. I am going to give back my time. I just want to 
say thank you again. This is such a pertinent program, No. 1, 
and you are leading it in such a positive way. We need to make 
sure we can do our best to support you in every way we can, so 
thank you so much for your efforts, and I yield back my time.
    Ms. DeLaune. Thank you very much. I look forward to seeing 
you.
    Chairman Bean. Thank you very much. Let us go to the great 
State of Connecticut, Ms. Hayes. Representative Hayes, you are 
recognized for questions.
    Mrs. Hayes. Thank you. The National Center for Missing and 
Exploited Children plays an essential role in finding missing 
children and protecting our children from exploitation and 
abuse. In 2022, NCMEC assisted parents, law enforcement and 
child welfare agencies, with 27,644 missing children cases. As 
we have heard from my colleague, nearly 80 percent of children 
reported as missing were missing from State child welfare 
systems.
    A study conducted by the Department of Health and Human 
Services Office of Inspector General found that of 100 missing 
children episodes, State agencies only reported 33 episodes to 
NCMEC in a timely manner. Ms. DeLaune, as you know, it is 
Federal law that foster care systems report any missing 
children to NCMEC.
    Why are State child welfare systems not reporting missing 
children to NCMEC at the rate at which they are occurring? 
Additionally, what are some recommendations to ensure better 
reporting by State child welfare agencies?
    Ms. DeLaune. Thank you, Congresswoman. Excellent questions. 
The children who are missing from care continues to grow, as 
does our effort to try to educate and work with the child 
welfare professionals, not only to recognize the endangerments 
facing these children, but also to help them comply with the 
Federal law, to intake the cases of missing children to NCMEC 
and to law enforcement.
    We have been very strategic in building out education 
modules for child welfare professionals. We are engaging on a 
State by State basis to try to identify what the challenges 
are, while reports are not necessarily coming in, and we are 
also right now in the process of improving and streamlining the 
mechanism that we have for child welfare professionals to 
report because we do not want the reporting mechanism itself to 
be a barrier, and need to make it as easy as possible, as 
accessible as possible.
    Some states it is more manual. Other states have a more 
automated way of providing the reports, so we are looking to 
find harmonization across the different child welfare 
organizations, and honestly, it is a state-by-State process, 
and we have been working closely with them on that.
    Mrs. Hayes. Thank you. As we know, foster youth is at 
higher risk for trafficking and exploitation, so it is critical 
that we work to increase the rates of reporting. Last Congress, 
my legislation, the Help Find the Missing Act, also known as 
Billy's Law, was signed into law. Very proud of that.
    The bill strengthens cross communication among agency data 
bases, and provides guidance for local law enforcement 
agencies, medical examiners, and coroners, on how to best 
handle missing persons cases. Ms. DeLaune, when a missing child 
ages out of foster care systems, is there information 
transferred to the National Missing Person's and Unidentified 
Persons system, otherwise known as NAMUS?
    Ms. DeLaune. At this point, when a child, whether it be a 
child missing from foster care, whether it be a child not 
missing from foster care, when the child does pass the age of 
18, it is not an automatic entry into NAMUS. We will work with 
law enforcement, if there is a reason that they wish to put it 
there, we will help facilitate that. We have a very good 
partnership with NAMUS, and we will work with law enforcement 
on that.
    Mrs. Hayes. Can you speak a little bit to how agency 
collaboration could help us with finding missing children, 
missing adults? I mean oftentimes you have names and files just 
sitting in one office, while another office is looking for that 
person.
    Ms. DeLaune. Absolutely. Again, that is the decentralized 
law enforcement, all the different agencies that are involved 
in this. That is, I think, the key to everything. It is 
coordination, cooperation, and sharing information. NCMEC on 
the child side does that. You know, in terms of ensuring that 
regardless of where a child goes missing, we are providing that 
deconfliction.
    Having the opportunity to bring these multiple diverse 
stakeholders together, to understand in any community what your 
challenges are as a child welfare, what law enforcement 
challenges are, and work to find the solutions.
    Mrs. Hayes. Thank you so much for your work in this area. 
It is heartbreaking for any parent to not know where their 
child is, and if they are safe. The support that you provide is 
just critical, and we all appreciate it. I am sure that, as we 
have heard throughout this hearing, we will do whatever we can 
in the Congress to help support those efforts. Thank you. I 
yield back.
    Ms. DeLaune. Thank you.
    Chairman Bean. Thank you very much. Let us go to 
California. The great State of California, Chairman Kiley, is 
recognized for 5 minutes. Welcome.
    Mr. Kiley. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for holding this 
hearing. Thank you for the incredibly important work that you 
do at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, 
which unfortunately is more important than ever. Some of the 
statistics in your testimony are truly alarming, that in 2023 
the cyber tip line received more than 36 million reports of 
suspected child sexual exploitation.
    In the category of online incitement, there was an 82 
percent increase over the course of just a year. I have held 
some events in my district, trying to partner with law 
enforcement to provide education to parents about what the 
risks are. I know that you do that across the country.
    Would you have just some sort of basic tips you could give 
any parents who are watching, as to sort of what things they 
ought to look out for? What are the sort of platforms that 
predators are most likely to utilize? What are other sort of 
risk factors, risky behaviors that they should be aware of?
    Ms. DeLaune. Excellent questions. For parents, parents are 
really struggling with all of the different apps, the speed at 
which technology is evolving, and certainly the engagement that 
kids are having online as their primary focus of communicating 
with their friends and making new friends.
    We do many safety events in different communities as you 
mention. What we try to teach too for the parents, would be not 
to be too bogged down by worrying about which app it is, or 
trying to learn what particular app at any given time because 
it is going to ebb and flow where children are actually 
engaging.
    What we do very much want, and it sounds basic, but it is 
so important, is communication. Talking to kids about 
understanding behavior, risk-taking behavior online is similar 
to kind of risk-taking behavior offline. Having the opportunity 
for parents to talk to their kids that they child would feel 
comfortable coming to them.
    That is one of the biggest barriers we see is that a child 
is scared that if they go to their parent they are going to 
lose their phone, they are going to get in trouble. Try to make 
it more of an ongoing dialog. To that end, on our website, 
depending upon the age of the child because that is absolutely 
necessary when you are communicating this type of information.
    We give conversation starters. If your child is in the back 
of the car, here are some things that you can ask them to--help 
them open up about their online use, and any risks that they 
have. I think on top of that, not only being aware of what the 
risks are, but also what to do if something happens, because 
there are resources out there, including the National Center, 
24 hours a day if a parent is concerned about something that 
they are seeing, they can call.
    If we cannot help, we will find somebody who will. We are 
never the end of the line. I offer us up also as a resource for 
you.
    Mr. Kiley. Thank you very much. That is very helpful. What 
is the current, sort of, what are the legal responsibilities 
that platforms, social media platforms, or otherwise currently 
have to monitor for this kind of explicit content, and to 
remove it? Do you see any room for improvement in terms of how 
that legal framework is set up?
    Ms. DeLaune. Thank you, Congressman. Yes. At this point, 
big tech electronic service providers, they are only required 
to report an incident of a parent/child pornography, by 
statute. If they become aware of an image of child sexual 
abuse, they are required to report it.
    There is no guidance to them in terms of what they need to 
report. At this point, a company would be in compliance with 
the law if they said on this date and time somebody transferred 
child pornography, child sexual abuse material. There is 
pending legislation, such as the Report Act and COSMA that 
actually would require the companies to have basic levels of 
information that they provide in a report.
    That is absolutely necessary for law enforcement to 
determine whether or not a crime occurred, and if it did, what 
are they going to investigate? How are they going to 
investigate? That is one gap that we see. We have been spending 
a little bit of time talking today about sextortion and 
enticement. There is no legal obligation for any tech company, 
if they become aware of that, to report that.
    That is simply if they choose to do so. Those are also 
things that are addressed by pending legislation that we are 
hopeful will pass because it will certainly make the reports 
more actionable for law enforcement, which ultimately protects 
kids.
    Mr. Kiley. Thank you very much, and Mr. Chair, it sounds 
like we have some areas, potentially for followup, and in the 
meantime thank you for taking up the Reauthorization Bill. I am 
very happy to join you on that as a co-author. I yield back.
    Chairman Bean. Thank you very much, Representative Kiley. 
Let us stay with the great State of California where Mr. 
DeSaulnier is recognized for questions. Good morning.
    Mr. DeSaulnier. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. You are welcome 
anytime to northern California, Mr. Kiley, and I will host you 
in different parts, different districts. Well, thank you for 
this hearing. I want to talk to you about your comprehensive 
approach to missing children, and in particular, the case 
management part, and how you coordinate with other agencies, 
with law enforcement, with public health, with school 
districts.
    In California, we have mandated reporter requirements, but 
we do not fund it, both for the school districts, and for the 
partner agencies. Having come from county government, in a 
county with--a very diverse county with 1.2 million people, CPS 
is frequently--and the turnover rate in California in child 
protective services, is 50 percent.
    They have to get a master's degree, and we are trying to 
get more bilingual. We know where the high-risk targeted 
populations are. How do you work with other agencies that 
frequently government agencies, that are not funded to the 
level they need to be to be able to be effective, whether a 
school district, CPS, social services, public health, or law 
enforcement.
    Ms. DeLaune. Thank you, Congressman. That is really our 
role as a clearinghouse is to assist. The existence of NCMEC is 
to assist law enforcement, to assist all of those who are in a 
position who are working missing and exploited children cases. 
When a child is intaked as missing with the National Center, 
there is no requirement in most cases that they are, unless the 
child is missing from Child Welfare.
    The case comes to NCMEC, and then every individual child, 
depending upon the endangerments, depending on the 
circumstances, will kind of go a little bit of a different 
track. It opens up the resources that on a local agency that 
may be understaffed, underfunded, would not necessarily be able 
to accomplish.
    That is what the National Center exists to do. That we will 
provide that case management service. We will take the 
sightings 24 hours a day on a missing child case to ensure that 
we get it back to law enforcement in timely fashion. We will 
work to make sure that the photographs that we have of that 
missing child, the photo is the key tool for bringing missing 
kids home.
    We have, as a public partner, sorry a public private 
partnership, we have the ability to geolocate, to get 
photographs of missing children out into the communities that 
the agencies that you reference ask us to do so. We also, 
during the entire episode of a missing child, while law 
enforcement is investigating, while we are busy actually 
looking for the child analyzing leads, sending out photographs 
to different partners, we are also providing the emotional 
support to the families that are enduring the worst episode of 
their life.
    To your question, what we try to do in terms of working 
with any agency that is seeking to protect a child, is to bring 
all of our resources to bear, to leverage up what they need to 
do for any particular child.
    Mr. DeSaulnier. A followup question. We did an extensive 
look at trafficking in California when I was in the legislature 
there, we had a bicameral committee that I, with a republican 
was cochair of in Los Angeles, in particular. I am from 
northern California. It was just shocking.
    Again, a little bit more less on the crisis, although I 
know that is a role, but where you might partner in prevention? 
You alluded to this about knowing where the target populations 
are, and being able to transfer using data, resources to get 
upstream to make sure that--and being careful about parents 
still have rights that this Committee has asserted.
    That balance of knowing where the resources, knowing we 
need to go at prevention, so we don't always put the money in 
the crisis after the child already has been exploited and 
missing.
    Ms. DeLaune. Absolutely. Preventing these things, the 
crimes from happening in the first place should be everybody's 
goal. Education is the key. Education is key. We have--
certainly do in person trainings, education seminars. We 
actually go into different communities, and bring all of the 
different stakeholders together, law enforcement, child 
welfare, prosecutors, NGO's, to talk about the issues, and let 
everybody see from the other perspective.
    We also have an online training, an education portal that 
depending upon the user, if they are law enforcement, if they 
are child welfare. We are constantly adding new material to 
help basically educate them on what we are seeing and providing 
those services. We have an obligation as an entity that is 
receiving tens and thousands of cases to convert what we see 
into lessons, and share it with all of the individuals on the 
ground who are doing the direct services.
    Mr. DeSaulnier. It is always hard to measure prevention.
    Ms. DeLaune. It is.
    Mr. DeSaulnier. To the degree you could, if you could share 
any of that, that would be helpful.
    Ms. DeLaune. No. Thank you.
    Mr. DeSaulnier. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.
    Chairman Bean. Thank you very much. Let us go to the great 
State of Texas, where Representative Moran is recognized for 
questions. Good morning.
    Mr. Moran. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Ms. DeLaune, 
for your testimony and your work. Very much appreciate your 
tireless work in the critical arena to protect our children, 
and our young people. Ensuring mechanisms are in place to equip 
those who care for our children, to recognize and report abuse 
and sexual exploitation, and prevent child victimization is a 
priority of my own as well.
    That is why I have introduced the Jenna Quinn Law of 2024, 
a bill that provides parents, students, educators and school 
employees with the tools that they need to recognize and report 
abuse and exploitation. A number of states have adopted already 
a law very similar to this, including my home State of Texas, 
where Ms. Jenna Quinn lives.
    What technical assistance, or educational programs does the 
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children offer 
parents, children and those who work with and care for young 
people to combat abuse and exploitation. You just mentioned 
some, and you mentioned the word education is the key, and I 
agree with that. Would you expound more and be really specific 
about the types of things that you guys were able to do.
    Ms. DeLaune. Thank you, Congressman. Yes, working, again, 
bringing our messages, our lessons learned, and putting them 
into very digestible, age-appropriate programs, safety programs 
is key. The threats facing a 5, 6 year old are very different 
than the threats facing a 16, 17 year old.
    Across the broad spectrum of online safety, and personal 
safety. There certainly is an intersection there, but we do 
have two flagship programs. Net Smarts, the internet, the Net 
Smarts, is geared again, from the young ones through the teen 
years, basically work, or the information we are sharing is a 
reflection of the types of cases that we are seeing, talking 
about keeping your personal information safe, ensuring that you 
know, you know who it is that you are talking to.
    Knowing that you know where to report something if it were 
to occur. Then we also have on the personal safety, and that is 
geared at the younger children, again getting the messages to 
them early about personal safety, about private space, about 
talking to trusted adults.
    Giving very simple messages. Now, we package our safety and 
prevention programs in really creative, animated ways that keep 
the children's attention. We have done an assessment of our 
tools in different schools and across the country to determine 
how exactly are they being used, are they making a difference. 
We do see from post testing, that children are indicating that 
they are learning lessons that they know more than they did 
before.
    The adults are indicating that they now would know how to 
respond if a child were to disclose, or if a child came to them 
with an emergency situation. We also received valuable feedback 
about it might be a little bit too long. We might need to make 
it a little bit more nugget size in how we deliver the 
programs.
    We continue to evolve. We continue to improve, based upon 
the feedback that we receive from these constituents.
    Mr. Moran. Thank you. The other area that I have been 
really concentrated on is artificial intelligence in this area, 
and with respect to deep fakes. We will introduce with Ms. 
Salazar, and some others, a bipartisan bill called the No AI 
Frauds Act, a couple weeks ago.
    We had some hearings about that last week, but a part of 
that deals with these deep fakes that deal with showing kids in 
sexualized situations, which are completely false. How are 
online platforms and law enforcement agencies responding to 
this emerging threat? Does NCMEC currently have any initiatives 
on the AI front, and particularly, what do you think we need to 
be doing about that?
    Ms. DeLaune. All excellent questions. We are seeing weekly 
reports coming in regarding deep fakes, where teenagers may be 
creating pornographic images of their classmates, quickly 
putting them out online, or sharing them amongst friends within 
a school. It is absolutely something that we are--that is 
happening timely.
    Along with our efforts on AI, 2 years ago we were not even 
talking about artificial intelligence with child exploitation. 
Now, here it is, the beginning of 2024, we have already seen 
close to 5,000 cases come in last year, and as the tools become 
more accessible, and easier to use, it is going to change the 
face of how law enforcement works child exploitation cases.
    To your question of what are tech platforms doing, and what 
is law enforcement doing. Law enforcement is going to be 
struggling with the AI images. Is this a real child? Is this 
not a real child? When you are doing victim identification 
work, is this a child in your community? Is this a completely 
fabricated, generated child?
    That is going to be a challenge for law enforcement there. 
Whether or not the laws on the State level or Federal level are 
equipped to handle the deep fakes is something that we would be 
seeing in short order. As for the tech companies, the tech 
companies, we are in engagement with some of the generative AI 
companies who are building the tools.
    What their obligations, not legal, but their moral 
obligations are in terms of red teaming their tools to ensure 
people cannot simply download a generative AI tool and create 
child sexual exploitation imagery. There is so much that needs 
to be done on the front end to try to keep this genie in the 
bottle, and it is already out. We are working again, bringing 
together diverse stakeholders, working with law enforcement, 
working with academia, certainly bringing in technologists 
about how do we get our arms around this now because it is 
already a problem.
    It only will get worse if we are not moving quickly. Last, 
just on your tech industry. The tech industry, it goes back to 
our Take it Down program. If there are deep fakes, and if they 
are occurring in your community, please make sure people know 
about that because those are the type of images and videos that 
we will put in the repository for big tech to take.
    If they see the images they can take them down. We again 
kind of sit in the middle of this issue that we see from a 
300,000 foot level but are very interested in finding 
solutions.
    Mr. Moran. Ms. DeLaune, as a father of four school age 
kids, two boys, two girls, I am deeply grateful for the work 
that you guys do. I worry about this consistently, about my 
children and how they may be exploited by those who intend to 
do something very evil, and so it is nice to know that I have 
advocates like you that are working against that. Thank you. I 
yield back.
    Chairman Bean. Well done. Thank you very much. Let us go to 
the Northern Mariana Islands where Representative Sablan is 
recognized for questions. Good morning, welcome.
    Mr. Sablan. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. 
Welcome, Ms. DeLaune. Welcome, and welcome to your organization 
also, NCMEC for the wonderful work that you are doing. You know 
we have to--it is unfortunate that we have exploitation. 
Children today, workers yesterday, and last week we just passed 
a bill last night, 447 for the Youth Department of Labor to 
keep track and identify trafficked workers too.
    We need to continue to do this because this is not a new 
thing that is just growing, just now for organizations like 
yourselves, and more open reporting, now learning the extent, 
and hopefully next time we meet it will be hey, we have gone 
down so much, right?
    Missing child clearinghouses are organizations that provide 
resources for missing children, their families, and the 
professionals who serve them. NCMEC maintains a liaison with 
each missing child clearinghouse, and provides them with 
training, technical assistance, vital information and other 
resources to help them with missing child cases.
    It is not the single time it is happened, but 
unfortunately, these clearinghouses are not present in every 
part of the country. In my district, in fact, the Pacific 
territories, none of the Pacific territories has a missing 
child clearinghouse, we do not have a missing child.
    What can NCMEC do to ensure that jurisdictions without this 
clearinghouse can still receive access to these critical 
resources that inform a comprehensive approach to child 
protection?
    Ms. DeLaune. Thank you, Congressman.
    Mr. Sablan. Do you think, can we get started on trying to 
organize clearinghouses in these three Pacific territories?
    Ms. DeLaune. We would be very interested in talking with 
your office about how we might be able to assist. The missing 
children clearinghouses, as you mentioned, they are amazing, 
local resource centers for each State that has one. That we 
work very closely, because again, it is individuals who are 
highly trained, who are also very, very wedded to the 
community.
    We do work closely with those clearinghouses, and if there 
is anything that we can do to work with you and providing the 
information that would be useful, we would like to do that.
    Mr. Sablan. Thank you very much. I yield back, Mr. 
Chairman.
    Chairman Bean. Thank you. Thank you very much 
Representative Sablan. From the great State of Illinois, 
Representative Miller, you are recognized for questions.
    Mrs. Miller. Thank you, Chairman Bean, for holding this 
important hearing to discuss the horrific topic of child 
trafficking and exploitation. Recent data from the Department 
of Homeland Security highlights a concerning figure of at least 
85,000 unaccompanied children who have gone missing after 
crossing the southern border, which is a consequence of the 
open border policies of the Biden administration.
    When I traveled to the border last month, Border Patrol 
told me that they have now lost over 100,000 children. 100,000 
children are missing. The responsibility lies with President 
Biden, who is using our tax dollars to fly children on secret 
flights in the dead of night, whose own administration cannot 
later track down.
    President Biden has no concern for the welfare of these 
trafficked children. He possesses the authority to close and 
secure the border, but he has chosen to act as the last leg of 
a multinational human trafficking ring. We asked Biden's 
Secretary of Labor, Secretary of Health and Human Services, and 
Secretary of Homeland Security if they knew the whereabouts of 
these 85,000 missing children.
    All three pointed the blame at each other, claiming it was 
not their job to keep track of these children. I do appreciate 
the opportunity to address this topic, and I yield the 
remainder of my time to you, Chairman Bean.
    Chairman Bean. Thank you very much, Ms. Miller. I wanted to 
just a quick followup question while we got the extra time. It 
is not just the government program, and you do not just get 
money from the government. You have a public, private 
partnership, and you partner with the individuals and 
companies. Will you tell us how that works, and how we can 
partner with you?
    Ms. DeLaune. Thank you, Chairman Bean, and a very important 
point, with us being a public, private partnership. That was a 
very wise move 40 years ago when the National Center was opened 
to be the resource center and the clearinghouse for the Nation. 
What it allows us to do is to work very closely with the 
government, government grants, but also across the private 
sector.
    There are many companies, many individuals who have a lot 
of contributions that they can add to the fight of child 
exploitation, and to find missing children. We have so many 
partners, in very unusual disciplines who bring something to 
bear. We work with the companies such as Old Navy, a retail 
company all across the country, who cares very much about 
children.
    They have parents, they have grandparents, kids, aunts and 
uncles coming into their store. They host an annual event for 
safety material that we provide, co-brand, get it out into the 
hands. They help us meet the audiences where they are. We work 
with other major companies who are able to provide in kind 
services.
    Again, all of this takes every government dollar that much 
further, that we are able to harness the resources of the 
private sector, as honestly, it is a group effort. This takes 
everyone. It is not simply a government solution.
    Chairman Bean. Very good. Very good. Thank you. That is 
important. The Committee will now recognize from the great 
State of North Carolina, and the Chair of the big Committee, of 
Education and Workforce, Chairman Foxx. You are recognized, and 
good morning.
    Mrs. Foxx. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Ms. DeLaune, thank you 
for being here today, and for the services NCMEC is providing 
to protect our Nation's most vulnerable. Your team deals with 
truly horrific situations, and your efforts save lives. As more 
kids are online and using devices at a young age, there is 
certainly increased risk for abuse and exploitation.
    I also suspect this connected age presents new 
opportunities and capabilities to identify and locate a child 
that has gone missing. Can you discuss how the prevalence of 
technology in society has changed the way NCMEC conducts its 
vital work?
    Ms. DeLaune. Thank you, Dr. Foxx, and thank you for your 
leadership, and for having us here today. Technology does, it 
cuts both ways. It has certainly thrown accelerant on the issue 
of child sexual exploitation and made it a much larger problem 
than any of us ever realized, but it also provides the tools 
that we need to find missing children in ways that we could not 
have imagined, 40 years ago, 10 years ago.
    By using many of the public and private partnerships that 
we have, we are able to use technology to meet audiences in 
different places. For instance, there is a company, GSTV. They 
are the ones with the gas station televisions when you are 
pumping your gas. They actually donate more than 27,000 screens 
to feature missing children in a particular area.
    We have had recoveries while somebody is a captive audience 
pumping gas, actually being shown images of children in that 
particular area. We use technology also to push out Amber 
Alerts, something that did not exist when we opened our doors. 
We are the designated secondary distributor of Amber Alerts.
    When law enforcement in a particular State deemed that a 
missing child is eligible for an Amber Alert, we are the ones 
who are pushing them to cell phones across the country, in very 
geolocated areas. A technology in a simple way, on the missing 
child, it is allowing us to hyper localize our search for 
missing children, in a very noisy world, allowing members of 
the public to be focusing on the children that they have the 
highest likelihood of seeing.
    Mrs. Foxx. Thank you very much. In your testimony you 
mentioned that children involved in the foster care system go 
missing at an alarming rate. H.R. 5224, the Missing Children's 
Assistance Reauthorization Act, enhances NCMEC's ability to 
coordinate with the child welfare system, and codifies 
reporting elements on children missing from State sponsored 
care.
    Can you discuss some of the unique risks facing children in 
the child welfare system, and how NCMEC works to protect this 
vulnerable population?
    Ms. DeLaune. Thank you, Doctor, yes. These children are 
often in child welfare because of traumatic experiences that 
they have lived through, and therefore, there are many 
endangerments that might follow. Many of our missing children, 
a large number, who are missing from State care may have 
endangerments such as mental health issues, substance abuse 
issues, maybe individuals that they are speaking with online, 
very often will go to meet somebody that they believe is as a 
partner, or go back to biological families.
    In terms of the education, the education what this 
Reauthorization Act will allow us to do, is also provide more 
information in a very streamlined and strategic way to the 
child welfare agencies and professionals, so they have the 
tools they need to recognize the signs, and to know what they 
need to do in order to find that child, working with us.
    One of the most important components is our recovery 
services program. It is something that did not exist 5 years 
ago. Every child is unique. Every child has different 
endangerments. We have a very personalized response when a 
child is going to be recovered, trying to identify what their 
endangerments are. Put a safety net behind them that when they 
are recovered, we can get them the services that they need.
    Mrs. Foxx. Thank you again, very much, and thank you for 
the work that you are doing. Mr. Chairman, I do not know if you 
saw on TV this weekend, John Walsh was on, and talking about 
the Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and he is one of 
the reasons that we have this program.
    He had retired, but he said he got back in the fray because 
primarily of the horrible immigration situation, and so, I am 
sad to see that, but happy that we have this program. Thank 
you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.
    Chairman Bean. Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Let us go 
to the great Commonwealth of Virginia for the Ranking Member on 
the Education and Workforce Committee, Representative Scott. 
Good morning, and you're recognized.
    Mr. Scott. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to thank the 
witness for being with us today. One of the causes of children 
being missing is the fact that they runaway, often because of 
abuse in the home. Can you tell me what kind of initiatives we 
should be investing in to reduce the incidents of children 
running away?
    Ms. DeLaune. Thank you, Congressman. Many of the children 
who are running away, the vast majority of our children, more 
than 90 percent who are running away, are running away from 
child welfare placements. As mentioned just a moment ago, in 
some cases it is the child running from a bad placement. Other 
times, it is a child running to what they perceive to be a safe 
environment, a safe relationship, or perhaps to a biological 
family member.
    What our data also shows us is that 1 in 6 of the children 
who run from child welfare placement, are likely sex 
trafficking victims. When a child leaves their home, whichever 
whether be it a placement, or their primary home, they are 
vulnerable. They do not have food. They do not have money. They 
do not have shelter.
    What we see is that there is somebody who is going to be 
there who will offer all three to that child at a cost. It is 
really a matter of education as to what the risks are, what to 
be looking for, and then how to get the child the help they 
need to try to break the cycle of running because there is 
normally something more systemic happening there, and you have 
to get at the root of the issue for that individual child.
    Mr. Scott. One of the root causes of sex trafficking is the 
fact that there is a demand for the services. Sting operations, 
you work with some of the sting operations. Can you tell us how 
effective they are, and what kind of deterrent effect they 
should have, and whether we should be doing more of it?
    Ms. DeLaune. Thank you, Congressman. The operations that 
are occurring across the country, law enforcement will have a 
dedicated week or month in which they are actively and 
aggressively pursuing child sex trafficking. I can tell you 
about some of the services we provide on the ground.
    We have all heard about when there are major sporting 
events, major things happening in the country, that there is 
increased trafficking when many people congregate in one 
particular town, one particular city for an event. We actually 
do provide on the ground support for major events that may 
occur, whether it be the Super Bowl, other large sporting 
events and gatherings.
    Prior to the event, we work for several months tracking the 
classified ads, determining which children might be going into 
a particular region, the trafficker might be going into a 
particular region, building out case plans for law enforcement 
to inform them there is a likelihood this child might be here. 
There is a likelihood this trafficker might be here.
    In addition to that, it is not only let is find the child, 
let us get the child the help they need. Let us build what 
the--working closely with the child welfare professional, what 
is this child's individual endangerments? What are the local 
community resources we can provide to them?
    We actually go on the ground with information, with our 
tech tools, mapping software, to provide that assistance to law 
enforcement because again, we are coming at it from a very 
unique perspective of knowing which children are missing, who 
may be advertised online for a particular city, and then go 
help law enforcement try and identify and rescue the child.
    Mr. Scott. Well, do you do involve in sting operations 
where you place an ad and see who responds, and catch them?
    Ms. DeLaune. We are a non-investigative agency. We do not 
engage in any sort of investigative matter. We do provide 
technical assistance to law enforcement coming from our unique 
perspective of knowing which children may be missing in a 
particular region, but we do not take any proactive efforts. We 
simply are a support function for law enforcement.
    Mr. Scott. Are you aware of such proactive initiatives?
    Ms. DeLaune. Law enforcement may be engaged in proactive 
initiatives online, but certainly and sadly, the advertisements 
for many of these children, they are just in the public domain 
and can be searched easily.
    Mr. Scott. That is why it seems to me we solve those with a 
little sting operation, so I do not know what they are doing, 
and might stop doing it. Can you say anything about child 
labor? How often you run across it, and what can be done to 
prevent it?
    Ms. DeLaune. Well, child labor certainly being a very 
complex and intricate issue. It is not within our 
authorization, however when we do learn of any sort of labor 
infraction of a child being engaged in forced labor, we do have 
internal protocol where we'll notify the FBI, and certainly 
would provide that information to any relevant law enforcement 
agency for their action.
    Mr. Scott. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    Chairman Bean. Thank you, Representative Scott. We have had 
a big day in the Committee, and as we wind down, and prepare to 
close I yield to Ranking Member Bonamici for closing thoughts.
    Ms. Bonamici. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Thank you 
again, Ms. DeLaune, for your leadership and for your insightful 
testimony. I do want to note, Mr. Chairman, this is a serious 
issue we are discussing today. We have bipartisan support on 
the legislation to solve this problem. I implore us to please 
not get distracted by unfounded allegations alleging that our 
President is involved in some salacious trafficking scheme.
    I think that would be a really unfortunate on something 
that is so important. Many of the concerns that were raised in 
the hearing today I have also heard for years from parents, 
from advocates, and colleagues in Congress. We must do 
everything we can to keep our children safe and protected from 
exploitation, whether they are at home, in school, in their 
communities, and certainly online.
    Although this hearing is a positive step, I am concerned 
that we have neither made the appropriate investments, nor 
advanced policies to address the growing danger to our 
children's safety, especially online. Even if Congress acts 
swiftly to reauthorize critical programs, like the Missing 
Children's Assistance Act, we know that online predators will 
continue to be a threat to our children, unless and until 
Congress makes a serious effort to address the gaps in law that 
enable the exploitation.
    Under then Chairman Scott's leadership, this Committee 
advanced bipartisan, comprehensive reauthorizations of the 
Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, and the Family 
Violence Prevention and Services Act. Again, these are 
bipartisan pieces of legislation.
    I hope the majority can follow this example and consider 
these evidence-based efforts to support survivors. I encourage 
all of my colleagues to meet with service providers, consider 
the work of important experts like NCMEC, and I hope that soon 
we will be discussing what we did to successfully fight child 
sexual exploitation to protect children, to empower survivors.
    It is my hope, Mr. Chairman and colleagues, that someday no 
one will experience the abuse or sexual violence we were 
talking about today. Ms. DeLaune, thank you again. I am 
committed to continuing to work with you and my colleagues on 
both sides of the aisle, and I appreciate your time today and I 
yield back the balance of my time.
    Chairman Bean. Thank you very much, Ranking Member 
Bonamici. It is tough enough being a kid, just without any 
other of these distractions, but the internet and predators 
have brought a new level of challenges to kids. I do not know 
who said it, or the actual how the saying goes, but for all, 
for evil to succeed is good men and women to do nothing.
    You are proof, and NCMEC is proof that we will not stand 
idly by while our kids are exploited. We will protect them, and 
we will do everything we can to protect them. I standby. It is 
comfort to know that you and your team is there. We spent a few 
minutes this morning, and it is how vast your rising to meet 
the challenges,
    Predators always come up with something that's new, this AI 
challenge, so I take comfort that NCMEC is there to stand to 
protect kids. I believe, and of course I am an optimist, I 
think this bill is going to pass, and you will--the United 
States will stand with you again as we all stand against kids. 
Thank you, and your whole team behind you is there to give you 
a level of support.
    With that, thank you very much, Ms. DeLaune, you did an 
absolutely fantastic job. Committee members, we were engaged, 
you showed up. Thank you so much, and without objection, there 
being no further business, the Subcommittee stands adjourned.
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

    [Whereupon, at 11:31 a.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]

                                 [all]