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24–583 PDF 2017

HONORING OUR COMMITMENT TO 

RECOVER AND PROTECT MISSING 

AND EXPLOITED CHILDREN 

HEARING 

BEFORE THE

COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION 

AND THE WORKFORCE 

U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

ONE HUNDRED FIFTEENTH CONGRESS 

FIRST SESSION 

HEARING HELD IN WASHINGTON, DC, MARCH 16, 2017 

Serial No. 115–9 

Printed for the use of the Committee on Education and the Workforce 

( 

Available via the World Wide Web: www.gpo.gov/fdsys/browse/ 

committee.action?chamber=house&committee=education 

or 

Committee address: http://edworkforce.house.gov 

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(II) 

COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND THE WORKFORCE 

VIRGINIA FOXX, North Carolina, Chairwoman 

Joe Wilson, South Carolina 

Duncan Hunter, California 

David P. Roe, Tennessee 

Glenn ‘‘GT’’ Thompson, Pennsylvania 

Tim Walberg, Michigan 

Brett Guthrie, Kentucky 

Todd Rokita, Indiana 

Lou Barletta, Pennsylvania 

Luke Messer, Indiana 

Bradley Byrne, Alabama 

David Brat, Virginia 

Glenn Grothman, Wisconsin 

Steve Russell, Oklahoma 

Elise Stefanik, New York 

Rick W. Allen, Georgia 

Jason Lewis, Minnesota 

Francis Rooney, Florida 

Paul Mitchell, Michigan 

Tom Garrett, Jr., Virginia 

Lloyd K. Smucker, Pennsylvania 

A. Drew Ferguson, IV, Georgia 

Robert C. ‘‘Bobby’’ Scott, Virginia 

Ranking Member 

Susan A. Davis, California 

Rau ́l M. Grijalva, Arizona 

Joe Courtney, Connecticut 

Marcia L. Fudge, Ohio 

Jared Polis, Colorado 

Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan, 

Northern Mariana Islands 

Frederica S. Wilson, Florida 

Suzanne Bonamici, Oregon 

Mark Takano, California 

Alma S. Adams, North Carolina 

Mark DeSaulnier, California 

Donald Norcross, New Jersey 

Lisa Blunt Rochester, Delaware 

Raja Krishnamoorthi, Illinois 

Carol Shea-Porter, New Hampshire 

Adriano Espaillat, New York 

Brandon Renz, Staff Director 

Denise Forte, Minority Staff Director 

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(III) 

C O N T E N T S 

Page 

Hearing held on March 16, 2017 ............................................................................ 1 

Statement of Members: 

Bonamici, Hon. Suzanne, a Representative in Congress from the State 

of Oregon ....................................................................................................... 3 

Prepared statement of ............................................................................... 4 

Foxx, Hon. Virginia, Chairwoman, Committee on Education and the 

Workforce ....................................................................................................... 1 

Prepared statement of ............................................................................... 2 

Statement of Witnesses: 

Clark, Mr. John F., President and Chief Executive Officer, The National 

Center for Missing and Exploited Children ................................................ 6 

Prepared statement of ............................................................................... 8 

Additional Submissions: 

Chairwoman Foxx: 

Slide: Protecting Vulnerable Children ..................................................... 35 

Scott, Hon. Robert C. ‘‘Bobby’’, Ranking Member, Committee on Education and the Workforce: 

Prepared statement of ............................................................................... 37 

Questions submitted for the record by: 

Polis, Hon. Jared, a Representative in Congress from the State of 

Colorado .................................................................................................. 42 

Roe, Hon. David P., a Representative in Congress from the State 

of Tennessee ........................................................................................... 42 

Mr. Clark, response to questions submitted for the record .......................... 43 

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(1) 

HONORING OUR COMMITMENT TO 

RECOVER AND PROTECT MISSING 

AND EXPLOITED CHILDREN 

Thursday, March 16, 2017 

House of Representatives 

Committee on Education and the Workforce 

Washington, D.C. 

The committee met, pursuant to call, at 10:00 a.m., in Room 

2175, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Virginia Foxx [chairwoman of the committee] presiding. 

Present: Representatives Foxx, Roe, Thompson, Walberg, Guthrie, Messer, Stefanik, Allen, Mitchell, Garrett, Courtney, Sablan, 

Bonamici, Takano, Adams, Norcross, and Espaillat. 

Staff Present: Courtney Butcher, Director of Member Services 

and Coalitions; Amy Raaf Jones, Director of Education and Human 

Resources Policy; Nancy Locke, Chief Clerk; Dominique McKay, 

Deputy Press Secretary; James Mullen, Director of Information 

Technology; Krisann Pearce, General Counsel; Lauren Reddington, 

Deputy Press Secretary; Mandy Schaumburg, Education Deputy 

Director and Senior Counsel; Alissa Strawcutter, Deputy Clerk; 

Leslie Tatum, Professional Staff Member; Sheariah Yousefi, Legislative Assistant; Tylease Alli, Minority Clerk/Intern and Fellow Coordinator; Austin Barbera, Minority Press Assistant; Jacque Chevalier, Minority Deputy Education Policy Director; Mishawn Freeman, Minority Staff Assistant; and Alexander Payne, Minority 

Education Policy Advisor. 

Chairwoman FOXX. A quorum being present, the Committee on 

Education and the Workforce will come to order. Good morning, 

and welcome to today’s hearing on the commitment we as a Nation 

have made to recover and protect missing and exploited children. 

So much of the work we do on this committee is about creating 

opportunities for individuals to learn, grow, and achieve success in 

their lives. Unfortunately, statistics and the nightly news continue 

to act as shocking reminders that too many children in this country 

are not thinking about the future. They are thinking about their 

survival. Last year alone, there were more than 465,000 reports of 

missing children. 

No child should live in fear of being taken from his or her family. 

No child should live in fear of abuse or exploitation. No child 

should live in fear of becoming the victim of a heinous crime. No 

child should live in fear, period. 

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2 

That is why protecting our most vulnerable children has long 

been a national priority. In 1984, the National Center for Missing 

and Exploited Children, or NCMEC, was created to play a role in 

that important effort. 

Since that time, NCMEC has coordinated and supported State 

and local efforts to recover children who are missing, and support 

youth who are victims of violent crimes. The organization works 

with law enforcement, families, schools, community leaders, and 

nonprofit organizations, with a shared goal: providing help to children who are in desperate need of protection. 

Through a number of initiatives and programs, NCMEC operates 

a 24-hour hotline and a CyberTipline, maintains a nationwide 

database on cases of missing children, and provides technical assistance to other recovery and prevention efforts. 

The organization also coordinates resources to victims, their families, and the professionals who help them, and it engages in public-private partnerships to assist State, local leaders, and community partners in their efforts. 

As President Ronald Reagan said when opening NCMEC in 1984, 

‘‘No single sector of our Nation can solve the problem of missing 

and exploited children alone, but by working together, pooling our 

resources, and building on our strengths, we can accomplish great 

things.’’ 

Today, NCMEC continues the mission articulated by President 

Reagan more than 30 years ago. In 2016, the Center assisted with 

approximately 21,000 cases of missing children. Of those cases, 90 

percent were endangered runaways, and roughly one in six of those 

children was a likely victim of child sex trafficking. 

Over the years, Congress has worked closely with NCMEC to ensure it has the tools it needs to do its job effectively. We have also 

worked to ensure taxpayer dollars being used to support the Center’s efforts are spent responsibly, and that is the purpose of this 

hearing; for an update from the organization itself. 

Today, we have with us John Clark, president and chief executive officer. Mr. Clark, we are pleased to hear from you about the 

work NCMEC is doing to help vulnerable children across the country, as well as the challenges you face and improvements that can 

be made to help NCMEC continue its work. As I stated earlier, 

your efforts play a critical role in a national commitment to help 

our most vulnerable children. 

In the words of President Reagan, ‘‘Together, we can turn the 

tide on these hateful crimes.’’ 

I look forward to continuing to work with you, and my colleagues 

on both sides of the aisle, to do just that. 

I now yield to Ms. Bonamici as the ranking member for her opening remarks. 

[The statement of Chairwoman Foxx follows:] 

Prepared Statement of Hon. Virginia Foxx, Chairwoman, Committee on 

Education and the Workforce 

Good morning, and welcome to today’s hearing on the commitment we—as a nation—have made to recover and protect missing and exploited children. 

So much of the work we do on this committee is about creating opportunities for 

individuals to learn, grow, and achieve success in their lives. Unfortunately, statistics and the nightly news continue to act as shocking reminders that too many chilCEWDOCROOM with DISTILLER

3 

dren in this country aren’t thinking about the future. They’re thinking about their 

survival. Last year alone, there were more than 465,000 reports of missing children. 

No child should live in fear of being taken from his or her family. No child should 

live in fear of abuse or exploitation. No child should live in fear of becoming the 

victim of a heinous crime. 

No child should live in fear. Period. 

That’s why protecting our most vulnerable children has long been a national priority. In 1984, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, or NCMEC, 

was created to play a role in that important effort. 

Since that time, NCMEC has coordinated and supported state and local efforts to 

recover children who are missing and support youth who are victims of violent 

crimes. The organization works with law enforcement, families, schools, community 

leaders, and nonprofit organizations with a shared goal—providing help to children 

who are in desperate need of protection. 

Through a number of initiatives and programs, NCMEC operates a 24-hour hotline and a CyberTipline; maintains a nationwide database on cases of missing children; and provides technical assistance to other recovery and prevention efforts. The 

organization also coordinates resources to victims, their families, and the professionals who help them; and it engages in public-private partnerships to assist state, 

local leaders, and community partners in their efforts. 

As President Ronald Reagan said when opening NCMEC in 1984: 

‘‘No single sector of our nation can solve the problem of missing and exploited 

children alone. But by working together, pooling our resources, and building on our 

strengths, we can accomplish great things.’’ 

Today, NCMEC continues the mission articulated by President Reagan more than 

30 years ago. In 2016, the center assisted with approximately 21,000 cases of missing children. Of those cases, 90 percent were endangered runaways, and roughly one 

in six of those children was a likely victim of child sex trafficking. 

Over the years, Congress has worked closely with NCMEC to ensure it has the 

tools it needs to do its job effectively. We have also worked to ensure taxpayer dollars being used to support the center’s efforts are spent responsibly. And that’s the 

purpose of this hearing—for an update from the organization itself. Today, we have 

with us John Clark, president and chief executive officer of NCMEC. 

Mr. Clark, we are pleased to hear from you about the work NCMEC is doing to 

help vulnerable children across the country, as well as the challenges you face and 

improvements that can be made to help NCMEC continue its work. As I stated earlier, your efforts play a critical role in a national commitment to help our most vulnerable children. 

In the words of President Reagan, ‘‘Together, we can turn the tide on these hateful crimes.’’ I look forward to continuing to work with you—and my colleagues on 

both sides of the aisle—to do just that.I will now yield to Ranking Member Bonamici 

for her opening remarks. 

Ms. BONAMICI. Thank you, Chair Foxx, for holding this hearing, 

and thank you, Mr. Clark, for your testimony and your expertise. 

Since it was established in 1984, the National Center for Missing 

and Exploited Children has been working to reunite missing children with their families and loved ones. 

In 2016, the National Center worked on more than 20,500 missing children cases, and in Oregon, currently, there are 65 active 

missing children cases on NCMEC’s website, just in my own home 

State. These are children who are separated from their families, 

who have loved ones looking for them and who need to be found. 

In fact, just this week, a nine-year-old girl from Gresham, Oregon, went missing overnight. Thankfully, she was located and reunited with her mother after a concerned citizen, who had seen her 

picture on the local news, recognized her and called the police. The 

quick distribution of this girl’s picture and fast thinking of a neighbor prevented tragedy from occurring. Unfortunately, many other 

families are not as lucky. 

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4 

The world can be a dangerous place for our children and our rapidly advancing technologies can make it even more challenging to 

protect our kids. 

Mr. Clark, I applaud the work you and NCMEC have done to not 

only keep up with technological advances, but to use those advances to better protect children. 

I am looking forward to hearing more from you about your 

CyberTipline initiative to receive tips about online sexual exploitation, the NetSmartz411 program to educate parents about online 

safety, and the KidSmartz program, to better prepare kids for online risks. 

I also want to make sure we address the particular dangers facing minority children and our LGBTQ youth. It is a tragic fact that 

abductions of minority children are grossly underreported in the 

media. 

In Washington, D.C., alone, 10 children of color have been reported missing since the beginning of March, and only 2 have been 

found so far. Ten missing children in 2 weeks is unspeakable. The 

media has been slow to report on these youths. As we know, media 

reports about missing children are often critical for reuniting kids 

and families. 

Additionally, LGBTQ youth are at an increased risk of homelessness if they do not feel welcome in their homes or their communities. A 2015 study from the Urban Institute told the heartbreaking stories of LGBTQ youth who run away from home and engage in survival sex, the practice of trading sex for money, food, or 

a place to stay. 

We must do everything we can to make sure that we are protecting all children, including our children of color and LGBTQ 

youth. 

I want to close by expressing my gratitude to Chair Foxx and the 

committee for the bipartisan commitment to extending the authorization of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, 

and maintaining the Center’s independent status. 

I hope that we can continue to work together to protect all missing and exploited children and reunite them with their families. 

Thank you again, Chair Foxx, and I yield back the balance of my 

time. 

[The statement of Ms. Bonamici follows:] 

Prepared Statement of Hon. Suzanne Bonamici, a Representative in 

Congress from the State of Oregon 

Thank you, Chair Foxx, for holding this hearing, and thank you, Mr. Clark, for 

your testimony and expertise. 

Since it was established in 1984, the National Center for Missing and Exploited 

Children has been working to reunite missing children with their families and loved 

ones. 

In 2016, NCMEC worked on more than 20,500 missing children cases, and in Oregon, currently there are 65 active missing children cases on NCMEC’s website. 

These are children who are separated from their families, who have loved ones looking for them, and who need to be found. 

In fact, just this week, a 9 year old girl from Gresham, Oregon, went missing 

overnight. Thankfully, she was located and reunited with her mother after a concerned citizen, who had seen her picture on the local news, recognized her and 

called police. 

The quick distribution of the girl’s picture and fast thinking of a neighbor prevented a tragedy from occurring. 

CEWDOCROOM with DISTILLER

5 

Unfortunately, many other families are not as lucky. The world can be a dangerous place for our children, and our rapidly-advancing technology can make it 

even more challenging to protect our kids. 

Mr. Clark, I applaud the work you and NCMEC have done to not only keep up 

with technological advances, but to use those advances to better protect children. 

I’m looking forward to hearing more from you about your CyberTipline initiative 

to receive tips about online sexual exploitation, the NetSmartz411 program to educate parents about online safety, and the KidSmartz program to better prepare kids 

for online risks. 

I also want to make sure we address the particular dangers facing minority children and LGBTQ youth. 

It is a tragic fact that abductions of minority children are grossly underreported 

in the media. In Washington, D.C., alone, 10 children of color have been reported 

missing since the beginning of March, and only two have been found so far. 

Ten missing children in two weeks is unspeakable, and the media has been slow 

to report on these youth. As we know, media reports about missing children are 

often critical for reuniting kids and families. 

Additionally, LGBTQ youth are at an increased risk of homelessness if they do 

not feel welcome in their homes or communities. A 2015 study from the Urban Institute told the heartbreaking stories of LGBTQ youth who run away from home and 

engage in ‘‘survival sex’’—the practice of trading sex for money, food, or a place to 

stay. 

We must do everything we can to make sure that we are protecting all children— 

including our children of color and LGBTQ youth. 

I want to close by expressing my gratitude to Chair Foxx and the Committee for 

the bipartisan commitment to extending authorization of the National Center for 

Missing and Exploited Children, and maintaining the Center’s independent status. 

I hope that we can continue to work together to protect missing and exploited 

children, and reunite families. 

Thank you again, Chair Foxx, and I yield the balance of my time. 

Chairwoman FOXX. Thank you, Ms. Bonamici. Pursuant to Committee Rule 7(c), all members will be permitted to submit written 

statements to be included in the permanent hearing record. And 

without objection, the hearing record will remain open for 14 days 

to allow such statements and other extraneous material referenced 

during the hearing to be submitted for the official hearing record. 

We now turn to introduction of our distinguished witness. Mr. 

John Clark serves as the president and chief executive officer of 

the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Prior to 

this position,Mr. Clark’s career spanned 28 years with the U.S. 

Marshals Service. 

I now ask Mr. Clark to raise his right hand. 

Do you solemnly swear or affirm that the testimony you are 

about to give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but 

the truth? 

Mr. CLARK. I do. 

Chairwoman FOXX. Let the record reflect Mr. Clark answered in 

the affirmative. Before I recognize you to provide your testimony, 

let me briefly explain our lighting system. We allow 5 minutes for 

the witness to provide testimony. When you begin, the light in 

front of you will turn green. When 1 minute is left, the light will 

turn yellow. At the 5-minute mark, the light will turn red, and you 

should wrap up your testimony. Members will each have 5 minutes 

to ask questions. 

Mr. Clark, you are recognized for your testimony. 

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6 

TESTIMONY OF JOHN F. CLARK, PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, THE NATIONAL CENTER FOR MISSING AND 

EXPLOITED CHILDREN 

Mr. CLARK. Alright. Well, good morning, Chairwoman Foxx and 

Congresswoman Bonamici, and members of the committee. I have 

had the privilege and honor to serve as a president and CEO of the 

National Center for Missing and Exploited Children since December of 2015. 

Now, NCMEC, as we sometimes refer to it, was created in 1984 

by John and Reve Walsh and other child advocates as a private, 

nonprofit corporation to help find missing children, reduce child’s 

sexual exploitation, and prevent child victimization. 

Like other large nonprofits, NCMEC receives Federal grant and 

private foundation funding, corporate donations, and private individual donations to enhance our work and engage in building and 

promoting a coordinated national response to the problem of missing and exploited children. 

I am pleased to be here to provide you with insights and updates 

on NCMEC and the work we have done in the following years since 

the last reauthorization in 2013. 

Many of you are familiar with such and much of the work that 

NCMEC does, so I thought I’d spend my time talking today about 

a few key emerging trends and issues that NCMEC has seen and 

has taken the lead on addressing since our last reauthorization. 

The committee has long played a leadership role on the issue of 

child sex trafficking, and I know it is of particular interest to many 

of you today. NCMEC works to combat child sex trafficking by assisting with cases of missing children and by operating our 

CyberTipline. 

And additionally, we provide significant support to victims and 

families by helping them locate community-based resources, and 

we assist victims’ legal teams in their efforts to seek judicial intervention, including restitution. 

As you’re aware, NCMEC’s CyberTipline serves as a central 

mechanism where the public technology companies can report instances of child sexual exploitation, including reports related to 

child sex trafficking. 

In 2016, NCMEC assisted with approximately 9,000 reports related to child sex trafficking, but we know that represents only a 

fraction of suspected child sex trafficking victims in this country. 

Our handling of child sex trafficking cases has taught us that 

child sex trafficking is also a missing child issue. We have found 

that one in six endangered runaways reported to NCMEC in 2016 

were likely sex trafficking victims, and of those, 86 percent were 

in the care of social services or foster care when they went missing. 

This group of children, who we refer to as ‘‘children missing from 

care,’’ is an especially vulnerable group, not only for the overwhelming number that can become victims of sex trafficking, but 

also for other dangers that they would face. 

A 2014 law required the States to begin reporting each missing 

or abducted child in State care to law enforcement and to NCMEC, 

and since that bill passed, we’ve spent a lot of time reaching out 

to social service agencies and local jurisdictions across the country 

to ensure that these vulnerable children are reported to NCMEC. 

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7 

From these reports, we continue to see a significant increase in 

the number of children missing from care. For example, in 2015 to 

2016, the number of the cases increased by 89 percent. Through 

this enhanced reporting, we have also been better able to assist 

and support the efforts of State and local jurisdictions to locate and 

return missing children to safe places. 

Now the issue of sextortion, you know, many of us are aware of 

what’s called ‘‘sexting,’’ but we are seeing now is that sexting often 

turns out to be something called ‘‘sextortion.’’ Sextortion is a relatively new form of sexual exploitation that occurs primarily online 

where nonphysical forms of coercion are utilized, such as blackmail, 

to acquire sexual content, such as photos or videos of a child, they 

may obtain money from the child, or engage in sexual acts with the 

child. 

So report to the CyberTipline is a key way to break the cycle of 

victimization. One of the largest extortion cases unraveled with one 

victim, Ashley Reynolds, who was 14 when she was victimized. The 

family became aware of her online abuse and reported her case to 

NCMEC, and we made that information available to the FBI. 

Investigators uncovered more than 350 additional child victims 

in 26 States, three Canadian provinces, and the United Kingdom. 

They identified 106 of the children, and a defendant was sentenced 

to prison. 

As you move towards updating our funding authorization, I 

would like to thank you for your leadership and ongoing support 

of our efforts to recover and protect missing and exploited children. 

We stand ready to provide you with our thoughts on how to better 

fund our key programs and streamline our work, and serve the 

public. 

Again, I thank you for this opportunity to appear here today. I 

look forward to your questions. 

[The statement of Mr. Clark follows:] 

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c 

www.missmgkids.org 

TESTIMONY 

of 

JOHN F. CLARK 

PRESIDENT AND CEO 

THE NATIONAL CENTER FOR MISSING AND EXPLOITED CHILDREN 

for the 

UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND THE WORKFORCE 

"HONORING OUR COMMITMENT TO RECOVER AND PROTECT 

MISSING AND EXPLOITED CHILDREN" 

March 16,2017 

Chairwoman Foxx, Ranking Member Scott and Members of the Committee, lam pleased to be 

here on behalfofThe National Center for Missing and Exploited Children® (NCMEC). 

NCMEC is a private, nonprofit organization founded over 33 years ago that serves as a national 

resource center and information clearinghouse to help children, families, communities, private 

industry, law enforcement, victims, and child-serving professionals on issues relating to missing 

and exploited children. NCMEC works with all of these groups and the public to further our 

private mission to help find missing children, reduce child sexual exploitation and prevent future 

victimization. 

Like many nonprofit organizations, we were born of a grassroots response to a personal tragedy. 

In 1981, 6-year-old Adam Walsh was shopping with his mother at a Florida shopping mall when 

he vanished without a trace. His devastated parents, John and Reve Walsh, had nowhere to turn 

for help in finding Adam. In 1981, there was no 24-hour missing children hotline, no AMBER 

Alert program, no national, coordinated response to search for missing children, no mechanism to 

enter missing children into the FBI's national crime database, and no support for anguished 

families like the Walshes. Despite their desperate search, ten days after Adam was abducted, he 

was found murdered more than JOO miles away. 

John and Revc Walsh channeled their grief and painful experience in losing Adam and joined 

forces with other child advocates to create NCMEC in 1984. Since that time, NCMEC has grown 

tremendously to become the leading national clearinghouse on issues related to missing and 
9 

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Insert offset folio 2 here 24583.002

exploited children. With over 325 employees and hundreds of volunteers, we have forged strong 

partnerships with other nonprofits, members of the public, industry leaders, federal and local 

government agencies, families and private individuals who help support our mission and honor 

our commitment to help recover and protect missing and exploited children. NCMEC provides 

services and programs in five major areas: (I) missing children; (2) child sexual exploitation; (3) 

education; (4) child safety and prevention; and (5) victim and family support. 

Missing Children 

NCMEC approaches each case of a missing child on an individual basis to provide coordinated 

resources, technical assistance, and support to law enforcement and the family of the missing child. 

NCMEC's approach ensures that unique resources are applied depending on whether a child has 

been abducted by a family member; has run away from their home or from social services or foster 

care; is lost or injured; has been missing for an extended period of time; or has been abducted by 

a non-family member. NCMEC also provides services and support when an unidentified deceased 

child has been discovered so we can aid in helping provide that child with a name and identity. 

Our experience working on over 250,000 cases of missing children has taught us that coordinating 

pub lie and private resources to locate and identify missing children and creating public awareness 

are essential to finding and reuniting missing children with their families. 

Over the past three decades, NCMEC has seen trends in missing child cases evolve, and we have 

evolved our programs and best practices in response. It has become increasingly apparent that it 

is essential for the public to receive rapid notice when a child goes missing in their geographical 

area. As a result, NCMEC continues to proactively expand both our secondary distribution of 

AMBER Alerts and our unique targeted social media messaging relating to missing children. 

NCMEC helps ensure that critical, time-sensitive information relating to a missing child and their 

abductor is broadcast far and wide. This approach has yielded tremendous results, with 868 

recoveries of children directly tied to AMBER Alerts and more than I 00 recoveries of missing 

children relating to NCMEC's social media promotion. 

Through NCMEC's work in responding to missing children cases, NCMEC has seen a trending 

increase in missing children with special needs. These children are especially at risk when they 

become lost because they are often unable to communicate their name and/or address, may seek 

to hide in small or enclosed spaces or otherwise avoid traditional search measures. The danger to 

these children is heightened by their frequent attraction to dangerous areas, such as bodies of water 

and roadways. Because of the unique dangers these children face, and the specific challenges 

communities and law enforcement have in trying to locate a child with special needs, NCMEC 

developed specialized search protocols and guidelines for families and law enforcement to utilize 

when responding to missing children with special needs. 

By virtue of our case work with both missing and exploited children cases, NCMEC has also 

become increasingly aware over the past few years of the increased risk faced by many children 

who run away, especially children who run away from state care, and who are particularly 

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vulnerable to dangers including sex trafficking. Last year, one in six runaway children reported to 

NCMEC were likely sex trafficking victims, and 86% of these children ran away from social 

services or foster care. To expand our ability to assist children missing from care, NCMEC 

supported passage of the Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act in September 

2014. This law requires that states report foster children who go missing or run away from state 

care to NCMEC, which in turn enables NCMEC to provide coordinated and uniform resources to 

every missing child, regardless of the circumstances in which they have gone missing. 

Child Sexual Exploitation 

NCMEC has multiple programs that provide support to families, law enforcement, child victims, 

and the professionals who serve them on child sexual exploitation cases. NCMEC has three core 

programs to address the sexual exploitation of children: the CyberTipline, the Child Victim 

Identification Program, and NetSmartz411. Each of these programs was created to further our 

mission and to address a specific need that NCMEC recognized as a result of reports we received 

relating to sexually exploited children. NCMEC uses the information it learns from its 

CyberTipline reports to identify specific trends in sexual exploitation crimes against children, 

which in turn helps shape our prevention and safety messaging and materials. As these trends 

evolve, so too do our resources, programs and data-driven educational materials. 

CyberTipline® 

As the Internet expanded in the early 1990s, NCMEC began to receive more reports relating to the 

online sexual exploitation of children. In an effort to efficiently and effectively facilitate our 

receipt of this information, NCMEC, aided by a private, in-kind donation, launched the 

CyberTipline in 1998. The CyberTipline serves as the national clearinghouse for tips and leads 

relating to child sexual exploitation and furthers NCMEC's private mission by providing members 

of the public and electronic service providers (ESPs) with an efficient method to report incidents 

of suspected child sexual exploitation, including child pornography, molestation, child sex 

tourism, online enticement, and child sex trafficking. After NCMEC began operating the 

CyberTipline, federal law (I 8 U.S.C. § 2258A) was enacted to require ESPs to report instances of 

apparent child pornography that they become aware of on their systems to NCMEC's 

CybcrTipline. 

As part of our work to prevent the further victimization of children and to discover trends that can 

assist in reducing these crimes, NCMEC staff review information an ESP voluntarily includes in 

a CyberTipline report and uses conventional and publicly available information to try to identify 

a potential geographic location that relates to the subject of the report. After NCMEC's review is 

complete, the report is made available to a law enforcement agency in the potential location for 

independent review. NCMEC constantly triages CyberTipline reports it receives to ensure that 

reports of children who appear to be in imminent danger get first priority. 

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By operating the CyberTipline, NCMEC serves as a vital and central clearinghouse to further the 

public-private partnership between the public, ESPs, and law enforcement to help reduce the 

proliferation of online child sexual exploitation and prevent future victimization. Since its 

creation, the CyberTipline has received more than 18 million reports relating to incidents of child 

pornography, child sex tourism, child sex trafficking, child sexual molestation, misleading domain 

names, words or images, online enticement, or unsolicited obscene material sent to a child. The 

number of reports received through the CyberTipline continues to increase exponentially each 

year. So far in 2017, NCMEC has received more than 2.3 million CyberTipline reports. 

CyberTipline Activity 

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8.000,000 

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6,000,000 

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The exponential increase in child pornography reports to NCMEC's CyberTipline is due, in part, 

to the international nature of the crime, but also to the common use of the Internet by offenders to 

facilitate sharing of illegal child sexual abuse images around the world. Once content is distributed 

online, it is impossible to eradicate all copies, and its continual distribution leads to a constant 

increase in reports. 

NCMEC knows that child pornography presents a serious and growing threat to the children of 

this nation. Through our work, we have seen the lifelong psychological, financial, and social 

harms to child pornography victims that extend far beyond the actual harm inflicted on these 

children. The continued dissemination of these illegal images violates and exploits its many 

victims. Because of this, NCMEC works with leading members of the Internet industry to help 

facilitate and provide voluntary initiatives that can help to deter and prevent the proliferation of 

online child sexual exploitation images. Many Internet companies voluntarily take proactive steps 

to limit access to child pornography on the Internet by using private technology and tools, such as 

4 
12 

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PhotoDNA, and sharing best practices in a combined effort to eradicate the further dissemination 

of these images in order to prevent further harm and suffering by child pornography victims. 

Child Victim Identification Program® 

Many child pornography victims are unidentified and therefore may continue to be at risk. 

NCMEC operates the Child Victim Identification Program (CVIP) to help identify unknown child 

victims so law enforcement can rescue them from abusive and harmful situations. CVIP serves as 

the central U.S. repository for information relating to child victims depicted in sexually exploitive 

images and videos. CVIP also assists in the identification of child victims depicted in sexually 

exploitative images and provides information relevant to judicial proceedings relating to child 

pornography crimes. By helping to determine which children pictured in sexually explicit images 

and videos remain unidentified, CVIP aids in preventing future victimization by helping law 

enforcement focus their efforts on identifying and recovering these children who might still be in 

abusive situations. 

Since CVIP was established in 2002, NCMEC has reviewed nearly 200 million images and videos 

of child sexual abuse. As with NCMEC's CyberTipline program, NCMEC's private partnerships 

with technology companies provide the tools and expertise that enable our small staff to triage and 

screen huge volumes of content and to facilitate the identification and recovery of children. 

CVIP also plays a central role in assisting private attorneys representing child pornography 

victims. NCMEC assists these attorneys in their work to obtain restitution and redress the harm 

created by those who possess the illegal images depicting their abuse. NCMEC provides 

information related to identified victims depicted in specified series at their attorney's request to 

assist in litigation and other advocacy efforts. 

NetSmartz411 

NCMEC utilizes the expertise and awareness it gains by operating the CyberTipline program to 

offer infonnational resources to parents and guardians through its NetSmartz411 program. This 

program is designed as a forum for parents and guardians to obtain basic infonnation relating to 

Internet safety, computers, and the Internet, as well as ask specific questions relating to their child's 

online activities. 

Educational Programs 

NCMEC provides educational programs and technical assistance and resources at no cost to Jaw 

enforcement, health care professionals and other child-serving professionals who deal with cases 

of missing and exploited children. NCMEC's role as a clearinghouse enables us to have access to 

tremendous volumes of analytical information regarding the missing and exploited child cases that 

we work on. It has been a priority for NCMEC to reach larger audiences with the statistics, 

analyses, and best practices that we develop through widespread educational programs. Our 

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programs are specialized by subject matter, including missing children, forensic imaging, and child 

sex trafficking, and directed to specific audiences, including police chiefs, healthcare 

professionals, and prosecutors. 

NCMEC offers its educational programs through traditional classroom trainings at its headquarters 

and branch oftkes as well as throughout the country and as distance learning programs through 

NCMEC University Online. To date, NCMEC has provided its educational programming to childserving professionals to more than 330,000 individuals throughout the United States. 

Outreach & Prevention 

NCMEC strives to transform the analytical information it gleans from its handling of hundreds of 

thousands of missing and abducted child cases and its hundreds of millions of exploited child cases 

into audience-appropriate safety and prevention messaging. We realize the importance of not just 

working to help resolve cases after a child has gone missing or is being exploited, but also to using 

our knowledge to break that cycle and prevent these crimes whenever possible. As a result, the 

message of prevention is ingrained in our private mission, and it is clear to all of us at NCMEC 

that one of the first steps in protecting children is educating not only children, but also their 

families, teachers and communities about safety risks. To address this key priority, NCMEC 

continually expands our safety and prevention programs, particularly in response to new and 

developing trends we see unfold in our missing and exploited case work. NCMEC's main 

education programs are the NetSmartz"' Workshop, a variety of interactive, educational safety 

resources for children ages five to 17, and KidSmartz"', a child safety program that educates 

families about preventing abduction and empowers kids in grades K-5 to practice safer behaviors. 

NetSmartz provides age-appropriate games, cartoons, videos, worksheets, safety pledges, and 

grade-specific handouts and teaching curriculums, to prepare children to be safer online. As we 

have witnessed the increased vulnerability of children online to certain crimes, we have finetuned 

our educational programs and messaging relating to more recent dangers, such as sextortion, 

scxting, cyberbullying, and revealing too much personal information. Our safety programs are 

created to enable parents and educators to easily select particular aspects of the NetSmartz 

materials to share with children depending on time constraints and the child's age. 

We also incorporate the NetSmartz messaging into teacher curriculums and related teaching 

materials that are free and downloadable to educational professions. 

KidSmartz capitalizes on our private-public partnerships and offers abduction prevention and 

safety lessons to children in grades K-5 and is a resource for teachers and parents/guardians to help 

children understand safety risks, learn about self-protection and feel empowered to report 

attempted abductions or other threatening behavior they may encounter on or offline. Because 

NCMEC's data indicates that approximately one third of attempted abductions occur to children 

between 10 and 14 years old who are traveling to or from school or a school-related activity, 

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programs like KidSmartz are crucial to targeting school-age children and their parents, guardians, 

and teachers for prevention education. 

NCMEC is always seeking new ways to expand its prevention messaging to those who have the 

most contact with children. For example, one ofNCMEC's newest initiatives, Safety Central, is 

an online mobile app launched last year. Safety Central is designed to provide parents and 

guardians with a secure online platform to create a Child ID kit for their children as well as to 

provide current information regarding missing children and safety messaging. 

Family & Victim Services 

In addition to the case management and analytical support NCMEC provides, we also offer support 

to families whose child may be missing or a victim of sex trafficking or another form of sexual 

exploitation. These services are facilitated by NCMEC's master-level trained mental health and 

child welfare professionals. NCMEC manages voluntary initiatives to expand the resources 

available to help families, including the Family Advocacy Outreach Network and Team HOPE. 

The Family Advocacy Outreach Network is a referral system of treatment professionals 

experienced in treating child victims of sexual abuse or abduction from across the country. 

NCMEC works to recruit, train, and support these professionals who work with NCMEC to 

provide ongoing crisis management and therapy, including in-person intervention, to families and 

recovered victims on a sliding fee or pro-bono basis. 

NCMEC also supports families through trained volunteers as a part of Team HOPE, a volunteer 

group of parents and family members who have experienced a missing or sexually exploited child 

or who have a child who is still missing and who provide peer support to other families. 

NCMEC directly provides reunification assistance when a child is recovered and families need 

crucial assistance in reintegrating the child back into the home. In addition to emotional support, 

NCMEC supports the physical reunification of recovered children and their families by working 

with private transportation partners to facilitate free domestic travel for reunification. We also 

administer the Victim Reunification Travel Program funded by the Department of Justice, Office 

of Victims of Crime which enables NCMEC to provide funds to families who must travel overseas 

to reunite with their recovered child or attend a custody hearing in another country in the case of 

an international family abduction. 

Emerging Trends in NCMEC's Programs to Help Missing and Exploited Children 

Throughout NCMEC's thirty-three years of providing services and essential programs to help 

missing and exploited children, we have seen the crimes against children develop and expand. At 

each juncture, we have responded by refocusing our messaging and practices so we can best 

address these crimes against children. Since Congress last considered our authorization, we have 

seen new crimes emerge that pose unique risks and dangers to children, including online child sex 

trafficking, children missing from care, and sextortion 

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In recent years, NCMEC has received approximately 10,000 reports of child sex trafficking to its 

CyberTipline. NCMEC has continued to expand its specialized resources and technical assistance 

on cases of child sex trafficking, including expanded analytical assistance and recovery services. 

NCMEC also provides basic necessities-such as toiletries, shoes, snacks and a change of 

clothes-to recovered victims through its "I lope Bag" program. NCMEC works with private 

donors to fund and prepare these bags, which then are provided to children who are recovered from 

sex trafficking situations across the country. 

NCMEC has also worked strenuously to combat the sale of children online for sex. Through our 

work with missing children cases and our operation of the CyberTipline, we recognize the growing 

trend and problem of children being offered for sale and bought for rape and other sexual abuse 

on online classified advertising websites, such as Backpage. NCMEC continues to work with law 

enforcement officials, the media, private attorneys and Congress to create public awareness of this 

issue and combat the trafficking of children online. 

As mentioned above, NCMEC has experienced tremendous growth in its case load of children 

missing from state care since the passage of the Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening 

Families Act. Since 2012, the number of missing children reported to NCMEC by state agencies 

has nearly tripled, necessitating expansion of our case management and analytical resources to 

support these cases and to provide educational resources and technical assistance to social services 

as they develop new reporting protocols to NCMEC. Due to the increased vulnerabilities of 

children who run away f\·om state care, NCMEC will continue to devote increased resources to 

these cases and to expand its work on helping to prevent and provide recovery services for these 

children. 

Another alarming trend NCMEC has recognized over the past three years is sextortion, a new 

online exploitation crime directed towards children in which non-physical forms of coercion are 

used, such as blackmail, to acquire sexual content from the child, engage in sex with the child, or 

obtain money from the child. NCMEC has seen a dramatic increase in sextortion cases being 

reported, including a 150% increase in reports from early 2014 to early 2016. NCMEC has 

responded to the tremendous growth in these reports by devoting additional analytical resources 

and family support services to these cases. NCMEC also partnered with the U.S. Department of 

Justice to create a series of public service announcements to educate and inform children, their 

parents and guardians, and child-serving professionals of the nature and unique dangers to this 

latest insidious crime of sexual exploitation against children. 

Conclusion 

Thank you for the opportunity to provide you and the Committee with information on NCMEC's 

vital role in combatting child sexual exploitation and addressing the issue of missing children. 

And thank you for your continuing support of the work of NCMEC and our partners. We look 

forward to collaborating with you as we move forward on a reauthorization bill that continues to 

honor our commitment to serve and assist our nation's most vulnerable children. 

8 
16 

Chairwoman FOXX. Thank you very much, Mr. Clark. Mr. Guthrie, I recognize you for 5 minutes. 

Mr. GUTHRIE. Thank you, Madam Chairman, for yielding, and 

particularly to the courtesy of my friends from Michigan and Tennessee for allowing me-to yielding this position to me. I appreciate 

it very much. 

I had a previous commitment, but I wanted to talk to you because I was the principal coauthor of the reauthorization of the 

Missing Children’s Assistance Act, and have been to the NCMEC 

and seen your dedicated employees and the things that they do, 

and some of the miracles. 

One story, I remember, they said they had an age appropriate, 

someone into their teenage years, and this lady was in school. They 

had a picture up, and she looked at it and said ‘‘that’s me!’’ and 

her father had abducted her from her mom and taken her. The 

story— 

It is just amazing stuff that you guys do, and how much we appreciate it. 

So I want to talk about the 2013 authorization. Would you discuss what specific changes NCMEC has implemented to comply 

with the changes made in the 2013 authorization? 

Mr. CLARK. Sure. Much of the work that’s happened since 2013 

has included many of our modernization efforts. We have collaborated a lot more with some of our other private partners, including 

in our technology updates right now. We’re undergoing a total, I 

would call it, revitalization of how we are able to utilize technology, 

which is really the most, probably, capable tool we have to fight 

child sex trafficking. 

Updating our website, making our CyperTip capability and analysis go a whole lot faster through partnerships with organizations 

like Intel Corporation. 

We’re doing a lot right now through rebuilding to the future and 

being a very forward leaning organization to be able to combat the 

scourge of child exploitation. 

Mr. GUTHRIE. Thank you. As the committee considers future reauthorizations of the act, will you discuss what changes to the law 

are needed to support vital work of identifying and recovering 

missing and exploited children? 

Mr. CLARK. Well, the more effort and resources we can pour into 

this particular problem, for example, since the child exploitation 

issue has really, as you probably know by some of the statistics I 

just mentioned, have really doubled, quadrupled, and gotten to be 

really out of hand. 

I think all the efforts that Congress can do to help us combat the 

issue of child exploitation would be vitally important to us. It’s 

been noted that practically everywhere I go to speak, that issue is 

really the number one priority. 

If you think back since 2013 to the present, and you just look at 

some of the statistics that we have seen, now at the Center in 

2017, the volume in the pipeline is huge. 

Mr. GUTHRIE. Again, I appreciate all the work that you have 

done. Somewhere, after we had the meeting with you guys, we actually went home and did roundtables in different communities. 

And had people from the—we had judges, we had people from the 

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17 

different groups. We explained to people and tried to make people 

aware of how prevalent it is in South Central Kentucky. You know, 

we think it is just big cities, but it is not. 

And hotel owners, we had some name brand franchises, to make 

sure they were aware, and there were some things and tips we had 

from your group about let the hotel manager or does it seeming 

like different people coming in and out all the time, just what to 

look for, because you know, in a hotel are not seeing the same people every day, but sometimes when you start seeing that. 

I thought it was very helpful, and I think we were able to spread 

some of that information to our district, so I recommend my colleagues to do that. 

And again, I appreciate what you are doing, what your staff is 

doing. Appreciate you yielding, and I definitely appreciate the courtesy of my two friends here for letting me go out of order. I appreciate it very much, and I yield back my time. 

Chairwoman FOXX. Thank you, Mr. Guthrie. Ms. Bonamici, you 

are recognized for 5 minutes. 

Ms. BONAMICI. Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you again, 

Mr. Clark, for your testimony. We are policymakers here, but those 

of us who are parents never really take off our parent hats. I really 

appreciate your work. 

And as I mentioned in my opening statement, I am concerned 

about children who run away from home. We have a lot of homeless youth in our school systems, and some of those students are 

emancipated. They do not have a family to go home to, so oftentimes they find themselves struggling to survive on the streets. 

Can you talk a little bit more about what NCMEC does to help 

protect these kids and actually prevent them from getting into sexual exploitation and trafficking? 

Mr. CLARK. Well, you have hit on one of the critical areas of our 

work. We know that in 2016, for example, there were about 20,500 

missing children cases. A far percentage of those missing children 

are what we would refer to as ‘‘endangered runaways’’ or ‘‘critical 

care,’’ often coming from broken homes, or being put into vulnerable circumstances and being very vulnerable to sex trafficking and 

other crimes, organized crime and their members who take advantage of them for. 

And so we look at this as really one of our top priorities. We have 

been working very closely with a lot of social service organizations. 

At our Center itself, we have trained numerous volunteers who 

work closely with us, who are coming from the social service field 

in their home States, in their home jurisdictions. 

And essentially, we are trying to equip them and have them help 

us, and we can help them be able to identify this very vulnerable 

and at-risk group. 

Ms. BONAMICI. Thank you very much. You know, there is a group 

of the population that is especially hesitant to turn to law enforcement, or afraid, the immigrant and refugee population. In recent 

weeks, there have been increases across the country in ICE enforcement activities that have created some fear among not only 

our undocumented immigrant population, but also people who 

might be perceived as being an immigrant. 

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18 

We are hearing reports of domestic violence victims, for example, 

who are afraid to go to court to testify. We are hearing about families who are afraid to walk their children to the school bus. People 

who do not feel safe getting lifesaving services at shelters or food 

banks, and sadly, children who are afraid to go to school because 

they do not know if their parents will be home when they get home 

from school. 

So, what can NCMEC do to help families of missing and exploited children in these communities, families who are scared or 

afraid to turn to law enforcement, but still need to be protected 

from this type of exploitation? 

Mr. CLARK. Certainly. Well, I’m pleased to report that at the National Center, we operate a 24/7 call center, handles about 500 calls 

a day. We are able to handle all the calls through all the languages. We have up to 190 different languages that we can have 

at our disposal to be able to interpret. 

I’m also pleased to say that I think in many instances, we are 

a first-stop call when there are circumstances involving missing or 

exploited children. We know that from our call center and the type 

of instances they have with taking calls. 

So, I think that from the Center’s perspective, we have a longstanding track record of being very open, very receptive to whoever 

calls our hotline and wants to report to us. 

And similarly, we know from our capability to put that messaging out, if it’s involving a missing child, through our social and 

digital media outlets, and our close relationship with the news 

media. We are very proud of our track record, and have numerous 

cases of recoveries of children from all demographics, so we are 

very proud of that record. 

Ms. BONAMICI. Thank you. Of course, I mentioned prevention is 

ideal because then we prevent problems from happening at the outset. And as we know, technology really is a mixed blessing. 

Can you talk a little bit about what you can do and the work you 

are doing with families, so parents can educate their children about 

what to watch for, what to be aware of, with technology? 

Mr. CLARK. Sure. We have a tremendous amount of resources 

that we’re constantly improving upon. We have a NetSmartz411 

program, as we refer to it, that helps parents become aware and 

informed, which is a vital, I call them ‘‘tools,’’ that parents should 

be able to use when it comes to knowing more about what their 

children are doing online, and how to guide and protect them from 

a parental situation, to be safer when they are surfing the Net. 

We also have our NetSmartz program, which is age appropriate, 

for children to learn how to safely navigate on the Net, how to be 

careful, how to be safe, what to do if certain circumstances appear 

when they’re surfing the Net. So that is another program. 

The KidSmartz program, another education and awareness program, teaches young children how to be safe when they’re just out 

and about in the public or when they’re at school. That might include things like bullying or what to do if someone approaches 

them to try to entice them to get into a car or go into a park, or 

in some other place where they shouldn’t be. 

We are also interpreting— 

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19 

Ms. BONAMICI. I see my time has expired. Thank you for your 

important work. I yield back. Thank you, Madam Chair. 

Chairwoman FOXX. Thank you, Ms. Bonamici. Dr. Roe, you are 

recognized for 5 minutes. 

Mr. ROE. Thank you, Mr. Clark, for what you do and your organization does. I cannot thank you enough. If NCMEC puts one 

child back in a safe environment, all the investments we have done 

has been worth it, in my opinion. Every bit of it. I cannot thank 

you enough for what you are doing. 

I heard—I think I heard you say that 86 or 80 something percent 

of children that actually ran away, were exploited or lost, were 

from foster care. Did I hear that correctly? 

Mr. CLARK. Yes, children missing from a foster care type setting, 

where they are particularly vulnerable. 

Mr. ROE. It looks like that would be an area, if almost 9 out 10 

come from that environment, that’s a way that we need to educate 

and certainly vet our foster parents better. 

My next-door neighbor is a school principal, elementary school 

principal, and she fostered some children from her school. It was 

amazing the education in Tennessee that they put them through— 

this family through—I wonder if that is being done around the 

country because it looks to me like that would be the first place I 

would focus. 

Mr. CLARK. Yes, I can say that from the Center’s perspective, 

we’re very interested in how we can educate this particular cross 

section of our country on how to pay particular attention to those 

children who might be in their care. 

We do have and do provide training at the Center for a number 

of social service organizations and people who routinely come in 

contact or likely to come in contact with individuals of that nature 

on how to watch over that particular vulnerable group. That is a 

group that is also very vulnerable to sex trafficking. 

Mr. ROE. I have a constituent in my district who lost two of his 

children and his wife in the fire in Gatlinburg. His wife had been— 

I am not going to mention his name now – but his wife had been 

abused basically, sexually abused as a child, and dealt with these 

demons her entire life. 

He has an idea, and I want to get together with you all and discuss this, about a child, and there could be abuse, there is no question about that, but many young people have a device, a PDA. 

Would it be feasible to have an app on the device where if a child 

is in a vulnerable or bad situation, they could punch that—that 

they could, right then, punch that device with this app, and then 

immediately contact somebody like you or whatever, let them know 

they might be in trouble? 

And I realize any time you do not let your child go to whatever, 

they might punch the app. I had three that I might have to punch 

if they did that. Basically, you see what I am saying, to make it 

easier with technology for children who are in an exploited situation to get out of it? 

Mr. CLARK. Congressman, I’m far from a technology expert, so I’d 

probably be the last person to answer that question. We have 

added an app on— that is available now, a child safety app, that 

has been developed in partnership with one of our supporters just 

CEWDOCROOM with DISTILLER

20 

in the recent year. And I don’t know if that’s something we might 

look at to add as a feature to that particular app. It is something 

we just developed and released about 6 or 8 months ago. 

That is relatively new, and that is the way of the future, you’re 

right. So from a technology perspective, we’d be interested in looking at that. 

Mr. ROE. I will meet you or I will have my staff meet with you 

afterwards. Just, I am going to run through, I do not have a lot 

of time left but you mentioned NCMEC approaches each case of a 

missing child on an individual basis. Can you kind of walk us 

through the steps of how that works? 

Mr. CLARK. Sure. When a child is reported missing to us, it’s 

very critical that we get the information and word out into the 

hands of the law enforcement community quickly, if it hasn’t already been done so. In certain cases, that is the case. 

So once that happens, we use a variety of social media, digital 

media capabilities to get that information in the area where the 

child is missing. 

So, for example, if a child is missing in Tennessee or somewhere 

locally, it may not make sense to have that information broadcast 

to Oregon. So, we’re able to geo-fence that information, work quickly with the local media outlets to get them to get that information 

out. We have even worked with other law enforcement organizations to get that onto digital billboards and the like. So, getting the 

information out quickly is vital. 

If there’s any data analytics or case analytics, we have the analysts on board that can work with that as well, to make sure that 

particular case is given as much priority and attention as there can 

be. 

Mr. ROE. You do not have time to answer this, but maybe at 

some point in time you can. My time has expired. What are your 

biggest needs that we could help you with? I will leave you with 

that thought. 

Chairwoman FOXX. Thank you, Dr. Roe. Mr. Courtney, you are 

recognized for 5 minutes. 

Mr. COURTNEY. Thank you, Madam Chairwoman and thank you, 

Mr. Clark, for being here today. This is an issue where, again, I 

think you are going to have strong support from both sides of the 

aisle to make sure reauthorization moves forward in a timely fashion. 

I want to thank the Center for its work with my office and Congressman Erik Paulsen from Minnesota. Last year, we finally 

passed the Recovering Missing Children’s Act, Public Law 184, that 

President Obama signed into law on June 30. 

Again, this was to address a problem that was actually kind of 

stunning in trying to get your head around it: the New York Times 

with the help of the Center published a report back in 2010 that 

the Treasury Department was actually aware of the location of 

missing kids because of abducting adults having the gall to claim 

an exemption on their tax returns, but, unfortunately, the privacy 

provisions of the IRS Code prevented the IRS from sharing that information from investigating law enforcement. 

Again, it took 5 years for us to get this measure through, but, 

as I said, it has now opened up a pathway, so that law enforcement 

CEWDOCROOM with DISTILLER

21 

can apply for a waiver from the IRS privacy provisions to again investigate tax returns to see if a child—to locate a child because of 

the fact that data is sitting right there in the government’s lap. 

And again, the Center was very instrumental in terms of helping 

us make that case over that time period. 

The question I wanted to ask, so it was June 30 it was signed 

into law, we have done some follow-up with the Justice Department and the IRS about, again, this tool is out there, making sure 

that, again, police departments, State and local, are aware of the 

fact that is there. 

And frankly, there has not been a lot of movement in terms of 

broadcasting it that we, at least certainly, have picked up. I do not 

know if you have anything you can shed light on or at least we can 

work together to again making sure this hard fought, you know, 

measure, which, again, the estimate is it is a couple thousand kids 

that have exemptions claimed by abducting adults based on the 

Treasury analysis that was done a number of years ago. 

Mr. CLARK. Well, that law certainly makes sense to me, and I applaud the efforts to be able to look at some issue like that and be 

able to make some headway with it. I’m not deeply informed on 

where that particular issue stands at the moment. 

At the National Center, we sort of embrace the mindset that any 

tool or technique or capability that we can use to help find missing 

children, we should do it. That’s in conjunction, of course, with all 

the legal remedies we can find and public policy issues we can employ. 

And so, that particular example, I think, is a good one, but I’m 

not deeply informed on where it currently stands. 

Mr. COURTNEY. Thank you, again. Hopefully, we can follow up 

after today. Again, it is kind of amazing that one arm of the government is aware of the location of a missing child and cannot 

share it with other arms of the government that are investigating 

it, so that was the whole point of this measure, is to create a 

bridge, so that flow of information can occur. 

So, thank you for being here today. I look forward to working 

with you on that. 

Mr. CLARK. Would love to work on that. 

Chairwoman FOXX. Thank you, Mr. Courtney. Mr. Walberg, you 

are recognized for 5 minutes. 

Mr. WALBERG. Thank you, Madam Chairwoman and thank you, 

Mr. Clark, for being here, and as my colleagues have stated, and 

I echo it again, thanks for the work you do. It is work that many 

people could not do, and would not choose to do. Not because they 

do not care, but I am sure each day you are challenged with the 

stories that you hear, and frustrated at times with the things that 

stand in your way. 

In your testimony, you stated that more can be done to combat 

child sex trafficking, and I agree. That is why in the 2013 Missing 

Children’s Assistance Act reauthorization, I authored a provision to 

provide technical assistance to law enforcement and first responders in identifying, locating, and recovering victims of child sex trafficking. 

Could you, for us today, provide specific examples of the type of 

technical assistance NCMEC has provided in compliance with this 

CEWDOCROOM with DISTILLER

22 

provision to those first responders and law enforcement authorities? 

Mr. CLARK. Sure and that’s a wonderful question. At the Center, 

we have a whole section we refer to as our Case Analysis Division. 

They work very closely to help law enforcement and enable them 

to find missing or exploited children. 

In a recent case, for example, in fact, I believe it was part of my 

initial oral testimony, we were working with the FBI on something 

called ‘‘Operation Cross Country,’’ recovered numerous child sex 

trafficking victims. That was in direct relationship to a lot of work 

done at the National Center to be able to help locate, and help the 

law enforcement sources locate these individuals who are being 

trafficked. 

So that is part of, I think, a broader technical assistance that we 

are providing out there to the community. Additionally, we have 

done a lot more with our digital social media capabilities, to be able 

to let jurisdictions know, particularly in long-term missing cases or 

where there is exploitation, what can be done to combat it. 

So, we’re very proud of the work our folks are doing. 

Mr. WALBERG. Could you explain further how maintaining the 

public-private partnership model of NCMEC is vital to expanding 

and continuing the work that you do? 

Mr. CLARK. I believe the way of the future is a public-private 

partnership in all forms of industry. At the National Center, we’re 

very proud of our record of working across the lines with numerous 

industry partners. We have a lot of our technology giants who work 

closely with us, organizations like Google and Intel, or Microsoft. 

Then on the State and local level, we work very closely with the 

National Association of Attorney Generals, the National District 

Attorneys Association, law enforcement organizations of all types. 

Many of us and some on my staff that are with me today are 

here on the Hill regularly looking at various public policy issues 

and how we can join together to strengthen existing laws or consider new ones. 

All this is a public-private partnership, and it’s critical, I’d say, 

to our success. We can’t go this alone. This is not a single-hand 

fight. This is an all-hands fight. Everybody who can bring something to bear to this problem should. 

Mr. WALBERG. Do you truly feel that entities like Google, Microsoft, heavily connected with the social media through the Internet 

and all of the rest, and some of the trolling places that go on there 

and the like, do they really get their part from both aspects in this 

issue? 

Mr. CLARK. They do. In fact, a lot of the spike in the number of 

the CyberTipline reports we have seen in recent years is a direct 

correlation through the awareness and the reporting done through 

our electronic service providers, organizations that have something 

to do with the world wide web, so we have strong partnerships 

there. 

Mr. WALBERG. Okay. We would certainly hope that continues and 

expands. That is a crucial area that impacts the trafficking in great 

ways. 

Mr. CLARK. Absolutely is. 

Mr. WALBERG. Thank you. I yield back. 

CEWDOCROOM with DISTILLER

23 

Chairwoman FOXX. Thank you very much, Mr. Walberg. Mr. 

Sablan, you are recognized for 5 minutes. 

Mr. SABLAN. Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Thank you for 

having this hearing. Mr. Clark, I have nothing to contribute. I am 

here to show my support for program you are doing with your organization. Obviously, not everything you do can be made applicable 

in the Northern Mariana’s, but we do not have long highways and 

things but I am aware we do have these two child who were lost 

years ago on their way to school, and have not been located. I do 

not know them still missing or something worse. 

I am here to show support, and to also urge the committee and 

this Congress to authorize the program or at least where it is possibility. 

Madam Chair, thank you very much for holding today’s hearing 

and I yield back. 

Chairwoman FOXX. Thank you very much. Mr. Mitchell, you are 

recognized for 5 minutes. 

Mr. MITCHELL. Thank you, Madam Chairman. You referenced in 

your testimony as previous question that a significant component 

of missing children are children in foster care. Do you have any 

data or anecdotal information on what—it is great to try to find the 

children, but what causes more often than not foster children to 

end up running away, which is often the case? Can you share some 

insights on that? 

Mr. CLARK. Well, only through some of the individuals that work 

closely with the Center, who are more—have level of expertise far 

beyond what I do—but we often find that there’s elements of what 

might be commonly referred to as ‘‘a broken home,’’ children who 

might be vulnerable. 

There’s also a group of young adults, young teens, who, for a variety of reasons, get into situations of substance abuse or other situations that might pull them from a home element that puts them 

into a vulnerable place. They end up in some type of an alternate 

care or foster care type situation where they become very vulnerable to traffickers and/or organized crime members. So, we work 

very closely with those types and groups of individuals who come 

in contact with them. 

Mr. MITCHELL. You work— do you work with the State agencies 

and some of those in terms of training and services to try to help 

them identify and prevent that? What services –what do you undertake to do that? 

Mr. CLARK. Our training center operates training classes, I 

would say almost on a weekly basis. Since inception, we’ve trained 

about 330,000 individuals, some in law enforcement, some from organizations that would address this very issue of vulnerable youth 

at foster care type situations. 

So, that’s an effort that we try to pay particular attention to and 

pour a lot of training resources into as a way to help educate and 

inform that part of the population. 

Mr. MITCHELL. Thank you. You also noted and we are aware that 

children with autism and other special needs are particularly atrisk, particularly at-risk, in fact, of significantly bad outcomes. You 

folks have undertaken a variety of services for training law enforceCEWDOCROOM with DISTILLER

24 

ment. Can you outline a couple of those, whether there are enough 

resources to meet the need in your opinion? 

Mr. CLARK. We have been working very closely with organizations like Autism Speaks, I think probably a national leader on 

that. Now, we have a whole new protocol and training that we use 

to help law enforcement organizations, particularly when a child 

goes missing who has autism. We have what I would refer to as 

‘‘subject matter experts,’’ who advise that local jurisdiction on how 

to search, where to search, what types of resources are available. 

That’s all free of charge from the National Center. 

Sadly, we find cases where the outcome is not what we hoped it 

would be, but we have been partnering now with a lot of the groups 

that are involved in autism and how we can help when a child goes 

missing. 

Mr. MITCHELL. Do you have enough resources putting in that to 

effectively disseminate that to law enforcement across the country 

at this point? 

Mr. CLARK. Well, we could always use more help for that, for 

sure. I’m always hesitant to come to Congress asking for more, but 

there are times when we are spread thin. Organizationally, if you 

look at our workload measures compared to our employee population base today, the workload measures are going up, our employee population base is relatively stagnant. 

Mr. MITCHELL. One last question, if I could hop back. Dr. Roe 

asked, and you did not have time, what the biggest need was you 

face. Could you-I will take the time to see if we can get an answer 

to his question-could you help us with that? 

Mr. CLARK. Sure can, yeah. We always want to, I think, pour 

more resources into the technology capabilities that we can use at 

the Center, especially when it comes to combatting the issues of 

child exploitation. It’s been our biggest area of growth, and that is 

in terms of crimes and situations that are happening. 

The individuals who are working day and night to try to find 

these at-risk people or people that are being victimized, pour a lot 

of time and effort into that, so funding and resources for that, I 

think, would be vital to us as part of our growth in the future. 

Mr. MITCHELL. Thank you very much, and I will yield back. 

Thank you. 

Chairwoman FOXX. Thank you, Mr. Mitchell. Mr. Takano, you 

are recognized for 5 minutes. 

Mr. TAKANO. Thank you, Madam Chair. Mr. Clark, as you know, 

the Trafficking Victims Protection Act does focus on sex trafficking, 

but it also, I think, made mention of labor trafficking as well. Is 

there any mechanism in place to identify and ensure appropriate 

services that are provided to youth labor trafficking victims? 

Mr. CLARK. Well, the primary focus of our work at the Center involves child sexual exploitation. From time to time, we are made 

aware of or come across cases that do involve a child labor issue, 

and we work very closely with law enforcement on those particular 

issues and making sure it’s addressed. 

Although I don’t have any particular data that is at my disposal 

that I could share with you on that, but when we do run across 

it, we do handle it. 

CEWDOCROOM with DISTILLER

25 

Mr. TAKANO. Well, perhaps, is there data available? What I am 

aware of is that child welfare agencies are required to identify and 

document sex trafficking but not labor trafficking. And I think that 

is kind of a critical gap in screening and services, don’t you think? 

Mr. CLARK. It would be, and Congressman, what I’d probably 

have to do is get back to you on that in terms of what the data 

would show. I’m not deeply informed on what that particular metric is. 

Mr. TAKANO. Yeah, I do salute the work that you are doing on 

sex trafficking, but I think we ought to maybe also not take our 

foot off the pedal on the work that you are focused on, but also at 

the same time I think expand the scope to also include labor trafficking. 

Can you tell me what services, outreach, and support, is being 

provided to prevent the trafficking of LGBTQ youth or to respond 

to their specific needs, what barriers are you encountering in meeting their needs? 

Mr. CLARK. I’m not aware of any barriers or particular issues or 

problems that we have seen at the Center, particularly with our 

call center, both that handles the calls that are coming in from the 

public as well as our CyberTipline, that points to any dysfunction, 

and what we do, we tend to treat every case, every call, every parent, every person who calls in on equal footing, and do our best to 

help resolve their particular situation, but I’m not aware of any 

particular concerns or problems from the National Center’s point of 

view. 

Mr. TAKANO. Is there any particular outreach because this target 

group, you know, in order to really be effective in preventing trafficking among members of this group, you might need to look at 

special efforts to try to reach them. 

Mr. CLARK. We will certainly do that. I know that our training 

materials, education awareness materials, are broadly disseminated. I don’t know if that’s maybe part of what might, you might 

also seeking from me. But as I mentioned, I think, to one of the 

other questions, we work quite sufficiently in trying to train, educate, and inform all cross sections of our vulnerable youth on how 

to protect themselves. 

Mr. TAKANO. What is the relationship between juvenile status offenses and trafficking? How can juvenile offenses be handled in a 

manner that does not increase youth vulnerability to trafficking? 

For example, alternatives to arrest and incarceration? 

Mr. CLARK. I’m not deeply informed in that particular topic, Congressman, only because most of our work as it relates to vulnerable 

youth is directed really in the area of sex trafficking, child sex trafficking, online enticement. 

I’m certain, though, at least I would believe there would be a correlation between those arrested and other juvenile-type crimes or 

circumstances that could relate to them being put into a certain 

area of vulnerability, much as we talked about with some of the endangered runaways or others who tend to end up in the criminal 

justice system more often. 

Mr. TAKANO. Well, so, juvenile status offenses in particular that 

relate to arrests and incarceration, there may be some relationship; 

CEWDOCROOM with DISTILLER

26 

we ought to investigate. My time is running out and I yield back, 

Madam Chair. 

Chairwoman FOXX. Thank you, Mr. Takano. Mr. Garrett, you are 

recognized for 5 minutes. 

Mr. GARRETT. Thank you, Madam Chair, and I want to thank 

Mr. Clark for being here today, and tell him that I think it was 

11 years ago when I first began working with NCMEC, and I will 

offer a little bit of introduction by way of essentially an offer to 

help where I may here. 

I started as an attorney in the Computer Crimes Unit of the Virginia Office of the Attorney General, primarily working on CP, and 

in so doing, getting to know the folks at NCMEC very well. 

Ultimately, became a local prosecutor, and started an ICAC Unit 

that was subordinate to Sheriff Mike Brown and Detective Mike 

Harmony, who I am sure you know. By the way, I have been 

texting a couple of those guys. They told me to ask you how Ernie 

Allen is doing. 

Mr. CLARK. Yes. 

Mr. GARRETT. Go ahead. They did not say ask rhetorically how 

Ernie is doing. What’s Ernie up to these days? 

Mr. CLARK. Yes, I would just say we encounter Ernie quite a bit, 

and he’s doing quite well. 

Mr. GARRETT. So, all this is by way of simply suggesting that, 

number one, the kudos and thanks you have gotten are all wellearned. I want to add my personal experience to this in thanking 

you. 

When we charged and arrested and convicted Joseph Okoh or 

Daniel Shelton or Michael Robinson, we never knew how many 

kids we saved because you do not stop this predation, whether it 

is CP or physical exploitation or sex trafficking. The thing that we 

learned and that NCMEC has been an advocate for teaching is that 

you do not wake up in the morning and think preying on a child 

is a good idea on Tuesday and not wake up feeling the same way 

on Wednesday. Something is just wrongly wired. So, you cannot 

ever quantify the good you do, and I think that needs to be noted. 

Having said that, there was an obscure ruling by an obscure 

judge named Gorsuch—I think you know where I am going with 

this—in the Tenth Circuit last year, I think in August. It was U.S. 

v. Ackerman, where they ruled that NCMEC, for the purposes of 

the Fourth Amendment circumstances, was a government actor, 

and essentially good data that was received through collaboration 

with a major Internet service provider would be thrown out because you all did not have a warrant as a government actor. With 

your experience as a marshal amongst other things, you understand the Fourth Amendment well. 

Is there anything being done by way of a workaround, would it 

be prudent to segregate the Tipline from the remainder of NCMEC, 

or is it simply a paperwork burden that we need to meet in order 

to respect people’s constitutional rights? And I am a big advocate 

for the Fourth Amendment as well, but what is the procedural 

change that has been implemented in light of Gorsuch’s ruling in 

Ackerman that will allow us to continue to save these kids and get 

the convictions on the back end? 

CEWDOCROOM with DISTILLER

27 

Mr. CLARK. Sure. The Ackerman decision required us to take a 

look at some of our internal practices and policies. We’ve had to adjust some of that now, just in recent times, for example, making 

sure some of the law enforcement heads who had been previously 

on our board of directors are not on our board of directors, making 

proper separation of that. 

We’re also looking at internal space needs, to make sure that 

there is truly separation of duties and responsibilities from the law 

enforcement components who have a work engagement with us, so 

that’s another area we’re working very closely on. 

And then addressing any of the other legal issues that might 

spill out of the Ackerman decision that we think could be helpful 

to us maintaining our independence, which we strive very, very 

much to do. 

I would like to say on behalf of the Center that we’re an organization that likes to drive in the center of the road. We try our 

darndest to comply with all legal issues and make sure we are in 

full compliance. 

Mr. GARRETT. So has there been a subsequent case to test your 

protocol changes as it relates to procedures post Ackerman? You 

understand where I am going with this? 

Mr. CLARK. Sure. 

Mr. GARRETT. You guys did good stuff as a private entity, the 

courts ruled you were a government actor, that brings into requirements, obviously, a lot of Fourth Amendment scrutiny, and you 

have told me you have changed your TTPs: your tactics, techniques, and procedures. Have we had a subsequent test? Do you 

feel good about where we are, that the information you might receive from the Tipline would be actionable without jeopardizing a 

conviction? 

Mr. CLARK. Sure. And in fact, a few of the things—adjustments 

we made on the CyberTipline were done even prior to the final outcome of the Ackerman decision, but there have been subsequent 

cases that have been filed that have been, I guess, similar in nature. I don’t know exactly how many, but I’d say a few, as is usually the custom when a case like this comes out. 

I can’t say that any of them particularly tested our changes or 

our protocols yet, but I would imagine, in fact, a lot of the reason 

why we’re trying to make some of these adjustments is to make 

sure we maintain that proper independence as it relates to the 

work we do. 

Mr. GARRETT. I thank you immensely for what you do and for 

your time, and I would yield back. 

Chairwoman FOXX. Thank you, Mr. Garrett. Ms. Adams, you are 

recognized for 5 minutes. 

Ms. ADAMS. Thank you, Chairwoman Foxx and Vice Ranking 

Member Bonamici, for bringing us together to discuss this important topic. Mr. Clark, I want to thank you for sharing some of the 

work that NCMEC does. 

One of the greatest responsibilities of adults in our society is to 

look out for the health and safety of our children within our communities. As a parent, grandparent, concerned member of my community, I am greatly disturbed by the frequency of children who go 

CEWDOCROOM with DISTILLER

28 

missing, are exploited, or victimized, and I am appreciative of the 

work that you are doing. 

In your testimony, you acknowledge that children with special 

needs go missing at high rates. Are there other demographics of 

children that are disproportionately reported missing or fall victim 

to exploitation or violence? 

Mr. CLARK. I don’t believe there is any other demographic that 

might address your particular question. You know, we kind of look 

at the groups that are vulnerable, and we know as we refer to 

them, endangered runaways, are particularly vulnerable. 

Thankfully, the other categories of individuals who have disappeared or run away, such as those that are involved in a family 

abduction or a nonfamily abduction, we’re seeing a fair amount of 

those types of cases. The family abduction situation is one that also 

or could be somewhat troubling, depending on a parent, where they 

are going, where they’re fleeing to, especially if they travel internationally. 

Ms. ADAMS. Okay. In D.C., over the last 2 weeks, social media 

has been a buzz because between 8 to 10 young black and Latino 

youth went missing, over the course of less than 2 weeks, with very 

little media attention. 

Have you noticed which cases of missing children become visible 

and which cases do not? And what does NCMEC do to provide 

those less visible disappearances with resources and support, and 

what resources and support do you have available for making those 

more visible? 

Mr. CLARK. We constantly make a plea to law enforcement that 

we are available to help them with resources, and we have a whole 

organization that we call ‘‘Team Adam.’’ It is free of charge, ready 

to be deployed in any situation where there is a missing child, but 

we only are involved in those cases which we know about. 

Now, simultaneously with this hearing, I think the Washington, 

D.C. Police Department is hosting a press conference. Some of our 

staff from the National Center have been invited to attend, and we 

are sending some people there. 

So, the awareness part is critical. We tell law enforcement quite 

frequently the resources that we can deploy and bring to bear are 

quite formidable, and they are for the most part free of charge. So, 

again, we are there at their disposal to help. 

I’m not sure which among those cases referred to from Washington, D.C., may have been ‘‘intake,’’ as we call it, into our system, 

so that would be something worth noting. 

Ms. ADAMS. Let me ask you a question about, because you mentioned the rise in sextortion, and with the wide spread of social 

media and digital platforms, it is not hard to imagine this is a 

growing problem, so what are some of the best practices that 

NCMEC has found while investigating this issue? 

Mr. CLARK. Education and awareness is a key critical thing. We 

worked in conjunction with the Department of Justice over the last 

year to produce a public service announcement on this whole topic 

of sextortion. 

We’ve shared that particular training module with many, many 

law enforcement organizations, the National Association of AttorCEWDOCROOM with DISTILLER

29 

ney Generals, the National District Attorneys Association, other 

child advocate groups. 

The more parents become aware of this issue, the more children 

become aware of the issue, I think it helps as a prevention tool. 

So, we’ve done significant work to educate and inform the public 

of this particular new issue that has popped up on child exploitation. 

Ms. ADAMS. Thank you. I am about out of time. Madam Chair, 

I yield back. 

Chairwoman FOXX. Thank you, Ms. Adams. Ms. Stefanik, you 

are recognized for 5 minutes. 

Ms. STEFANIK. Thank you, Madam Chair. And thank you, Mr. 

Clark, for your testimony today. I want to follow up on Ms. Adams’ 

line of questioning. In your testimony, as she stated, you mentioned the disturbing emerging trend of sextortion, including a 150 

percent increase in reports of sextortion since 2014. 

My question is two parts. Other than the increase, what are additional factors that led to the Center to label this as an emerging 

trend? And my second question is, you talked about some of the additional steps NCMEC has taken through family support services 

and working with law enforcement, have you engaged schools and 

school districts on this important issue? 

Mr. CLARK. Sure. If I may start with the last question you asked 

first? We are working closely now with private sector partners to 

try to get some of our training and education materials in all 

schools. We would love all school organizations to be able to bring 

our NetSmartz and KidSmartz programs into the school systems to 

educate particularly the vulnerable groups of youth as they enter 

their teenage years, which it seems to be the time when the 

sextortion issue starts to happen. 

Now, with the prevalence of super computers that everybody carries on their hip called an iPhone or, you know, that type of technology, it has become increasingly, and I think that is where it is 

an emerging trend or a vulnerability, increasingly easier for youth 

to get trapped in or involved in issues of sextortion. 

Those who purvey that crime know that, and they are able to, 

I think, capitalize on the various apps that are out there, the various ways and means and tricks to get young children to engage 

in something of a sextortion. 

Ms. STEFANIK. Two sort of factual questions that I have. Given 

the emerging trend, can you quantify what percentage of cases of 

sextortion where the victim is a girl versus whether it is a female 

or male? What is the breakdown? 

Mr. CLARK. I don’t have the finite breakdown exactly, but we do 

see more of a prevalence with young girls. However, we’ve also 

seen an increase probably in the last 2 to 3 years of that involving 

also young boys, so the majority of the cases involve young women, 

but there is an increase in cases involving young men, young boys. 

Ms. STEFANIK. And my second sort of factual follow-up question 

is how do you intend to measure the effectiveness of these outreach 

programs to law enforcement, to district attorneys 2 years from 

now when we are asking this question? How are you going to measure whether NCMEC’s efforts have been effective at raising awareness and tackling this issue? 

CEWDOCROOM with DISTILLER

30 

Mr. CLARK. Well, as the new CEO for the organization, I’ve noticed that perhaps one deficiency we’ve had in recent years is not 

doing a lot of good analytics on what we’re seeing in metrics. 

We see emerging trends and some things that are part of the 

datasets that come in from a variety of our cases, and things we 

can easily measure, but it’s important to me to be able to measure 

and perhaps deploy our resources into areas where we see there’s 

an increased need. 

So, I believe we’re doing that now. We’re getting some help from 

some of our technology partners to be able to do that, to look at 

big data analytics, predictive analytics, to be able to see where 

emerging trends are going to happen, and how we can put resources there to help combat it. 

So, I would say at our next iteration or hearing, we should be 

able to point to more success in that area. 

Ms. STEFANIK. Thank you, Mr. Clark. I yield back, Madam Chair. 

Chairwoman FOXX. Thank you, Ms. Stefanik. Mr. Allen, you are 

recognized for 5 minutes. 

Mr. ALLEN. Thank you, Chairwoman, and thank you, Mr. Clark, 

for being with us today and tackling this. Looks like this problem 

is becoming more of a problem rather than less of a problem, which 

is troubling, and although we know that in our society today, evil 

exists. 

And I guess my question is this, and it stems off what the Congressman—Congresswoman Stefanik was talking about is, what 

are the tools we need to fix this, to curb this, to—? Is there some 

way we could start on our education system, is there something 

from the standpoint of the culture, from—? 

I mean, what exactly, how do we put our finger on this thing and 

just tell people just how bad and wrong this is? I know, do we increase penalties, do we—? You know, are you studying ways that 

we can stop this terrible thing? 

Mr. CLARK. Sure. We are always looking at ways we can stop it, 

but I think some of the increase and some of the concerns that we 

see with the capabilities of technology today, where we truly are 

a world without borders, vulnerability of children is spreading essentially worldwide. In fact, a great majority of our CyberTip reports have an international connection, so, you see the whole world 

is affected by the situation of child exploitation. 

Education and awareness from the parents’ level, I think, is very, 

very key. The more informed and educated a parent is about what 

their children are doing, who they are with, what is on their 

iPhones, what app they have, and who they are communicating 

with, there is a level of vulnerability there that many parents may 

recognize, but not actually take action to do. 

Now, how do you get parents to do that? I’m not in every house 

in America to be able to tell them what to do but, I believe that, 

sometimes I tell parents ‘‘it’s okay to be a little paranoid and ask 

questions about what your children are doing,’’ and that’s just a 

fact of the matter. So, a number of things like that are what are 

contributing to this. 

Mr. ALLEN. Are we getting the word out about how serious this 

problem is? I mean, a lot of parents, I mean, really do not hear, 

you do not hear a lot about this on the media or other sources. How 

CEWDOCROOM with DISTILLER

31 

do we get that message out so that parents do what is right as far 

as the warning their children about these predators that exist out 

there? 

Mr. CLARK. Congressman, I think one area where we are trying 

to do more of is we have a program called NetSmartz411 that is 

primarily aimed at the parents. We would love to be able to get 

that out in more available formats, make it available, easily available. It’s part of a training curriculum we’re trying to do with our 

new website, which we are in the process of overhauling. 

Being able to put those tools in every home in America, so that 

parents can have a resource to know what to do. I’ve ran into 

many, many parents who, for a variety of reasons, maybe they’re 

just not technology savvy, aren’t quite sure how to keep an eye on 

things or watch what’s going on with their youngsters. 

Mr. ALLEN. Well, obviously, young people are notoriously curious, 

which is not a bad thing, but at the same time when you have evil 

lurking like this out there, you have to deal with it. So, just let us 

know whatever we can do to curb this and it would really be great 

if we could put a stop to this cause it is tragic. 

Mr. CLARK. Fantastic, yes. 

Mr. ALLEN. Thank you, sir. I yield back. 

Chairwoman FOXX. Thank you, Mr. Allen. Mr. Clark, I will yield 

to myself now 5 minutes. We very much appreciate your testimony 

today, and the great work that the Center is doing. 

You have mentioned shifting resources into electronic cyber security and those kinds of areas, which certainly makes sense but 

could you provide us some examples of how program evaluation has 

led to shifting resources to change the way you are operating? Because we are very much concerned about accountability and what 

is being done to evaluate at every level and every program that we 

fund. 

Mr. CLARK. Certainly and that is testimony to the committee in 

making sure not only that you are appropriating money wisely, but 

also supporting the great work we’re doing. 

One of the things I’ve been doing as CEO is examining all areas 

of our operations, particularly with an eye toward putting the financial resources and the employee resources where they’re most 

needed, and because of the circumstances, as we have talked about 

a lot in this hearing, involving child exploitation, that is a key area 

where we want to see some much needed resource growth. 

On the missing children side as well, we continue to see a number of vulnerabilities there. I think when you look back on the recent years, last few years, we continue to see a lot of efforts poured 

into the long-term missing cases, a topic that’s not often talked 

about too much. But there is, sadly, many cases in the country still, 

long-term missing cases, where the effort to continue to look for 

them has not been as vibrant as it should be. 

At the National Center, however, we pride ourselves in never 

closing a case, and making sure we are directing those resources 

there to help find long-term missing children. 

In a recent case, as you may have heard in the news, involving 

a young boy named Jacob Wetterling—his mother serves on our 

board—sadly, after 27 years, he was found deceased, had been 

murdered, and had been sexually assaulted. 

CEWDOCROOM with DISTILLER

32 

That particular case reminds us all of the importance of deploying our resources and spending the money wisely. 

I want to be able to give an account for every penny and every 

dollar that we’re spending and where it’s going, both to the Congress, members of Congress, and our private partners as well. 

Chairwoman FOXX. Thank you. I would like to know also how 

you are working with the various partner organizations, but mainly 

the States, to improve what the States are doing, both to prevent 

children from becoming missing and to help find missing children 

because this is an not area where the Federal Government is going 

to be able to solve the problem. This has got to be solved at the 

local and State level, so please tell us what is happening through 

the partner organizations and perhaps, if you cannot answer everything, give us some examples of States that are doing a better job 

than others. You can put that in writing later, if you need to. 

Mr. CLARK. Certainly. There is much of our effort to do on the 

prevention side as well as training and educating law enforcement. 

Barely a week goes by that we don’t have law enforcement organizations from State organizations, county sheriffs, all coming to the 

National Center to receive training and insight on how to not only 

look for missing children, but to solve the issue of exploitation. 

We also have long-term missing child case studies that go on 

pretty much on a monthly basis. Every month, we have at least one 

of those cases that we do, and we bring in all the law enforcement 

organizations that have some particular touch in that case, and we 

review every single lead to see if we can revitalize that. 

A third example is something being done in the State of Texas, 

where they have developed a particular interdiction program where 

they are now looking for exploited children or even missing children when they make vehicle stops with the State Police. 

We have helped with some of that training, and continue to want 

to help with that training because now we’ve seen some actual 

child sex trafficking victims rescued by this particular program. 

That training is now spreading to other States. There is a pretty 

significant call for that training to be done. In fact, I believe it’s 

going to be done in the State of Oregon very, very soon as well. 

Chairwoman FOXX. Thank you very much. Mr. Thompson, you 

are recognized for 5 minutes. 

Mr. THOMPSON. Madam Chairwoman, thank you. Thank you so 

much for hosting this, and my apologies for getting here late, but 

I wanted to come and just first of all thank you, Mr. Clark, for your 

leadership with this. The Center does such great work. 

This past year, I had the privilege and opportunity to spend 

some time on just one of the days of the 2016 10th Anniversary 

Fireball Run. And these amazing teams that come together, spend 

a lot of resources for 8 days, 2,000 miles, each one of them essentially adopt one of these children that are listed as missing, distributing thousands of flyers in all the communities where they go. 

I think last I looked, this annual event was credited with recovering 44 children, which is very much appreciated. It is just a 

righteous volunteer effort that goes on. 

So, I want to thank you for your leadership and service, and just 

your commitment to recover and protect missing and exploited children. 

CEWDOCROOM with DISTILLER

33 

Just a quick question. Can you talk about the Child Victim Identification Program and how does it operate and what impact has 

it had and why is it so important? 

Mr. CLARK. That’s one of our more vital and critical programs. 

The Child Victim Identification Program has a bunch of our employees that have somewhat of what I would say is a terrible duty, 

a horrible duty, of looking at all the images, the videos, all the garbage, I might say, that comes in involving exploited children, sexually abused children. 

What they look for is particular clues in those images that might 

help identify where in the world that particular child is. So, they 

go about that duty, a terrible duty, with a great deal of expertise, 

and I’m pleased to report that they have made numerous child recoveries by examining videos and pictures, and being able to try to 

spot clues in those pictures and get that in the hands of law enforcement. 

I would say not a week goes by that I don’t get information on 

a case or a situation where they have done that particular good 

work, but it is very, very difficult work. 

Mr. THOMPSON. Well, thank you again to you and your staff. I 

cannot imagine how difficult that would be to have that, important 

as it is, to be able to have to review those images in terms of their 

investigation work but I—you know, the recovery of one child is so 

important it is done, just appreciate you and your staff taking that 

on. 

Thank you, Madam Chair, and I yield back the balance of my 

time. 

Mr. CLARK. There are, If I may, there are earthly angels among 

us. And— 

Mr. THOMPSON. Sure. 

Mr. CLARK. That is part of the group that’s there. 

Mr. THOMPSON. Yeah, thank you. 

Chairwoman FOXX. Thank you. I want to say thank you, again, 

to Mr. Clark for taking the time to testify before the committee 

today and I want to recognize Ms. Bonamici for her closing remarks. 

Ms. BONAMICI. Thank you very much, Madam Chairwoman, and 

briefly, again, thank you so much, Mr. Clark, for your important 

work, and Chair Foxx, for holding this hearing. It is refreshingly 

bipartisan when we can come together and all agree that we need 

to work on this important issue. 

Just a follow-up on Mr. Garrett’s comment about the independence. I know there is bipartisan support for making sure that we 

can, as Mr. Garrett said, protect people’s Fourth Amendment 

rights, but still maintain the independence of the Center, so I 

wanted to mention that. 

And I did notice that a significant majority of the missing children fall within that endangered runaway category, so I know we 

have a lot of potential on this committee to address the root causes 

that go into that, why do children run away from home, and our 

work on the Every Student Succeeds Act, for example, with the 

school safety provisions, career and technical education that provides engaging hands-on education. 

CEWDOCROOM with DISTILLER

34 

We have a lot of potential to really address the needs of our students, and I hope that we can work on making sure those programs 

are funded and schools can have counselors and places where students can go at school, and hopefully keep them engaged and out 

of the dangerous situations where they are targeted. 

So, again, thank you so much, Chair Foxx and Mr. Clark for this 

important hearing, and I yield back. Thank you. 

Chairwoman FOXX. Thank you very much, Ms. Bonamici. And I 

agree with Ms. Bonamici on the fact that this really is a bipartisan 

issue. We are all concerned with protecting children, especially the 

vulnerable children in our society. 

And it is an issue that I think all levels of government need to 

be concerned about, but we all know that the government closest 

to the people is generally able to solve these problems, so I am very 

interested in the work that the Center does with local communities, 

the police forces, the State governments, particularly when we see 

these staggering numbers of children who run away from foster 

care. 

And we know there are some bad situations with foster care, but 

for the most part, the people who are willing to foster children are 

there because they care and love the children, and I admire them 

so much. 

But my understanding from reading a long, long time ago in 

child development is even children who are in bad situations at 

home yearn to be with their families. And I think that is a critical 

element here where we need to do more some way or another to 

help dysfunctional families, and having worked with facilities that 

worked with abused children, we know we cannot just fix children, 

we have to fix families, and that is where the problems lie but 

again, it is an issue that needs to be solved at all the levels of our 

government. 

So, I appreciate, again, what you and your staff do, and we appreciate part of your staff at least being here with us today, and 

I want to give them our appreciation, and as you said, all of the 

people who work closely with you who are not paid staff, but come 

in because they care about children in our country and do everything they can and I think they are unsung heroes, and all that 

we can do to acknowledge their work, we should do. 

So, thank you all very much. There being no further business, 

the committee stands adjourned. 

[Additional submission by Chairwoman Foxx follows:] 

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35 

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36 

[Additional submission by Mr. Scott follows:] 

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37 

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Remarks of Ranking Member Bobby Scott 

Full Committee Hearing: "Honoring Our Commitment to Recover and Protect Missing and 

Exploited Children" 

2175 Rayburn House Office Building 

Thursday, March 16,2017-10:00 am 

Thank you Chairwoman Foxx for convening today's hearing, and thank 

you Mr. Clark for coming to testify before the Committee and provide 

an update on the activities of the National Center for Missing and 

Exploited Children (NCMEC). 

The terror experienced by parents of a missing child is unfathomable. 

The child and parents both experience pain, trauma, fear, and 

uncertainty. That is why affected families need the full support oflaw 

enforcement, schools, businesses and other entities who may be able to 

assist in locating and recovering missing or exploited children. 

Since its creation in 1984 through the Missing Children's Assistance 

Act, NCMEC, a private, nonprofit organization, has played a central role 

in reuniting children with their families. NCMEC works to end child 

sexual exploitation and trafficking through many different efforts, 

1 
38 

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including working directly with law enforcement, participating in the 

AMBER Alert program, providing training and technical assistance to 

law enforcement, offering guidance and information to community 

partners, and operating a tip line for reporting missing children. 

In 2013, Congress reauthorized the Missing Children's Assistance Act 

and updated the role ofNCMEC, including by requiring the organization 

to coordinate with the Interagency Council on Homelessness in order to 

address the high number of sex trafficking victims who are homeless 

youth. 

Runaway and homeless youth are particularly vulnerable to sexual 

exploitation and trafficking. Many of these youth were in the care of 

social services or foster care when they ran away and may have 

experienced sexual abuse before they left. These children are at 

increased risk of being victimized and forced to engage in "survival sex" 

in exchange for food, shelter, or money. 

2 
39 

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I look forward to working with Republicans in drafting a bipartisan 

reauthorization that ensures NCMEC maintains its independent status so 

it can continue to protect children, especially those in vulnerable 

situations, like runaway and homeless youth. 

Despite the best efforts ofNCMEC, more than 10,000 children still go 

missing each year and scores of children are forced into sexual 

exploitation and trafficking. I am eager to hear from Mr. Clark about 

NCMEC's efforts to decrease this number and what federal supports he 

needs. 

I yield back. 

3 
40 

[Questions submitted for the record and their responses follow:] 

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41 

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MAJORITY MEMOERS 

VIRGINIA fOXX, NORTH CAROLINA. Clwirwomrm 

JOE WILSON, SOUTH CARO!.JNA 

DUNCAN HUNTER. CAUFORNIA 

OA\110 P. ROE, TENNESSEE 

GLENN 'GT' THOMPSON, PENNSYLVANIA 

TIM WALBERG, MICHIGAN 

BRE.TI GUTHRIE, KENTUCKY 

TODD ROKITA, INDIANA 

LOU aARt.EITA. PENNSYLVANIA 

LUKE MESSER, !NOlANA 

BRADLEY BYRNE. AU18AMA 

DAVID BRAT, VIRGINIA 

GLENN GROTHMAN. WISCONSIN 

STEVE RUSSELL, OK1.AKOMA 

ELISE STEFANIK, NE'NYORK 

RICK W. ALLEN, GEORG !A 

JASON LEWIS, MINNESOTA 

FRANCIS ROONEY, FLORIDA 

PAUL MITCHELL. MICHIGAN 

TOM GARRETT. JR, VIRGINIA 

LLOYD K SMUCKER, PENNSYLVANIA 

A. DREW FERGUSON, !V, GEORGIA 

April II, 2017 

Mr. John F. Clark 

COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION 

AND THE WORKFORCE U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

2176 RAYBURN HOUSE OFFICE BUILDING 

WASHINGTON, DC 20515-6100 

President and Chief Executive Officer 

National Center for Missing and Exploited Children 

699 Prince Street 

Alexandria, VA 22314 

Dear Mr. Clark: 

MINORITY MEMBERS 

ROBERT C, ·aoaay· SCOT1', VIRGINIA. 

RankingMw•ll>er 

SUSAN A. DAVIS, CAl.IFORNi!\ 

RAlkM. GRIJALVA, ARIZONA 

JOE COURTNEY. CONNECTICUT 

MARCIAl. FUOGE, OHIO 

JARED POLIS, COLORADO 

GREGORIO K!UL! CAMACHO SABlAN, 

NORTHeRN MARIANA ISLANDS 

FREDERICA S. WILSON. FLORIDA 

SUZANNE BONAMIC!. OREGON 

MARK TAKANO, CAliFORNIA 

AlMAS. AOAMS. NORTKCAROUNA 

MARK OESAUI.NlER, CALIFORNIA 

DONAlD NORCROSS, NEW JERSEY 

liSA BLUNT ROCHESTER, DElAWARE 

RAJA KR!SHNAMOORTHI, ILLINOIS 

CAROL SKEA·PORTER, NEW HAMPSHIRE 

ADRIANO ESPAILI.AT, NEW YORK 

Thank you, again, for testifying at the March 16, 2017, hearing entitled "Honoring Our 

Commitment to Recover and Protect Missing and Exploited Children" 

As a follow-up, please find enclosed additional questions submitted by members of the Committee 

after the hearing. Please provide written responses no later than Tuesday, May 2, 2017, for 

inclusion in the final hearing record. Responses should be sent to the Education Legislative 

Assistant, Sheariah Yousefi, who can be contacted at (202) 225-6558. 

We appreciate your contribution to the work of the Committee. 

Sincerely, 

7iu~F~ Virginia Foxx 

Chairwoman 

Enclosmc 
42 

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Rep. Roe (R-TN) 

1. In your testimony you stated that last year, one in six runaway children reported to the 

National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) were likely sex traflicking 

victims, and 86 percent of these children ran away from social services or foster care. Are 

there ways that Congress can help bring attention to the challenges facing missing and 

exploited children in the foster care system? 

Rep. Polis (D-CO) 

l. Mr. Clark, thank you for everything NCMEC is doing. In 2015, the Colorado Bureau of 

Investigation (CBJ) received over I 0,000 individual reports of children who had gone 

missing. I'm especially thankful for the work CBI is doing, and I understand yow· 

organization is a partner of theirs. In yom testimony, you mentioned that 86 percent of 

children who ran away were receiving social services or living in foster care. 

a. Can you talk about why that number is so disproportionately high? 

b. What is your organization doing to work with state agencies to better support 

children living in foster care and prevent runaways from happening? 

2. As you may know, runaway youth are significantly more likely to identify as LGBTQ. 

And of the l .6 million youth who are homeless, some studies suggest that up to 40 percent 

of them identify as LGBTQ. These youth often end up on the streets because they're 

kicked out of their home by their own l'amily, or they run away because they're neglected 

or disowned by their family after they come out. On top of that, in 2017, it is still legal in 

many states for kids to be bullied because they're LGBTQ, and this body refuses to take up 

legislation that would prohibit discrimination or bullying in school based on sexual 

orientation or gender identity. This no doubt exacerbates the problem. In your testimony, 

you didn't mention anything about NCMEC's services for LGBTQ youth. In your latest 

annual report, there's no mention of services specifically serving that population. A search 

on your website yields virtually no reference to support for LGBTQ youth. Once LGBTQ 

youth do runaway and are homeless, they are far more susceptible to physical and sexual 

assault, and they are more likely to attempt suicide. As you can imagine, it would be 

important to have specialized services prepared to assist and support LGBTQ youth who 

run away or are missing. 

a. What is NCMEC doing to support LGBTQ youth, and how are you working with 

state and federal agencies to ensure that LGBTQ youth receive the specialized 

support services they need? 

b. In your education and training programs, are you including cultural competency 

training so teachers, police officers, and legal professionals know how to work with 

and support LGBTQ youth, and prevent runaways from happening? 
43 

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NATIONAL~ CENTER FOR',.. ~ 

MISSING& 

EXPLOITED 

C H I L D R E N' 

Charles B. Wang International 

Children's Building 

699 Prince St. 

Alexandria, VA 22314-3175 

U.S.A 

Telephone 703-224-2150 

Fax 703-224-2122 

www.missingkids.com 

www.cybertipline.com 

f Like us /missingkids 

Follow us 

@missingkids 

Other offices 

California 

Florida 

New York 

Texas 

May 1, 2017 

BYE-MAIL 

Chairwoman Virginia Foxx 

Committee on Education and the Workforce 

U.S. House of Representatives 

2176 Rayburn House Office Building 

Washington, D.C. 20515 

Dear Chairwoman Foxx: 

Thank you for the opportunity to supplement my testimony provided to the 

Committee on Education and the Workforce on March 16, 2017. As 

indicated in my testimony, the success of The National Center for Missing 

and Exploited Children is a direct result of Congress' steadfast commitment 

to NCMEC's programs of work to help protect children from abduction and 

exploitation and help families and law enforcement find missing children and 

prevent child victimization. NCMEC appreciates the Committee's continued 

support, and I welcome the chance to provide additional information 

regarding our programs. In response to the questions posed by 

Representatives Roe and Polis, we have prepared the responses below. 

Congressman Phil Roe (R-TNl 

1. In your testimony, you stated that last year, one in six runaway 

children reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited 

Children (NCMEC) were likely sex trafficking victims, and 86 

percent of these children ran away from social services or foster care. 

Are there ways that Congress can help bring attention to the 

challenges facing missing and exploited children in the foster care 

system? 

As you are probably aware, Congress continues to work on legislation 

aimed at addressing the needs and vulnerabilities of children in the foster 

care system from multiple vantage points. Recently, Congress passed the 

Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act of 2014, 

legislation that NCMEC was proud to support. The legislation included 

a small, but important, provision requiring states to report all children 

who go missing from care to law enforcement and to NCMEC. We 

believe this new reporting requirement enables us to better assist and 

support the efforts of state and local jurisdictions in locating and returning 

missing children to safe places. Additionally, it enables NCMEC to 

provide coordinated and uniform resources to every missing child, 

regardless of their circumstances. 

NCMEC also supported key provisions of the Family First Prevention 

Services Act of 2016 (H.R. 5456), legislation aimed at strengthening 

families and reducing the need for placements in foster care in the first 

place. While the bill was not passed before the end of the !14th Congress, 

we are hopeful that a similar bill will move forward this Congress. 
44 

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Chairman Virginia Foxx 

May l, 2017 

Page2 

Finally, we believe the work by the Committee on the Improving Support for Missing and 

Exploited Children Act (H.R. 1808) is another strong show of support from Congress for these 

vulnerable children. H.R. 1808 incorporates provisions that modernize NCMEC's funding 

authorization and programs, including strong support for our work on supporting children 

missing from care. 

As Congress continues to consider ways to address this issue, NCMEC stands ready to work 

with you and other Members of Congress. We thank you for your continued dedication to the 

safety of these children, their families and guardians, and other child serving professionals. 

Congressman Jared Polis (D-CO) 

1. Mr. Clark, thank you for everything NCMEC is doing. In 2015, the Colorado Bureau of 

Investigation (CBI) received over 10,000 individual reports of children who had gone 

missing. I'm especially thankful for the work CBI is doing, and I understand your 

organization is a partner of theirs. In your testimony, you mentioned that 86 percent of 

children who ran away were receiving social services or living in foster care. 

a. Can you talk about why that number is so disproportionately high? 

As you may be aware, Congress passed the Preventing Sex Trafficking and 

Strengthening Families Act of2014 (Pub. L. 113-183), legislation that NCMEC was 

proud to support. The legislation included a small, but important, provision requiring 

states to report all children who go missing from care to law enforcement and to 

NCMEC. 

We have long known children in care are targeted by traffickers for victimization and 

are susceptible to other endangerments when they run away. Since states have begun 

implementing Pub. L. 113-183, we are getting an even more comprehensive look at 

this trend. Not only are reports of children missing from care increasing dramatically, 

we are seeing a corresponding dramatic increase in the victimization of children 

missing from care through sex trafficking. 

Historically, most child sex trafficking victims are children who have been reported to 

NCMEC as missing from care-for instance, in 2014, 68% of likely child sex 

trafficking victims were children who went missing from care; 74% in 2015, and 86% 

in 2016. Last year, while one in six children reported as missing from care to NCMEC 

were likely child sex trafficking victims, only one in eleven of missing children who 

were not missing from care, were likely child sex trafficking victims. 

Now that NCMEC is getting a broader look at children missing from care, we are 

developing a more comprehensive view as to how these children are impacted by child 

sex trafficking. However, there are very few legal requirements to report children who 

are missing, but not missing from care to NCMEC, so our data is not nearly as 

comprehensive for all groups of children. 
45 

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Chainnan Virginia Foxx 

May 1,2017 

Page 3 

We believe the new reporting requirement enables us to better assist and support the 

efforts of state and local jurisdictions in locating and returning missing children to safe 

places. Additionally, it enables NCMEC to provide coordinated and uniform resources 

to every missing child, regardless of the circumstances in which they have gone 

missing. 

As we continue to work with states and localities on the implementation of this 

legislation, we will keep you and other Members of Congress informed and updated on 

our efforts. 

b. What is your organization doing to work with state agencies to better support 

children living in foster care and prevent runaways from happening? 

By virtue of our case work with both missing and exploited children cases, NCMEC 

has become increasingly aware of the increased risk faced by many children who run 

away, especially children who run away from state care, and who are particularly 

vulnerable to dangers including sex trafficking. 

To expand our ability to assist children missing from care, NCMEC supported passage 

of the Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act in September 2014. 

As you know, this law requires that states report foster children who go missing or run 

away from state care to NCMEC, as well as to law enforcement. 

Since the bill was enacted, we have spent a ~ot of time and resources reaching out to 

social service agencies and local jurisdictions across the country to ensure that these 

vulnerable children are reported to NCMEC. From these reports, we continue to see a 

significant increase in number of children missing from care. 

Through this enhanced reporting, we have already developed better insights enabling 

us to assist and support the efforts of state and local jurisdictions to locate and return 

missing children to safe places. This reporting requirement also enables NCMEC to 

better provide coordinated resources to every missing child, regardless of the 

circumstances in which they have gone missing. 
46 

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Chairman Virginia Foxx 

May 1,2017 

Page4 

2. As you may know, runaway youth are significantly more likely to identify as LGBTQ. 

And of the 1. 6 million youth who are homeless, some studies suggestthat up to 40 percent 

of them identify as LGBTQ. These youth often end up on the streets because they're 

kicked out of their home by their own family, or they run away because they're neglected 

or disowned by their family after they come out. On top ofthat, in 2017, it is still legal in 

many states for kids to be bullied because they're LGBTQ, and this body refuses to take 

up legislation that would prohibit discrimination or bullying in school based on sexual 

orientation or gender identity. This no doubt exacerbates the problem. In your 

testimony, you didn't mention anything about NCMEC's services for LGBTQ youth. In 

your latest annual report, there's no mention of services specifically serving that 

population. A search on your website yields virtually no reference to support for LGBTQ 

youth. Once LGBTQ youth do runaway and are homeless, they are far more susceptible 

to physical and sexual assault, and they are more likely to attempt suicide. As you can 

imagine, it would be important to have specialized services prepared to assist and support 

LGBTQ youth who run away or are missing. 

a. What is NCMEC doing to support LGBTQ youth, and how are you working with 

state and federal agencies to ensure that l.GBTQ youth receive the specialized 

support services they need? 

NCMEC knows that children who identify as LGBTQ are a vulnerable segment of the 

population. They are more likely than their non-LGBTQ peers to face family and peer 

rejection, which may increase risk of suicidal tendencies, depression, and drug use. 

They are also overrepresented in the foster care system, and are more likely to be 

homeless due to being rejected by family members and caregivers. 

NCMEC recognizes the increased risks homelessness can pose to a child's safety, 

particularly with respect to child sex trafficking. In 2013, NCMEC launched a new 

training program titled Child Sex Trafficking: Awareness & Response (CSTAR) to 

address the increased vulnerability of homeless and runaway youth to victimization 

through sex trafficking. The CST AR training program is designed to educate a range 

of law enforcement, state agency and educational personnel on the unique dynamics 

involved in identifYing, recovering, and providing assistance to child sex trafficking 

victims, including children who identify as LGBTQ. 

Additionally, NCMEC continues to build on its long-standing relationship with the 

National Runaway Safeline and is engaged in proactive communications with homeless 

shelters and nonprofit and state agencies that serve runaway and homeless youth 

regarding partnerships we can form to provide a fuller range of services to this at-risk 

population. 

NCMEC also works with key stakeholders at state agencies and shelters to help identify 

missing children who may pass through their facilities or be at risk of exploitation. 

These continued outreach efforts have led to coordination among shelter staff, NCMEC 

and law enforcement to marshal resources to assist homeless and runaway children. 
47 

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Chairman Virginia Foxx 

Mayl,2017 

Page 5 

b. In your education and training programs, are you including cultural competency 

training so teachers, police officers, and legal professionals know how to work 

with and support LGBTQ youth, and prevent runaways from happening? 

NCMEC uniquely blends our safety and prevention programs with lessons learned from 

real-life incidents of missing and exploited children. NCMEC is constantly reviewing 

reports regarding children who go missing from care and other endangered runaways 

to identify trends that help shape our outreach and prevention materials. 

Over the past five years, the largest number of children reported missing to NCMEC 

were endangered runaways. While the number of endangered runaways continues to 

increase, it has become increasingly clear to NCMEC that one of the most important 

steps in protecting children is educating them and their families, teachers, and 

communities about child sex trafficking and the particular dangers LGBTQ children 

may face. 

This information helps NCMEC develop new and updated trainings and outreach 

materials that are targeted to address critical populations and help identify emerging 

issues. One such example is NCMEC's CSTAR training that allows us to engage with 

law enforcement, state agency and education personnel on ways to assist LGTBQ 

children who are victims of sex trafficking. 

Finally, NCMEC has master-level trained mental health and child welfare professionals 

who work to proactively help families, law enforcement, social service agencies, and 

mental health agencies by providing a support network for child victims and their 

families. Some of the victim and family support services provided by NCMEC include: 

immediate crisis intervention when a family needs help with a missing, exploited, or 

recovered child; support for survivors of abduction and exploitation; emotional support 

for endangered runaways, including children who identify as LGBTQ, parents, 

guardians, and families; and referrals to appropriate agencies and mental health 

professionals. 

Thank you again for the opportunity to provide you with this additional information and please 

let me know ifthere is anything further you may need. 

Sincerely, 

l}.{;~tfl~ President and CEO 
48 

[Whereupon, at 11:22 a.m., the committee was adjourned.] 

Æ 

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