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PROTECTING AMERICA’S YOUTH: AN UPDATE 

FROM THE NATIONAL CENTER FOR MISSING 

AND EXPLOITED CHILDREN 

HEARING 

BEFORE THE

SUBCOMMITTEE ON EARLY CHILDHOOD, 

ELEMENTARY, AND SECONDARY EDUCATION 

COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION 

AND THE WORKFORCE 

U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

ONE HUNDRED THIRTEENTH CONGRESS 

SECOND SESSION 

HEARING HELD IN WASHINGTON, DC, JULY 15, 2014 

Serial No. 113–62 

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 

JOHN KLINE, Minnesota, Chairman 

Thomas E. Petri, Wisconsin 

Howard P. ‘‘Buck’’ McKeon, California 

Joe Wilson, South Carolina 

Virginia Foxx, North Carolina 

Tom Price, Georgia 

Kenny Marchant, Texas 

Duncan Hunter, California 

David P. Roe, Tennessee 

Glenn Thompson, Pennsylvania 

Tim Walberg, Michigan 

Matt Salmon, Arizona 

Brett Guthrie, Kentucky 

Scott DesJarlais, Tennessee 

Todd Rokita, Indiana 

Larry Bucshon, Indiana 

Trey Gowdy, South Carolina 

Lou Barletta, Pennsylvania 

Joseph J. Heck, Nevada 

Mike Kelly, Pennsylvania 

Susan W. Brooks, Indiana 

Richard Hudson, North Carolina 

Luke Messer, Indiana 

Bradley Byrne, Alabama 

George Miller, California, 

Senior Democratic Member 

Robert C. ‘‘Bobby’’ Scott, Virginia 

Rube ́n Hinojosa, Texas 

Carolyn McCarthy, New York 

John F. Tierney, Massachusetts 

Rush Holt, New Jersey 

Susan A. Davis, California 

Rau ́l M. Grijalva, Arizona 

Timothy H. Bishop, New York 

David Loebsack, Iowa 

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 Pocan, Wisconsin 

Mark Takano, California 

Juliane Sullivan, Staff Director 

Megan O’Reilly Minority Staff Director 

SUBCOMMITTEE ON EARLY CHILDHOOD, ELEMENTARY, AND 

SECONDARY EDUCATION 

TODD ROKITA, Indiana, Chairman 

John Kline, Minnesota 

Thomas E. Petri, Wisconsin 

Virginia Foxx, North Carolina 

Kenny Marchant, Texas 

Duncan Hunter, California 

David P. Roe, Tennessee 

Glenn Thompson, Pennsylvania 

Susan W. Brooks, Indiana 

Bradley Byrne, Alabama 

David Loebsack, Iowa, 

Ranking Member 

Robert C. ‘‘Bobby’’ Scott, Virginia 

Carolyn McCarthy, New York 

Susan A. Davis, California 

Rau ́l M. Grijalva, Arizona 

Marcia L. Fudge, Ohio 

Jared Polis, Colorado 

Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan, 

Northern Mariana Islands 

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(III) 

C O N T E N T S 

Page 

Hearing held on July 15, 2014 ............................................................................... 1 

Statement of Members: 

Loebsack, Hon. Dave, a Representative in Congress from the State of 

Iowa ................................................................................................................ 4 

Prepared statement of ............................................................................... 5 

Rokita, Hon. Todd, Chairman, Subcommittee On Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education ............................................................. 1 

Prepared statement of ............................................................................... 3 

Statement of Witnesses: 

Ryan, John, D., Dr., President and CEO, National Center for Missing 

and Exploited Children, Alexandria, VA .................................................... 7 

Prepared statement of ............................................................................... 9 

Additional Submissions: 

Questions submitted for the record by: 

Loebsack, Hon. David, a Representative in Congress from the State 

of Iowa .................................................................................................... 35 

Walberg, Hon. Tim, a Representative in Congress from the State 

of Michigan ............................................................................................. 36 

Mr. Ryan’s response to questions submitted for the record 38 

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(1) 

PROTECTING AMERICA’S YOUTH: AN UPDATE 

FROM THE NATIONAL CENTER FOR MISSING 

AND EXPLOITED CHILDREN 

Tuesday, July 15, 2014 

U.S. House of Representatives, 

Subcommittee on Early Childhood, 

Elementary, and Secondary Education, 

Committee on Education and the Workforce, 

Washington, D.C. 

The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10:04 a.m., in Room 

2175, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Todd Rokita [chairman 

of the subcommittee] presiding. 

Present: Representatives Rokita, Kline, Petri, Foxx, Roe, Thompson, Brooks, Loebsack, McCarthy, Fudge, and Polis. 

Also present: Representatives Walberg and Guthrie. 

Staff Present: Janelle Belland, Coalitions and Members Services 

Coordinator; Kathlyn Ehl, Legislative Assistant; Lindsay Fryer, 

Professional Staff Member; Amy Raaf Jones, Director of Education 

and Human Resources Policy; Cristin Datch Kumar, Professional 

Staff Member; Nancy Lock, Chief Clerk; Daniel Murner, Deputy 

Press Secretary; Brian Newell, Communications Director; Krisann 

Pearce, General Counsel; Lauren Reddington, Deputy Press Secretary; Mandy Schaumburg, Education Deputy Director and Senior 

Counsel; Alissa Strawcutter, Deputy Clerk; Tylease Alli, Minority 

Clerk/Intern and Fellow Coordinator; Jamie Fasteau, Minority Director of Education Policy; Scott Groginsky, Minority Senior Education Policy Advisor; Eunice Ikene, Minority Labor Policy Associate; Brian Kennedy, Minority General Counsel; and Brian Levin, 

Minority Press Secretary. 

Chairman ROKITA. A quorum being present, the Subcommittee 

on Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education will 

come to order. 

Good morning, everyone. We are pleased to hear today from Mr. 

John Ryan, the president and chief executive officer of the National 

Center for Missing and Exploited Children, or NCMEC, correct? 

Mr. Ryan will give us an update on NCMEC’s important work and 

how a number of legislative changes enacted last year are enhancing the efforts of this vital organization. 

At a ceremony opening the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, President Ronald Reagan said quote, ‘‘All Americans, and especially our youth, should have the right and the opCEWDOCROOM with DISTILLER

2 

portunity to walk our streets, to play, and to grow, and to live their 

lives without being at risk,’’ unquote. Spoken 30 years ago, President Reagan’s words are just as true now as they were back then. 

And if we are truly fighting for all people so that they can build 

better lives for themselves and their families, one of the key things 

we must be doing, is everything we can to enhance the safety of 

their children. 

No child should be afraid to walk home from school, hang out 

with friends at the mall, or surf the Internet. Yet, sadly, we know 

that is just not the case. Too often a predator is lurking in the 

shadows ready to do harm. 

Each year, thousands of children go missing or fall victim to sexual exploitation and other heinous crimes. As the father of two 

young boys, I cannot fathom the pain and suffering these families 

are forced to bear. No one can, but we can do something about it. 

For 30 years, a national public-private partnership has worked 

to protect children and safely return victims to their families. 

NCMEC is at the center of this vital effort. The organization provides services, resources, and other assistance to victims of abduction and sexual exploitation, as well as their families and those 

who serve them. The center’s 24-hour CyberTipline has provided 

law enforcement with more than 2.3 million leads of suspected 

child sexual exploitation. On its own, this would constitute a stellar 

record, but the tip line is only one part of a larger effort. The center also manages a national database on missing children, organizes case management teams to serve as a single point of contact 

for families, and offers training and technical assistance to law enforcement and professionals working in health care and the juvenile justice system. These are just a few of the services and support 

provided each and every day. The only way to describe the work 

of NCMEC’s staff is heroic. They are making a difference in the 

lives of countless children and families. In fact, just this year, I 

read that in partnership with the FBI and the Department of Justice, NCMEC participated in Operation Cross Country VIII. This 

week-long national campaign led to the arrest of 281 child traffickers and the rescue of 168 children, besting its work from the 

prior year. 

However, we all know that despite these achievements, more 

work needs to be done. To help support that effort, last year Congress passed the E. Clay Shaw, Jr. Missing Children’s Assistance 

Reauthorization Act. This legislation extended our partnership 

with NCMEC while providing additional accountability and oversight protections. The law also includes reforms to encourage greater coordination between law enforcement, States, and schools. As 

one of many partners, Congress cannot stop there. There is more 

that can and should be done on behalf of these vulnerable youth. 

And toward that end, a number of important legislative proposals 

were introduced that will help strengthen our commitment to the 

youth who are victims of sex trafficking. While no legislation can 

provide a perfect solution, the bills put forward last week will move 

our country in the right direction. Protecting children has been and 

must remain a national priority. 

Mr. Ryan, I would like to thank you and your staff for the—for 

yours and their hard work and dedication. As a committee, ConCEWDOCROOM with DISTILLER

3 

gress, and Nation, let’s continue working together so we can, as 

President Reagan said, turn the tide on these hateful crimes. 

And with that, I will now recognize the senior Democratic member of the subcommittee, Congressman David Loebsack, for his 

opening remarks. 

Congressman. 

[The statement of Chairman Rokita follows:] 

Prepared Statement of Hon. Todd Rokita, Chairman, Subcommittee on 

Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education 

Good morning. We are pleased to hear today from Mr. John Ryan, the president 

and chief executive officer of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children or NCMEC. Mr. Ryan will give us an update on NCMEC’s important work and 

how a number of legislative changes enacted last year are enhancing the efforts of 

this organization. 

At a ceremony opening the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, 

President Ronald Reagan said, ‘‘All Americans, and especially our youth, should 

have the right and the opportunity to walk our streets, to play and to grow and to 

live their lives without being at risk.’’ Spoken 30 years ago, President Reagan’s 

words are just as true now as they were back then. 

If we are truly fighting for all people, so that they can build better lives for themselves and their families, one of the key things we must help them with is the safety 

of their children. 

No child should be afraid to walk home from school, hang out with friends at the 

mall, or surf the Internet. Yet sadly we know that’s just not the case. Too often a 

predator is lurking in the shadows, ready to do harm. Each year thousands of children go missing or fall victim to sexual exploitation and other heinous crimes. As 

the father of two young boys, I cannot fathom the pain and suffering these families 

are forced to bear. No one can, but we can do something about it. 

For 30 years a national public-private partnership has worked to protect children 

and safely return victims to their families. NCMEC is at this center of this vital 

effort. The organization provides services, resources, and other assistance to victims 

of abduction and sexual exploitation, as well as their families and those who serve 

them. 

The center’s 24-hour Cyber Tipline has provided law enforcement with more than 

2.3 million leads of suspected child sexual exploitation. On its own this would constitute a stellar record, but the tip line is only one part of a larger effort. The center 

also manages a national database on missing children, organizes case management 

teams to serve as a single point of contact for families, and offers training and technical assistance to law enforcement and professionals working in health care and 

the juvenile justice system. 

These are just a few of the services and support provided each and every day. The 

only way to describe the work of NCMEC’s staff is heroic; they are making a difference in the lives of countless children and families. In fact, just this year, in partnership with the FBI and Department of Justice, NCMEC participated in Operation 

Cross Country VIII. This week-long national campaign led to the arrest of 281 child 

traffickers and the rescue of 168 children – besting its work from the prior year. 

However, we all know that despite these achievements, more work needs to be 

done. To help support that effort, last year Congress passed the E. Clay Shaw, Jr. 

Missing Children’s Assistance Reauthorization Act. Enacted with overwhelming bipartisan support, the legislation extended our partnership with NCMEC while providing additional accountability and oversight protections. The law also includes reforms to encourage greater coordination between law enforcement, states, and 

schools. 

As one of many partners, Congress cannot stop there. There is more that can and 

should be done on behalf of these vulnerable youth. Toward that end, a number of 

important legislative proposals were introduced that will help strengthen our commitment to youth who are victims of sex trafficking. While no legislation can provide 

a perfect solution, the bills put forward last week will move our country in the right 

direction. 

Protecting children has been and must remain a national priority. Mr. Ryan, I 

would like to thank you and your staff for their hard work and dedication. As a committee, Congress, and nation, let’s continue working together so we can, as President Reagan said, ‘‘turn the tide on these hateful crimes.’’ 

CEWDOCROOM with DISTILLER

4 

With that, I will now recognize the senior Democrat of the subcommittee, Congressman David Loebsack, for his opening remarks. 

Mr. LOEBSACK. I thank the chair for convening today’s important 

oversight hearing. 

And I thank you, Mr. Ryan, for joining us today to provide an 

update on the activities National Center for Missing and Exploited 

Children, NCMEC. As a father and grandfather, I, too, can only 

imagine the terror experienced by the parents of a missing child. 

The parents in the midst of this trauma need the full support of 

law enforcement, of schools, and other programs designed to locate 

and recover missing or exploited children. And of course, this is 

where the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children 

comes in. 

Since its creation in 1984, through the Missing Children’s Assistance Act, this private, nonprofit organization has provided assistance, outreach, and support to missing and exploited children and 

their families. NCMEC is tasked with coordinating Federal efforts 

to locate, recover, or reunite missing children with families as well 

as efforts to reduce and end child sexual exploitation and trafficking. 

Founded in response to several high-profile child abductions, the 

center works with law enforcement to rapidly respond to the approximately 10,000 to 13,000 missing children reports they receive 

each year. NCMEC is also a partner in the AMBER Alert program, 

the Nation’s child abduction alert system, named for Amber 

Hagerman, a 9-year old abducted and murdered in Arlington, 

Texas, in 1996. The alerts are distributed widely via radio, television, email, text message and highway traffic signs. As of this 

May, 692 children have been successfully recovered as a result of 

AMBER Alerts. Just last week, three missing girls in Iowa were recovered thanks to a swiftly dispatched AMBER Alert. 

Further, NCMEC offers training and technical assistance to law 

enforcement in identifying sex offenders, provides guidance and information to community partners on how to effectively locate and 

identify missing children and operates a tip line for reporting missing children. 

In recent years, the center has seen its workload relating to 

cases of sexual exploitation of children increase dramatically, unfortunately. In fact, the number of complaints of child sex trafficking increased 1,000 percent from 2004 to 2008. Additionally, the 

Internet has increased the risk of youth exploitation and Internet 

crimes against children, and child pornography cases continue to 

rise. 

Last September, Congress reauthorized the Missing Children’s 

Assistance Act and updated the role of the National Center for 

Missing and Exploited Children to reflect this evolving landscape. 

One of the most important provisions of this reauthorization was 

the addition of a requirement that NCMEC coordinate with the 

Interagency Council on Homelessness in order to address the high 

number of homeless youth who were victims of sex trafficking. 

Runaway and homeless youth are particularly vulnerable to sexual exploitation and trafficking. Last year, one in seven endangered 

runaways reported to NCMEC were likely sex trafficking victims. 

CEWDOCROOM with DISTILLER

5 

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 their homes. These children are at an increased 

risk of falling victim to sexual exploitation or engaged in what is 

called survival sex in exchange for food, shelter, or money. I am 

here to get an update on how NCMEC is coordinating with services 

for homeless and runaway youth to prevent children from ending 

up in these devastating circumstances. I also recognize there is still 

more we must do to prevent children from becoming victims in the 

first place. 

Despite the best effort of NCMEC, more than 10,000 kids still go 

missing each year, and scores of children are forced into sexual exploitation and trafficking. 

I look forward to hearing from you, Mr. Ryan, on what Federal 

supports do you believe needs to be to change this. 

It is also important to note that the Runaway and Homeless 

Youth Act is up for reauthorization this year, but at this point, 

there has been no movement on this committee to carry out that 

reauthorization. This law complements The Missing Children’s Assistance by providing targeted assistance to homeless youth 

through initiatives like the Basic Center Program, which provides 

youth with emergency shelter, food, clothing, and medical care. By 

reducing the number of runaways and homeless kids on the streets 

with nowhere to go, we can lower the risk of exploited children. As 

we move forward, it is critical that we provide NCMEC with all of 

the resources it needs to carry out its mission, including adequate 

funding. 

Thank you again, Mr. Chair, for convening this hearing. As we 

can see, we have a lot of challenges ahead of us, and I look forward 

to hearing from you, Mr. Ryan, about how we can address those 

challenges. Thank you. 

Chairman ROKITA. And I thank the gentleman. 

[The statement of Mr. Loebsack follows:] 

Prepared Statement of Hon. Dave Loebsack, Subcommittee Early 

Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education 

I thank the Chair for convening today’s important oversight hearing, and thank 

Mr. Ryan for joining us today to provide an update on the activities of the National 

Center for Missing and Exploited Children. 

As a father and a grandfather, I cannot fathom the terror experienced by the parents of a missing child. 

Parents in the midst of this trauma need the full support of law enforcement, 

schools, and other programs designed to locate and recover missing or exploited children. 

That is where the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children comes in. 

Since its creation in 1984 through the Missing Children’s Assistance Act, this private, non-profit organization has provided assistance, outreach and support to missing and exploited children and their families. 

NCMEC is tasked with coordinating federal efforts to locate, recover or reunite 

missing children with families, as well as efforts to reduce and end child sexual exploitation and trafficking. 

Founded in response to several high profile child abductions, the Center works directly with law enforcement to rapidly respond to the approximately ten to thirteen 

thousand missing children reports they receive each year. 

NCMEC is also a partner in the Amber Alert program, the nation’s child abduction alert system. Named for Amber Hagerman, a 9-year old abducted and murdered in Arlington, Texas in 1996, the alerts are distributed widely via radio, television, e-mail, text message and highway traffic signs. 

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6 

As of this May, 692 children have been successfully recovered as a result of 

Amber Alerts. 

Just last week, three missing girls in Iowa were recovered thanks to a swiftly dispatched Amber Alert. 

Further, NCMEC offers training and technical assistance to law enforcement in 

identifying sex offenders, provides guidance and information to community partners 

on how to effectively locate and identify missing children, and operates a tip line 

for reporting missing children. 

In recent years, the Center has seen its workload relating to cases of sexual exploitation of children increase dramatically. In fact, the number of complaints of 

child sex trafficking increased 1000 percent from 2004 to 2008. 

Additionally, the Internet has increased the risk of youth exploitation and Internet crimes against children and child pornography cases continue to rise. 

Last September, Congress reauthorized the Missing Children’s Assistance Act and 

updated the role of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to reflect this evolving landscape. 

One of the most important provisions of this reauthorization was the addition of 

a requirement that NCMEC coordinate with the Interagency Council on Homelessness in order to address the high number of homeless youth who are victims of sex 

trafficking. 

Runaway and homeless youth are particularly vulnerable to sexual exploitation 

and trafficking. Last year, one in seven endangered runaways reported to NCMEC 

were likely sex trafficking victims. 

Many of these youth were in the care of social services or foster care when they 

ran and may have experienced sexual abuse before they left their homes. 

These children are at an increased risk of falling victim to sexual exploitation or 

engage in ‘‘survival sex’’ in exchange for food, shelter or money. 

I’m eager to get an update on how NCMEC is coordinating with services for homeless and runaway youth to prevent children from ending up in these devastating circumstances. 

I also recognize that there is still more we must do to prevent children from becoming victims. 

Despite the best effort of NCMEC, more than 10,000 kids sill go missing each 

year and scores of children are forced into sexual exploitation and trafficking. 

I look forward to hearing from Mr. Ryan on what federal supports he needs to 

change this. 

It is also important to note that the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act is up for 

reauthorization this year, but at this point there has been no movement in this committee to do so. 

This law complements the Missing Children’s Assistance by providing targeted assistance to homeless youth through initiatives like the Basic Center Program, which 

provides youth with emergency shelter, food, clothing, and medical care. 

By reducing the number of runaway and homeless kids in the streets with nowhere to go, we can lower the risk of exploited children. 

As we move forward, it is critical that we provide the National Center for Missed 

and Exploited Children with all of the resources it needs to carry out its mission, 

including adequate funding. 

I look forward to hearing from you, Mr. Ryan. 

Chairman ROKITA. 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. 

It is now my pleasure to introduce our distinguished witness. Mr. 

John Ryan is the president and chief executive officer of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children here in Washington, D.C. He has served in that position since December of 2013. 

Mr. Ryan, before I recognize you to provide your testimony, let 

me briefly explain the lighting system. You will have 5 minutes to 

summarize your written testimony. Of course, when you begin, the 

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7 

light will be green. When there is 1 minute left, it will be yellow. 

And then please make sure you are finished up by the red light. 

And that is more of a reminder for us up here sometimes than it 

is for you. 

But after you are done, I will recognize members, who will each 

have 5 minutes to ask their questions, and out of deference to my 

colleagues, I am going to offer to take my questioning last so we 

can get theirs in first and accommodate their schedules. 

So, with that, you are recognized for 5 minutes. 

STATEMENT OF JOHN D. RYAN, PRESIDENT AND CEO, NATIONAL CENTER FOR MISSING & EXPLOITED CHILDREN, ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA 

Mr. RYAN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and distinguished members of the subcommittee. 

I welcome this opportunity to appear before you today to discuss 

the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and how 

our role is continually expanding to respond to evolving threats 

against our Nation’s children. As you know, the National Center is 

a private, nonprofit organization designated by Congress to work in 

partnership with the Justice Department and funded by both the 

public and private sectors. The National Center is a unique publicprivate partnership working with government agencies, military 

branches, private industry, other nonprofits and public communities to build a coordinated national response to the problem of 

missing and sexually exploited children. 

In April of this year, we commemorated 30 years of operation, 

during which our national hotline has handled more than 4 million 

calls. We have distributed literally billions of missing child posters, 

assisted law enforcement in the recovery of more than 160,000 

missing children, coordinated the secondary distribution of AMBER 

Alerts, leading to the recovery of 695 abducted children and provided emotional support to affected families. 

We have trained more than 300,000 law enforcement, criminal 

justice, military prosecutors, and healthcare professionals; processed more than 2.6 million CyberTipline reports of suspected child 

sexual exploitation; and reviewed more than 115 million images 

and videos of apparent child pornography to assist law enforcement 

in identifying these victimized children. To date, nearly 6,000 children have been identified through clues gleaned from these images. 

The National Center has done a lot to make our children safer, 

but this organization is needed more now than ever. The world is 

a different place than it was 30 years ago. The Internet has transformed life in many positive ways, but it has also fostered an explosion of child pornography, literally images of violent sexual assaults against children, that are traded amongst offenders from all 

walks of life. The Internet has inspired new crimes, with names 

like online enticement and sextortion, and has become a thriving 

marketplace for selling children for sex. 

Many children today have cell phones which function the same 

as computers. This is why it is vital that we work even more closely with our Nation’s schools to help educate them about the dangers on the Internet and the real world. As part of our recent reauthorization, you gave us the authority to provide more resources to 

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8 

State and local educational agencies. We have started to use this 

new authority to expand our programs to protect more children. 

Among our expanded initiatives with schools are new prevention 

curriculums, such as our KidSmartz prevention curriculum, which 

includes lessons plans and teaching tools set to launch this summer 

in time for the new school year. We have also been working to develop more age-specific, grade-level appropriate online curriculum 

and related educational resources for teachers to download from 

our Web site to use directly in their classrooms. 

When I became president of NCMEC 2 years ago, I was appalled 

at the number of children being openly sold for sex on Web sites 

like Backpage. Technology has changed the playing field. A customer can shop online from the privacy of a home or hotel room 

and a child will be delivered to their door. 

As part of our work to combat child sex trafficking, we assist the 

FBI with Operation Cross Country as has been mentioned. That 

was headquartered at our center and it led to the recovery of 168 

children over a 3-day period and the arrest of 281 pimps and predators. One example was a 16-year old who reported to her mother 

that she ran away from a group home because she was being recruited by gangs. The mother took the initiative, looked up the 

Backpage, saw the phone number advertised, called the National 

Center. We were able to track that phone number to three States 

in the span of less than 3 days. We passed that on to law enforcement. That girl was recovered during Operation Cross Country. 

With respect to those children missing from foster care, there are 

current laws before Congress now that we urge Congress to pass. 

Right now, only two States have laws mandating the reporting of 

children missing from foster care. As has been pointed out, one in 

seven missing children are also being sexually exploited; 67 percent 

of those are coming from foster care children. No one is looking for 

these children. They cannot be found until they are looked for. 

So I want to first thank this committee for focusing your efforts 

and giving us the ability to work more closely with schools, with 

teachers, with communities, especially those children with special 

needs. 

One in 68, according to the CDC, suffer from autism. These children are wandering more than 50 percent of the time. Wandering 

is not the right term. They are bolting, and where are they bolting 

to, unsafe environments, such as bodies of waters. Forty-five children with autism have drowned in the last 2 years. We set up new 

protocols for first responders because the behavioral characteristics 

are quite different for these children. Parents need to be educated. 

First responders need to be educated, and we believe schools will 

play an important role in the prevention and awareness of this new 

phenomenon. It has reached epidemic proportions. 

So, with that, Chairman, I devoted more time for Q and A because I think that is more important to focus on what is happening 

now, and how we think we can partner further with this committee. I want to thank you, though, for the reauthorization and 

the ability to meet these emerging challenges. 

[The statement of Mr. Ryan follows:] 

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Chairman ROKITA. And I thank Mr. Ryan. As I said earlier, I am 

going to defer my questions to the end and the chairman of the full 

committee is now recognized for 5 minutes, Mr. Kline. 

Mr. KLINE. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

And thank you, Mr. Ryan, for being here. It was a pleasure to 

meet you and work with you when we were doing reauthorization. 

And as you know, I think that the center just does amazing, and 

almost unimaginable, unimaginably difficult and challenging work, 

so we thank you for that. 

I am looking at a couple of things here. I have got a—I think 

probably provided by your office, a nice little chart talking about 

the National Center’s statistics for Minnesota. And looking at the 

statistics since 1990, in Minnesota alone, NCMEC worked on 1,699 

endangered runaways, 373 family abductions, 67 lost, injured, or 

otherwise missing, and so forth. That is one State and not that big 

a State where you are working all the time and doing, as I have 

said, unimaginably challenging and difficult work. 

Speaking of Minnesota, in Minneapolis, we have a little company 

there called Lifetouch. It is a school portrait company, and you 

have arranged to work with them to help law enforcement and the 

media. How did that come about, and how does that work? 

Mr. RYAN. Lifetouch actually approached us back in 2004. As you 

say, they are based in Minnesota. They are the largest national 

school photographers, and they are now global, as they grow. They 

stepped up on a voluntary basis, offered to take free photographs 

for families of their children that families could use and, with the 

assistance of Lifetouch, form a what they call a SmileSafe ID card, 

which the families can hold and has all of the relevant information, 

plus a photograph of their child. 

In addition, Lifetouch with the parents’ permission digitizes that 

photo and information, so when law enforcement is called upon to 

find a missing child, and we get that notice, the first thing we do 

to see if we have that photo and information on file. Invariably, we 

do now, because of Lifetouch. With this program, we found missing 

children in over 20 States because their child’s photo was in 

Lifetouch’s digitized inventory. 

Mr. KLINE. Thank you. Again, another example of great innovation and progress. You are one of those agencies where everybody 

is busy all the time, coming up with new ideas and new approaches, because you are on a mission. And it is reassuring to 

know that you are there and that you have the relationships that 

you have with law enforcement. 

You mentioned autism, and the increasing numbers of children 

with autism, and the things that you are doing. Can you expand 

a little bit, sort of my remaining time here, and tell me how this 

is different and how you developed partnerships to make this 

work? It has got to be fairly challenging. 

Mr. RYAN. It is, Congressman. We learned from the first-responder community that the characteristics of a typical search for 

a missing child weren’t applying in certain cases. And the common 

denominator they found was these children suffered from one of the 

syndromes of autism. These children are attracted to high-risk environments. When we use the term ‘‘wander,’’ that comes from the 

discussion dealing with the elderly, when they go off and you know, 

CEWDOCROOM with DISTILLER

19 

and typically, it is a benign situation. But with these children, they 

are literally bolting, in the blink of an eye, and they are attracted 

to bodies of water, to high-density traffic areas. And within seconds, they can be thrust into these environments, despite the best 

care of parents, despite the best response of the first-responder 

community. So we have learned that it is critical to educate the 

parents in terms of what measures they could take to safeguard 

this child, both within their home and within the schools, because 

these children are bolting from schools. 

We saw that in New York City. Avonte Oquendo, last year, literally bolted from the classroom and later turned out went right 

in the East River. And what is the lesson learned there? Schools 

need to know what measures they can take to prevent a child like 

that from having open access and egress from that school. Who 

should be notified, you know, when these incidents occur? So we 

are focusing a lot of our attention and partnering with organizations like Autism Speaks. We are engaged on a PSA campaign to 

educate the community at large because the awareness level is not 

where it should be. The public will turn out to be the eyes and ears 

and first responders to this problem, but they need to know what 

to look for and how they should respond. 

Mr. KLINE. Thank you. 

I see my time is expired. I yield back. 

Chairman ROKITA. The gentleman’s time is expired. 

The ranking member is recognized for 5 minutes. 

Mr. LOEBSACK. Thank you, Mr. Chair. 

Mr. Ryan, thanks for being here again. I really appreciate this 

and the wonderful work that you folks are doing, and I just want 

to talk a little bit more about how the reauthorized Missing Children’s Assistance Act is working and what more you might need 

from us. You know, we are often having discussions, arguments 

about funding and all of the rest. I like to say we are in a very 

highly constrained fiscal environment here in Washington, D.C. I 

think we can all agree to that. But you know, is there more that 

you can do? And if there were more funding, is there more that you 

could do, or are you pretty much at a point here where you recognize the reality that funding is in short supply, and the chances of 

maybe getting more probably aren’t so great at this point? What 

is your sense of that? 

Mr. RYAN. Well, one of the things NCMEC does well is do more 

with less. For instance, in the area of designing educational curriculums, we have our own in-house studio. We create the content 

that we use. We don’t have to use third-party vendors that can be 

very expensive. We leverage our partnerships with a number of 

companies. They serve as the distribution platforms. Again, we are 

cutting into those costs, but where we need to be further engaged 

is getting in front of the schools on a nationwide basis, not on a 

community-by-community, even state-by-state, but on a nationwide 

approach because we have the age-appropriate messaging. It is not 

a one-size-fits-all. And we can track these kids from kindergarten 

through high school, because the nature of the problem is different. 

But we have—because we are the clearinghouse, we know the 

trends and patterns. We have the ability to design preventive messages. We have the ability to create the format, whether they be 

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20 

games or lesson plans, so we need—you know, I think this committee is uniquely positioned to help us partner with the educational community to push these messages out. 

Mr. LOEBSACK. I think it is great, and like the idea of a publicprivate partnership. I think we are, as a country, moving more in 

that direction all the time as well, given the limited resources that 

we have at the Federal level, whether it is on transportation or any 

number of other things. This is an area that, you know, clearly that 

seems to be working well. I would be interested in finding out from 

you if you could provide us some information or writing at some 

point sort of how it is that you judge how you are doing your job, 

what the metrics are, that kind of thing. If, you know, I could get 

that from you, if I could get that from you in writing, I think we 

would all probably appreciate that. I have no doubt you are doing 

a great job. You are doing your job and doing it about effectively 

as you possibly can. 

Can you elaborate a little bit more on the educational aspect of 

this? You have already mentioned a number of things that you are 

doing with schools. There may be more things that you would like 

to do with schools, with public schools, and private schools for that 

matter as well. Can you elaborate on that a little bit? 

Mr. RYAN. Sure. Where we think we can make a difference is 

train the trainers. In this case, the trainers would be the teachers. 

We know that they are in position to be an early-alert system. We 

learned here, close to where we are now, in Fairfax County one of 

the better school districts in the country, over a 3-year period, 

there was a major operation where gangs were recruiting high 

school students from the schools and trafficking them commercially 

through neighborhood and community hotels. These children were 

going home at night. They were going to school for the most part. 

But nobody was picking up on the signs. So we learned from that. 

We work with law enforcement. We then have the conversation 

with the teachers. What did you see that was different? Performance dropping off, coming in late, maybe bruises? It could have 

been very well dressed, flashy jewelry, the whole range of symptoms that if the teachers were made aware of what to look for, they 

then could intervene at an early stage and pass that information 

on. 

Mr. LOEBSACK. I know at someplaces in Iowa, for example—my 

wife taught second grade for a long time. Teachers are mandatory 

reporters, too, and you know, that is something that is really important because teachers are in a situation, as you just said, where 

they are, you know, right there on the front lines. The school counselors, school nurses, a number of those folks are really critical. 

And if we can continue to do that across the country, I think it 

makes a heck of a lot of sense. Thank you so much. 

My time is almost up. I am going to yield the rest of my time. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Chairman ROKITA. I thank the gentleman. The gentleman yields 

back. 

The gentleman from Tennessee is recognized for 5 minutes. 

Mr. ROE. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

First of all, thank you for what you do every day. And I have to 

tell you with our human trafficking bills that the Congress passed 

CEWDOCROOM with DISTILLER

21 

in a bipartisan way just a few weeks ago, it really helped educate 

me about the enormity of this problem. I had no idea it was as 

large as it was. And I look at this graph that you have on your 

CyberTipline, and do you think—I mean, down here from 1998 or 

2000, now it just, there is an astronomical increase. 

Mr. RYAN. Right. And what is the reason for that? Is it because 

of a better awareness, do you think, because I can tell you, I was 

clueless about how enormous this problem is and how subtle you 

just very well described it could be in a school if you are not really 

paying attention, and don’t know what to pay attention to. Somebody can be right there in front of you carrying on an apparently 

normal life and they are not carrying on a normal life. 

Mr. RYAN. I think one of the critical factors that has caused the 

increase is the online classified ad platforms on the Internet, the 

Backpages of the world. This has provided a relatively inexpensive 

business model for pimps and predators to advertise their clients, 

minors, for sex. And for a modest investment, they are trafficking 

these children around the country, usually under the radar of local 

law enforcement because they are moving them from community to 

community, State to State, and these are children from all walks 

of life. The majority of them start off as endangered runaways, but 

some of them come from stable households. They are applying for 

jobs that they think may be modeling, or something in the entertainment business, and they are lured by these predators and 

taken then across the country. So it is in everybody’s backyard. If 

people are not aware of it, they are not looking for it. 

Mr. ROE. What is the way to—I didn’t know what Backpage was 

3 months ago, or 4 months ago. How do you go after those folks? 

One of the bills we passed was to go after the people who advertise. 

Is that an effective method to do it, because it is cheap, as you said, 

to put up a Web page. 

Mr. RYAN. Currently, there are no regulations that they fall 

under, so unlike the responsible electronic service providers who 

have a legitimate business model, they choose not to know who 

their customer is. They turn a blind eye. If they see something that 

may look like potentially child pornography, they may make a preliminary report, but they are not searching their systems. So if 

they see a phone number associated with potentially illicit activity, 

well, search your system. That is not an isolated occurrence. That 

child associated with that number has probably popped up in multiple States as we saw in Operation Cross Country. So they are 

doing the bare minimum. So— 

Mr. ROE. A wink and a nod is all they are doing. 

Mr. RYAN. Exactly, precisely. 

Mr. ROE. And one of the things we did, I think, in the bill is extremely important, is to take the victims, not make them criminals, 

but make them victims, and so they can turn themselves in and 

not be prosecuted. Some of the fears are probably they are afraid 

I will go to jail because I am engaged in something illegal. I 

thought that was a huge issue to take these children. They are 

not—they are victims of these crimes. 

Mr. RYAN. You are 100 percent right, sir. And when they are 

treated like victims—they were not reporting, because they felt 

that the law enforcement was not a potential ally, a potential 

CEWDOCROOM with DISTILLER

22 

threat. And the gap still exists though. When these minors are recovered, for instance, in Operation Cross Country, where do they 

go? Where are they placed? Because they are not in the criminal 

justice system now, which is good, but there is no hold over them. 

We don’t want them going back to the same environment because 

the rate of recidivism is very high. That 24, 48-hour period is critical to put them in the right hands, to get them the care, the therapeutic care that they need. And I think this committee is well situated to identify those resources and agencies that we can partner 

with. 

Mr. ROE. And there is a real shortage there, as I understand, as 

I learned about this. 

The other thing I want you to, in my short time remaining, is 

talk about the missing from foster care. I would think that would 

be amazing to me, that only two States have any requirement that 

if a child walks away from foster care, that no one would know 

that. What can we do or what should States do to alleviate that? 

Mr. RYAN. Sure. Presently, there is legislation in front of this 

Congress with bipartisan support, that would require social service 

agencies, those foster care facilities, to report every instance of a 

child going missing to law enforcement, and then on to the National Center. We know the two States that currently do that, Florida and Illinois, we received over 4,000 reports over the last year. 

We can intervene with law enforcement at an early stage. We can 

find out because they frequently run away. It is not an isolated situation. We know where they are likely to go, who they are with. 

And if law enforcement gets that information, they can intercept 

them before they are exploited. So a mandatory uniform program 

of reporting will be immeasurably an improvement. 

Mr. ROE. Thank you for what you do. You are making a difference in this country. 

I yield back. 

Chairman ROKITA. The gentleman’s time is expired. 

I now introduce a legislator who is a dear friend to everyone on 

this committee, the gentlelady from New York, Representative 

McCarthy for 5 minutes. 

Mrs. MCCARTHY. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

And thank you Ranking Member Loebsack. 

Just listening to you and reading your testimony, but a few 

things bother me, especially on the foster children and also the 

children that are in the schools. My sister is a school nurse, and 

she does report an awful lot of things to social services. If it is not 

a high-level case, they can’t take it. And they just let it go. This 

is one of the biggest complaints that I hear from her when she 

knows something is going on. And of course, the child does not 

open up. So I think that is something that we really need to look 

at, you know, because you are talking about social workers, which 

we don’t have enough of them. We don’t have enough school nurses 

to be able to have, like everybody does go to her, the children. You 

wear that white uniform, that is safe. So I don’t know how we are 

going to, you know, solve that problem. 

But the children with disabilities, you know, I am sitting here, 

they already got two strikes against them, especially those that 

have a hard time communicating. And that is going to be a real 

CEWDOCROOM with DISTILLER

23 

problem, and that is a real problem. And I am thinking of some 

people my age, a little bit older, some of us have pendants, so if 

we fall or something, and it is kind of like a GPS, someone can respond. And I don’t know what the privacy laws would be, but especially with children that can’t communicate well, can like a GPS 

watch help them to recover? 

Mr. RYAN. Absolutely, and there are some programs in place 

based on GPS tracking. And it is a voluntary process where the 

family decides to, you know, implement that device. It can be something in their school bag so it is not, you know, visible, so it is not 

going to be something that is going to, you know, cause any alarm, 

or you know, undue discussions. And some police districts have 

signed on to support that. So that device will only be triggered 

when a family member activates it. It goes directly to the police 

agency. We had a case here recently in Montgomery County, where 

actually the child of one of the Autism Speaks executives, their 

young boy traveled to school back and forth on a school bus. Inadvertently, he was put on the wrong school bus, gets lost in the system for many hours which is a nightmare for that child. That child 

had that device in his school bag. They called Montgomery County. 

It was activated. They found that child within 15 minutes of the 

activation. 

Mrs. MCCARTHY. And just to follow up, the programs that you 

are going to be doing in the schools, are you also reaching out to 

the PTA so that the parents are also educated? Because one of the 

things that we found, especially with trying to educate parents on 

they should know what their children are looking on, on the Internet, there are so many good programs out there, but we are finding 

a lot of parents don’t take advantage of that. 

Mr. RYAN. You are right, Congresswoman. We provide—our Web 

site is our principal resource for parents in the community. But if 

they don’t know about us, they are not going to go to us. So we 

have to do a better job of getting out to the communities, raising 

awareness of what services and resources we can provide, all of 

them for free. And I think, again, that is why the schools are the 

nexus. 

Mrs. MCCARTHY. Yeah. 

Mr. RYAN. Because the parents are connected to the schools for 

a range of services and guidance. So I think if we can, you know, 

get our foot in the door there, we can do a better job dealing more 

directly with the parents. 

Mrs. MCCARTHY. Now, have you been doing a lot of work with 

some of the social workers, especially for those children that are 

placed into a foster home? Because you hear and you read about 

so many cases where these children are put into these foster 

homes, and they are there for a number of years, but the turnover 

or the runaways are extremely high. Is there any way where the 

social workers are actually the key to really see that this abuse is 

going on, but a lot of times the social worker comes in, the child 

is petrified, doesn’t want to say anything, especially depending on 

the age. And then by the time they get to be a teenager, they bolt. 

Mr. RYAN. That is right. We have, in connection—in addition, I 

should say, with the two States that are reporting, we have made 

outreach efforts to a number of States through social service agenCEWDOCROOM with DISTILLER

24 

cies and law enforcement agencies, to form partnerships and protocols of reporting. And we have had some success in the number of 

States where, again, social service workers are the key. They are 

the ones outside the classroom that have the most contact with 

these children. And even if they are not getting information from 

the child, if they know something is wrong, they are not being told 

something, and what is that? If they know that the National Center may be able to provide additional information, what could be 

happening, then we form that link that kind of closes that gap. You 

have social services. You have law enforcement. You have the National Center. We may know where that child is going from, because with the dialogue with the social workers, does that child 

have a phone? What is that phone number? We have access to all 

of the public databases, the social media platforms; like that mother did of that 16-year old. She looked for her daughter’s phone 

number on Backpage. We could look up that number. We may see 

where that surfaces, and it may not be a good story, but we could 

pass that information on so there is intervention before exploitation. 

Mrs. MCCARTHY. Thank you for your service. 

Chairman ROKITA. The gentlelady’s time is expired. 

The gentleman from Pennsylvania is recognized for 5 minutes, 

Mr. Thompson. 

Mr. THOMPSON. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Mr. Ryan, thank you. Thank you for being here for, you know, 

one of our most crucial missions, keeping our children safe. I really 

appreciate your work. 

I was pleased to learn of your initiative Safe to Compete, which 

raises awareness of child athlete sexual abuse and provides training and preparedness opportunities. I am sure we can all agree 

that putting forth a set of best practices will ensure our children 

will be safer when participating in sports. Can you briefly describe 

what is currently being done to ensure athletes are protected and 

how, as policymakers, we can further assist with those efforts? 

Mr. RYAN. Yes, sir. As a result of that Safe to Compete conference, where we drew together most of the Nation’s largest youth 

sports entities and mental health professionals as well as community leaders, they signed on to what you have referred to as best 

practices, which includes that critical stage when an organization 

is taking on either a volunteer or a paid staff member who will 

have close contact with these children. Many of these organizations 

have overnight, weekend stays, even week to a month stays. So 

parents need to know who they are entrusting their children over 

to, who is literally going to be responsible for their children. These 

organizations now are doing background checks. They are doing 

criminal history checks. So they are able to detect red flags before 

they turn over the care and custody of these children to these, 

whether they be volunteers or staff members. Now, more needs to 

be done. And that is where I think Congress can help because we 

need a nationwide uniform program of background checks. The 

larger organizations can afford it. They can, you know, pass that 

on through dues or other, you know, grants that they get, but the 

small, local community-based organizations, and there are thousands of them, they cannot. So we need to supplement their ability 

CEWDOCROOM with DISTILLER

25 

to do the same background checks because it is equally as important because there is a gap there. 

And predators find the gaps. They are not going to go to an organization where they know they are going to, you know, be vetted 

and checked out. They will go to a small organization, because as 

long as they have kids, that is all they need. And if they are not 

going to be properly, you know, vetted, then they get in the front 

door, and that is where the problems are. 

So we need a nationwide, uniform approach of background 

checks. Fingerprints have proven to be the most reliable and comprehensive. There is a cost associated with that, but there are ways 

to spread that cost around. We have worked with some of our partners, like LexisNexis. They have, as a result of Safe to Compete, 

they actually helped fund that conference, Congressman, and they 

offered a discount rate to community organizations to provide those 

necessary checks, to ensure the cost was not a prohibiting factor. 

So we are prepared to work with Congress. We can identify some 

of these corporate partners who could help defray some of these 

costs, but it needs to be done. 

Mr. THOMPSON. Very good. Thank you. 

I want to switch gears here. You do such great education, I wanted to zero in on your NetSmartz workshop. It seems like a valuable 

tool to students, teachers, and parents. Can you talk a little more 

about this program, and how will the new initiative, KidSmartz, 

differ from your main education program? 

Mr. RYAN. Well, we are expanding—NetSmartz started out as 

primarily a Web-based platform where we provided the access to 

teachers and educators to come to our Web site, download the resources, and then utilize them in their school. Because we have 

grown, as I mentioned, we have our own in-house studio now. Some 

of them get a little carried away. They think they are like Disney 

animators, but they have created characters and formats, again, 

that are age appropriate. So you don’t want to scare kids at the age 

of five. But yet, some of these kids have access to iPads. So you 

can’t neglect them and say, well, wait until they get a little older. 

You have to approach them and address them as soon as they are 

starting to access these devices. So but yet the same message, the 

same cartoons, you know, a high school student is going to say, obviously, not for me. But they are still vulnerable. Sexting, 

sextortion, those are new offenses that are targeting what we call 

tweens. They are the ones who are socially adept at utilizing the 

technology, much more so than I, but yet, they don’t know the realworld problems that are being facilitated through those devices. So, 

again, we now have the ability to target these messages, and we 

have the platform now, but we still need that entre. You know, I 

think we need a committee like this and other partners to get into 

this discussion because it is free. At the end of the day, it is free. 

This KidSmartz program that we are going to launch in September was totally paid for by Honeywell; not a dime of taxpayer 

funds, and they are committed. If this is successful, as we hope it 

is, they are not going to just say this is a one-time release. They 

will stand behind it. And other partners will step up. We have been 

in touch with the Rotary Association. I didn’t realize how strong 

they are, 1.2 million members, and they are all of the stakeholders 

CEWDOCROOM with DISTILLER

26 

that we would hope to deal with; business leaders, educators, political leaders, you know, the schools. They are adopting now some of 

our challenges. They are about to take on child sex trafficking as 

maybe their next national campaign after polio. That is huge because they touch all of the important sectors that we need to touch, 

that we couldn’t do without support like that. 

So, again, we look forward to the partnership with this committee because you have the same charter and we can, I think, 

with our subject-matter expertise in this area, work well together. 

Mr. THOMPSON. Thank you. 

Chairman ROKITA. Thank you. 

The gentleman’s time is expired. 

The gentlelady from Ohio is recognized for 5 minutes. 

Ms. FUDGE. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

And thank you Mr. Ryan, for being here today. 

Mr. Ryan, I represent the 11th District of Ohio, where national 

news was made last year when we found three young women had 

been held in a home for more than 10 years. But we also found 

that there was a great amount of change needed within our police 

department because their practices in some ways made the problem worse as it relates to how we search for and find missing, exploited children. How much work do you do with local police departments to prepare them to look for these young people? 

Mr. RYAN. We actually worked—we worked very closely with 

that community. We have ongoing training. We call it the CEO 

training course. We bring in national law enforcement leaders to 

the National Center; usually a class size is about 50 to 75, and it 

is train the trainers. We teach them and expose them to the resources that the National Center can provide, so when they go back 

home to their respective agencies, they become our ambassadors. 

Cleveland is a good example. We held—it wasn’t a CEO training 

course, but we held what we called a long-term missing children 

summit in the afternoon of the Cleveland case because there were 

a lot of lessons learned and takeaways. 

Ms. FUDGE. Absolutely. But these police departments are not required to do it, correct? They just do it because, in Cleveland’s situation, they only did it because they had to, because of the situation. 

Mr. RYAN. It is voluntary. 

Ms. FUDGE. What do we do to make sure that every single local 

police department has the proper training? Because I am telling 

you, that is a major part of the problem. 

Mr. RYAN. I think it should be built into the training curriculum 

of every police academy, because it is going to become a critical 

part of their mission. It only takes one missing child case, and if 

they are not familiar with how to deal with that case, what resources are available, who to partner with, we will see what happened 10 years ago in Cleveland, where those cases, you know, fell 

through the cracks. So that should never happen again. We actually had the Cleveland girls at NCMEC. We had the chance to talk 

with them. We learn from survivors. What can they teach us? What 

can they teach law enforcement? Because they have a powerful 

story to tell. 

Ms. FUDGE. Thank you. 

CEWDOCROOM with DISTILLER

27 

And let me just take this one step further. Just this year, a year 

later, our local paper ran an editorial titled ‘‘Put a Face on Greater 

Cleveland’s Faceless Missing Children.’’ I was shocked to realize 

how often the descriptions of these missing kids aren’t accompanied 

by a photograph of some sort, and/or they are not put on police 

Web sites, or Web sites of nonprofits. 

How do we encourage nonprofits as well as our police departments to make sure that these—the faces of these kids are on their 

Web sites? 

Mr. RYAN. We have a photo distribution partnership with well 

over 1,000 corporations, including the social media platforms, 

Facebook, and Google. They have dedicated Web sites for missing 

kids, and they provide profiles of who these kids are, age-progressed photos of these children. 

Ms. FUDGE. Right. I understand. I am talking about police departments and local nonprofits, I mean, because a lot of times people don’t go to those sites. If I live in Cleveland, I want to go to 

my Cleveland police department and see it. 

Mr. RYAN. Sure. 

Ms. FUDGE. But let me ask you my last question. What is the recovery rate as it relates to demographics with your agency? Certainly, at least from our experience at home, we find that minority 

children are not recovered nearly as quickly as nonminority children. Do you find that to be true? 

Mr. RYAN. Well, we don’t keep recovery rates based on, you 

know, any of the demographics like race, gender. We have an overall recovery rate. 

I agree with you, Congresswoman, that more needs to be done 

because we do know that over 50 percent of those children who go 

missing are from minority communities. 

Ms. FUDGE. Precisely. 

Mr. RYAN. They do not get the same level of media attention that 

is warranted. We have taken a number of steps to, you know, actually convene major networks and publications to do what we think 

is a more responsible effort to keeping these cases alive because it 

is critical because as these cases age, out of sight, out of mind, and 

that should never happen. 

Ms. FUDGE. Thank you very much. 

I yield back. 

Chairman ROKITA. I thank the gentlelady. 

The gentlelady from Indiana is recognized for 5 minutes. 

Mrs. BROOKS. Thank you. 

And thank you, Mr. Chairman, for holding this important hearing. 

I actually had the opportunity when I was U.S. attorney—and I 

now don’t recall what year—we toured your center, and learned— 

it was sometime between I would say 2002 and 2006 that I toured 

the center and was very involved in our Internet Crimes Against 

Children Task Force with Assistant U.S. Attorney Steve DeBrota, 

who I know works a lot with the center. And my question is, how, 

when we have ICAC forces all around the country, as well as 

maybe local jurisdictions have child exploitation task forces, when 

kids come up in their investigations and photos, but you don’t know 

enough, you don’t know who the child is, or even where, you know, 

CEWDOCROOM with DISTILLER

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the crime is taking place, how are the photos or the images of those 

children shared with you so you can figure out if you have information in your databases about what law enforcement is looking at? 

Mr. RYAN. That is a great question. Well, the—we get our images 

from a number of sources. The principal one is our CyberTipline, 

which, again, we have received over 2.6 million reports, many of 

them do contain images of yet-to-be-identified children. We populate our databases with those images, and through the support of 

some of the technology companies, like Google, and Facebook, and 

Microsoft, they help us with what we call tools, visual aids that we 

can go through these reams of images—there are millions in number—what are the common links? Where have we seen that before? 

Because many times, these images are part of a series, and some 

of the series may be innocuous, benign images, but we have to 

match that up with that elicit scene of that same child and we are 

able to do that, but we are actually working now—the problem is 

this: We cannot be a State actor. If we are a State actor, then we 

harm law enforcement’s prosecution of these cases which we make 

referrals to. So we don’t accept images from law enforcement. We 

push out to law enforcement. Having said that, we have a fairly robust and comprehensive inventory, or library so to speak, because 

we are being fed by the largest ESPs. 

Mrs. BROOKS. Well, that is my concern about this, is that you do 

have this huge database of images, and yet, it seems that law enforcement and the cases would benefit and their investigations 

would benefit if they were required to push the image to you, you 

might be able to make the match. 

Mr. RYAN. Well, they have access to ours. They have access—and 

we coordinate through INTERPOL, so there are common databases 

that have access points. But again, we have to segregate what we 

receive from law enforcement to ensure it is not tainted for potential Fourth Amendment challenges when these cases are prosecuted. 

Mrs. BROOKS. Okay, I would like to talk to you about that a bit 

further offline as to how we can help resolve some of this-- 

Mr. RYAN. Absolutely. 

Mrs. BROOKS.—because I think that your center and all of these 

task forces, maybe we should talk about how they can work in even 

closer cooperation. And I know, because I work on emergency preparedness issues, that there are platforms where Red Cross and 

where FEMA and others monitor Twitter feeds and Facebook. Are 

you in a position, either working with Google, Palantir, Facebook, 

where you are monitoring Twitter feeds and Facebook maybe in geographic areas to try to find out what is going on in some communities? 

Mr. RYAN. Well, we don’t monitor, but we do have links and both 

through the—all of the companies that you mentioned, they actually partner with us, provide access to their software applications 

and, more importantly, their audiences, in the case of Google, and 

Facebook. So we have an active dialogue through all of those social 

media applications. We don’t monitor them, per se. We encourage 

an active engagement, though. 

Mrs. BROOKS. Are you familiar though with what I am talking 

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lic health outbreaks or, you know, after emergencies, cries for help, 

and so forth? 

Mr. RYAN. Sure. We actually partner with FEMA, because as you 

know, Congress has designated the National Center as a national 

relocation center when children go missing in a mass disaster. And 

so we work closely in establishing protocols with FEMA and the 

Red Cross in the event of a potential crisis. So we kind of piggyback on their resources, and programs, and they bring us in when 

they see the need. 

Mrs. BROOKS. Thanks so much for your incredible help, and I am 

interested in learning if there are any legal impediments that you 

have to work even closer with law enforcement. 

Mr. RYAN. I look forward to that dialogue. Thank you. 

Chairman ROKITA. The gentlelady’s time has expired. 

The gentleman from Kentucky is not on the subcommittee, but, 

without objection, I would like to recognize him for a line of questioning, if he would like, regarding this matter. 

Mr. Guthrie? 

Mr. GUTHRIE. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate it very 

much for allowing me to do so. 

I am over on this side of the room. Good to see you again. Yeah, 

good to see you. 

Mr. RYAN. Did somebody come in? 

Mr. GUTHRIE. Yeah, somebody came. I apologize, I am not on the 

subcommittee, so I am down here, but I think they just had a new 

Member come in, so I apologize for that. 

But before I get to what I was going to ask, on the question of 

not requiring to report, there are only two States required to report. That is reporting to law enforcement, right? They have to report that if they have somebody in their foster care who leaves 

their foster care, they report it to social services or somebody, I am 

sure, right? Or they just don’t have any reporting at all? 

Mr. RYAN. That may be the case. It varies by State. But I am 

referring specifically to reporting to law enforcement. 

Mr. GUTHRIE. Okay, that is what I thought. 

And I was in the Center, and I did the authorization last year 

and, you know, it shows that when we find common ground in the 

House and the Senate we can work together. Senator Leahy and 

I were the primary sponsors of your reauthorization, and so I came 

to tour the Center. And I recommend it to all my colleagues, to do 

that. 

And the techniques that you have to go through to find, one, who 

the child is in the image and who the person is creating the image 

who we want to find is interesting, how you do that, and it is something we need to know, and it certainly is a skill and an ability. 

It is something needed, because there are things going on in this 

world most people can’t even get their minds around that happens. 

And the issue with me, I am from Bowling Green, Kentucky, and 

this always happens in the big city, you think, and so when we are 

home working in August, I am trying to highlight the fact this does 

happen everywhere, anywhere that has a computer. It is just not 

somebody out on the street or so forth. So we are going to try to 

do roundtables or conferences in different parts of my city. 

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30 

What kind of things do you think, just advice for us, we should 

make sure people know are going on in their communities? Because 

you see it everywhere. You see what is happening. What kind of 

things do you think people don’t know, in general, that they need 

to know about what is probably happening in their community? 

Mr. RYAN. One of the most prevalent venues where these minors 

are being trafficked are in local hotels. Now, typically, you know, 

people aren’t paying attention to who is coming and going in these 

hotels, but those who are in the business of operating hotels, they 

are in a position to take notice of the behavioral characteristics 

consistent with this trafficking. 

For instance, many times, a pimp will come in with three, sometimes five young girls. The girls will be off to the corner; the pimp 

will go in and make the arrangements for three to five rooms, it 

might be for a 3-day period, typically cash. These girls will go up 

to their rooms. They will never leave their rooms. Food will be delivered. Nobody sees them again until they leave. 

That is strange. What is going on? Why is that pimp hanging 

around? Why is he walking the hallways, you know, 24/7? Something is going on that is inconsistent with the regular routine of 

the trade of that hotel. 

And I am not just talking about the very small, seedy hotel. I am 

talking about very well-known, you know, reputable brands. 

Mr. GUTHRIE. Chain hotels. Yeah, my home is exit 22, and I-65 

is, like, it is right there, and so every chain that you know that has 

a— 

Mr. RYAN. It is every chain. 

Mr. GUTHRIE.—you know, it is there. 

Mr. RYAN. And what I invite people to do, and I say this with 

some degree of reluctance, but if you want to see the scope of the 

problem in your own neighborhood, go to a back page, because they 

promote ads in communities, in towns. It is not just cities, but they 

break it down, you know, into counties, into boroughs, into communities. So if they are advertising your area in an adult escort service, that means you have a problem. A child, if not multiple children, are being exploited in that area. 

Mr. GUTHRIE. If I could privately reach out to you—I know Ms. 

Brooks is going to—and just get those ideas of what you think we 

should present. I didn’t think about inviting hotel owners to come 

to a roundtable, but that sounds like— 

Mr. RYAN. Also tourism. 

Mr. GUTHRIE. Or a tourism group. 

Mr. RYAN. You know, these young girls—there are some boys, 

but mostly it is young girls—they are being trafficked from State 

to State, so how are they getting to and from? Many times, they 

are flying, but then they are getting into cabs. 

We have had many reports; law enforcement gets reports. They 

see the same young girls over the course of a month, 2 months, 

come through their area, go to the same hotels, go back, you know, 

at some point to the same. 

There are a lot of eyes and ears in different sectors who, if they 

are properly educated, alerted, who can they call? Typically, it is 

going to be law enforcement. They can get to the bottom of this and 

do incredibly good work. 

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31 

Mr. GUTHRIE. Thank you. Appreciate that. 

I yield back, and thank you for the time, Mr. Chairman. 

Chairman ROKITA. The gentleman’s time has expired. 

I will now recognize the gentleman from—Mr. Sablan for 5 minutes. 

Mr. SABLAN. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. 

And welcome, Mr. Ryan. 

And while looking at this map of registered sex offenders in the 

Northern Marianas—I mean, throughout the country, we see—we 

are grateful, one, that we are included in the map, because usually 

the territories are, for some reason, excluded. 

But I want to welcome you and tell you a little story, also, about, 

you know, our island and the district I come from. One morning in 

May of 2011, there was the tragedy of two missing sisters, actually, 

that fell hard upon our community. Maleina, who was 9 years old, 

and Faloma, who was age 10, were last seen at their bus stops as 

they were on their way to school. And law enforcement authorities 

were notified that the young girls were missing only after the sisters failed to return home from school that afternoon, and so there 

was that gap of time that was lost. 

But I want to thank your organization, sir, in particular, 

Maureen Heads and Bob Hoever, for working with our office to ensure that we were included in the information in this map that we 

have before us. 

And it has been 3 years since the girls have not been found. 

There have been leads, according to law enforcement officials, but 

the girls remain missing and there have been no arrests. And we 

have not forgotten, the entire Northern Marianas community have 

not forgotten about Maleina and Faloma, and we continue to pray 

for their safe return. And I hope that your organization, NCMEC, 

we can still find them alive and unhurt. 

But under the reauthorization, the 2013 reauthorization, your organization is required to include local educational agencies, or 

LEAs, on information, services, programs, and resources for missing and exploited children. If we could be of any assistance to your 

organization in connecting you to our school officials, we would be 

very - more than happy to do that. 

But I need to ask, if you could tell me if you have reached out 

to our LEAs, our public school system. And if you did, what can 

you share with me as a result from your coordination with them? 

Mr. RYAN. Congressman, I have to look into that to see if there 

has been direct contact. 

I know that our case managers, on the case that you reference, 

for instance, would be in touch with the law enforcement investigators, because one of the things we do and are doing in cases like 

that, we—two things to keep that case alive in, you know, the efforts of law enforcement: We do an age progression, which we do 

every year, and we release that and update that to law enforcement and all our poster distribution partners. So that should be 

going on within your respective district. 

And the other thing we do is a comprehensive, what we call, actually, an anniversary campaign. So, every 2 years, we will disseminate stories about, in this case, those two young girls who 

went missing, again, to try to generate a lead and a tip to come 

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in. Because, you know, as people’s memories fade, if you keep the 

story in front of them— 

Mr. SABLAN. Yeah. 

Mr. RYAN.—they may remember that one crucial piece of evidence that they may not have thought important a year or 2 ago, 

but now, in context, they will call. 

Mr. SABLAN. Right. 

Mr. RYAN. So we are doing that, I can tell you that. 

Mr. SABLAN. Yeah. And the reason I am offering to help your organization hook up with our public school officials, for example, is, 

from just the information that we have been able to receive from 

those law enforcement authorities, the time since the girls were 

last seen at the bus stop and the time that law enforcement authorities were notified, those were, according to some people, very 

important, very critical time that would have been very useful in 

probably solving the crime. And, unfortunately, you know, the authorities were not notified until the girls didn’t come home from 

school. 

I understand that the authorities were not informed when the 

girls did not report to school. And I know that some of our school 

officials have changed the system and have updated, but we need 

your cooperation, sir. 

Mr. RYAN. Sure. 

Mr. SABLAN. And I would be willing to connect you with her if 

you have not made any contact or any coordination. 

Mr. RYAN. We will definitely follow up, Congressman. 

Mr. SABLAN. We need your assistance in getting our school officials up to date on what are the basic things or what are the important things they need to do to keep the children safe, you know, 

so we don’t repeat this whole thing again. 

My time is up, Mr. Chairman. 

Mr. RYAN. Absolutely. 

Chairman ROKITA. I thank the gentleman. 

The gentleman’s time has expired. I would note for the record the 

gentleman is from the Northern Mariana Islands. The chair’s ignorance of the two-letter postal abbreviation, that caused the confusion in introducing him. 

The chair recognizes himself for 5 minutes. 

Mr. Ryan, thank you again. 

My blood boils, at the beginning when you gave that brief example about how a child could be delivered to a hotel room as easily 

as ordering a pizza. As a father of a 6-year-old and 4-year-old, you 

know, if I saw that gentleman, I don’t know if I could contain myself. I would probably be in jail right alongside of him for battery, 

if not worse. 

You came from the Internet business, if I looked at your bio 

right. You worked for AOL. This has nothing to do with AOL, but 

I am just trying to establish a record here. Something along the 

way, your career led you to this position now, after working on the 

Jerry Sandusky scandal, or the aftermath of it. 

You mentioned at the beginning of your testimony that the world 

is a different place, and you immediately transitioned to the Internet. Did the Internet cause this? Did the Internet enable this? Is 

this world a different place because of the deterioration of society 

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generally? Or were these people—I am struggling for my Christianity here—have these people always been here and with us in our 

society? 

I am not asking you—you are not a psychologist, you are not a— 

I want your personal opinion. 

Mr. RYAN. I think the Internet clearly has opened up opportunities that did not exist that facilitates the commission of these traditional crimes. I mean, there were always predators. The modus 

operandi, though, has changed online. 

Because when you think about it, now the Internet provides a 

global platform. It provides the ability for a predator to so-called 

groom a potential victim. Because through all the information that 

is imparted on different social media sites, a predator will glean 

that information and then turn that around and target an individual. They will know the name, the school they go to, their activities, their friends. So when they start the dialogue with a potential 

victim, that victim feels, oh, this is a peer, they know me, they are 

just like me. Their guard is down. 

That is what the Internet has encouraged and enhanced. And it 

has made the apprehension of these predators more difficult for 

law enforcement, because, you know, they can operate under the 

radar, so to speak. 

So it has caused, I use the term ‘‘explosion’’ of these offenses, because these predators have additional tools, they have the ability 

to, you know, stay undetected, and they have much more opportunity to target a larger pool of potential victims. 

Chairman ROKITA. Regarding the Internet, do you have any solutions for companies, anything that you haven’t mentioned yet, 

short of censoring or— 

Mr. RYAN. Well, a lot of companies— 

Chairman ROKITA.—you know, that you want to get on record? 

Mr. RYAN. Absolutely. At AOL, we employed what we called parental filters. You enable parents to restrict the level of access that 

children have on the Internet, and it requires a partnership. 

Chairman ROKITA. What about those kids that don’t have parents, effectively, the ones that might be going to the social worker 

that was brought up in earlier questioning and that sort of thing? 

Mr. RYAN. It enhances the problem, but, you know, whoever is 

entrusted with the care and guardianship of that child, whether it 

be a social worker or even a teacher during that school day, they 

have to be that responsible person who, if they are providing access 

to the Internet, which all schools do now, they have to take on the 

added responsibility to know where they are allowing that child to 

navigate and what tools and filters are in place. 

Chairman ROKITA. Thank you. 

In the time I have left, you mentioned several times the committee being well-situated, quote/unquote, to help develop the partnerships. Can you give more detail on what you mean by that? 

I would just as soon you develop the partnerships. Don’t wait on 

this committee or Congress or anything else; go forth and do this 

work. 

Mr. RYAN. Well, for instance, we have had the ability, in this 

past year alone, since we engaged and got more familiar, you know, 

educating this committee about our work, and, frankly, we have 

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learned more about your mission and charter, which has been extremely helpful. We have worked with the staff members in terms 

of their work to try to help identify legislative measures that could 

address some of the challenges that are emerging. 

Just prior to this conference, this testimony, I was engaged with 

a very, you know, excellent dialogue with a staff member, just talking about what we are seeing, what are some of your challenges, 

and where that intersection may be, what fixes you are thinking 

about, and what is our take—a dialogue. I found that a dialogue 

by interested stakeholders is more likely to end up with a mutual 

solution, that if you don’t have that dialogue, you are flying blind. 

Chairman ROKITA. Okay. Thank you. My time has expired. 

I will now recognize the ranking member for any closing remarks. 

Mr. LOEBSACK. Well, thank you, Mr. Chair. 

I just appreciate the fact that we have had you here today, Mr. 

Ryan. I have learned quite a lot. 

I, too, would like to just associate myself with the remarks of our 

chair about how enraged I think we all are when we hear some of 

the things that we have heard today. I think that just leads us all 

to want to go forth and make sure we do everything we can to cooperate with you to minimize these issues that are out there, if not 

eliminate them entirely. 

And I do agree, too, that the role of the Internet, no doubt, has 

been really important in magnifying the problem, multiplying the 

problem, perhaps, in many instances, too. 

So thank you for being here today. 

And I want to thank the chair again for having this hearing. 

Thank you. 

Mr. RYAN. Thank you, sir. 

Chairman ROKITA. Mr. Ryan, thank you again for being here. We 

really appreciate your leadership, appreciate your commitment to 

this country and our kids. We join you in that effort. And we look 

forward to continuing our relationship and that dialogue you spoke 

of and doing everything we can so that families can build better 

lives for themselves. 

And, with that, seeing no further business before the subcommittee, the subcommittee stands adjourned. 

Mr. RYAN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

[Questions submitted for the record and their responses follow:] 

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[Whereupon, at 11:18 a.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.] 

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