National Missing Children’s Day is observed annually on May 25th. Since its establishment in 1983, it has increased public awareness of the heartbreaking plight of abducted kids, particularly those who become victims of sexual exploitation.
In a sense, National Missing Children’s Day also recognizes the work of individuals, organizations, and law enforcement involved in the issue, as well as social service specialists, and others working to stop child abduction and child sexual abuse.
Despite their vigorous and dedicated work, these terrible crimes persist almost relentlessly, making it challenging to determine the number of victims. This is largely due to the use of digital technology that allows traffickers to operate clandestinely. However, technology also plays an essential role in identifying these criminals and rescuing missing kids.
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| Finding missing children: The challenges |
| Technology provides solutions |
| More needs to be done |
Finding missing children: The challenges
At the forefront of these efforts is the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). Since its founding in 1984, NCMEC and its allies have brought the causes of stopping human trafficking and exploitation involving children to the broader public. This awareness, along with training programs and tougher laws, is helping rescue more and more missing young people every year.
But even as awareness grows, those who abduct and traffic kids keep finding new ways to hide themselves and their victims. Traffickers continually change the online platforms and mobile-phone apps they use for advertising while also disguising their activities through coded language and other tricks.
“Some of the biggest gaps in child trafficking are hiding in plain sight in many of the places where people are, such as being advertised on most of the major social media platforms and dating applications and websites,” notes Kristin Boorse, CEO of Spotlight, a technology-focused nonprofit that’s playing a key part in finding these young victims.
This means that organizations like NCMEC must be as innovative as traffickers. “Child sex trafficking is a constantly evolving crime, often hiding in plain sight and enabled by everyday technology,” said Michelle Delaune, President & CEO, National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. In partnership with organizations like the Human Rights Crimes Resource Center at TRI, which provides critical intelligence and resources on human rights violations, efforts to locate and rescue missing children are becoming more coordinated and effective.
Technology provides solutions
NCMEC has long included digital technology in the fight. In 1998, noting an alarming increase in online sexual exploitation of children, NCMEC created the CyberTipline, a centralized reporting system where the public and internet service providers can report possible incidents of minors being trafficked.
Spotlight began in 2014 as an application helping investigators of juvenile sex trafficking to quickly identify victims being bought and sold online. Building upon the success of the application, Spotlight has evolved into a team of issue experts and technology partners that develop new ways to identify victims. Spotlight is provided free of charge to law enforcement and NCMEC, and it now has more than 8,000 users in the United States and Canada. Since its inception, Spotlight has helped find more than 26,000 missing children.
In order to scale the identification of juveniles, Spotlight and other organizations apply artificial intelligence (AI). AI can quickly analyze and label vast quantities of digital data to help investigators identify the most vulnerable and get them connected to resources.
“At NCMEC, we’re committed to using every tool available – including data, innovation, and partnerships – to help find missing children faster and disrupt the systems that allow exploitation to thrive,” said DeLaune.
One of the digital tools that NCMEC staffers are using is Thomson Reuters CLEAR, an investigative platform that leverages GenAI to analyze vast datasets, including public records, social media, and proprietary databases, to identify hidden connections. Spotlight has also introduced CLEAR into the application to help investigators connect the dots, faster.
More needs to be done
NCMEC, Spotlight, and other organizations, along with tech providers and law enforcement agencies, have successfully united to find missing children. However, kids continue to go missing and become victims of terrible crimes. While we are humbled by the progress we have made to identify more children faster, there is so much more that needs to be done. That work, of course, must extend beyond one single day.
For instance, both state and federal legislators can actively draft and pass additional laws that address the technological challenges of finding missing children, particularly those victimized by sex trafficking. These laws should reflect the use of AI technologies, including facial recognition, to identify missing children, while navigating the complex landscape of federal, state, and local regulations that currently restrict these technologies.
Furthermore, while it is crucial to impose stringent penalties on traffickers, it is equally important to recognize that some individuals are forced into trafficking roles and should not face mandatory sentencing without exceptions, as seen in recent legislation like Arizona’s. Policies should also incorporate insights from lived experience experts to ensure a victim-centered approach, offering support services to young victims and mandating digital monitoring for social media platforms and large public events, such as concerts and major sports gatherings, which criminals exploit to lure children into dangerous situations.
Those working to find and protect missing children—and the public at large — can also be more vocal about including digital innovations such as GenAI technology in this critical work. As useful starting points in these efforts, they can draw from an abundance of information and links available on the NCMEC and Spotlight websites.
Thomson Reuters also has published information about successfully applying digital technology to the challenge of untangling complex data that “hides” exploited children. In addition, investigators, agencies and law enforcement can explore how CLEAR and AI-powered technology are aiding in the search for missing children.
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