Seeing What Others Can’t: NCMEC’s Role in Stopping Child Sex Trafficking

When the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children receives a report to its CyberTipline, the clock starts ticking – and children’s lives and safety are at stake. 

Every day, NCMEC receives thousands of reports – from missing children to suspected child sexual exploitation, including child sex trafficking.

It’s NCMEC’s job to quickly assess these reports. Our trained analysts identify critical details, uncover connections and share actionable information with law enforcement. The goal is always the same: protect children and help bring offenders to justice.

That’s exactly what happened recently when NCMEC’s CyberTipline received a report describing troubling online interactions between an adult and a child. The information was alarming – but as NCMEC’s child sex trafficking team got to work searching for more clues, the urgency grew.

Within minutes, analysts determined that the child in the report was a missing child previously reported to NCMEC. They then uncovered something even more disturbing: the adult involved was linked to a second missing child, reported from a different state.

Two children. Two states. One possible trafficker.

Because NCMEC serves as the nation’s centralized clearinghouse for these reports, analysts were able to see connections no single tip or agency could identify on its own.

The information was immediately shared with law enforcement. When an analyst hits “send,” it’s not just information they’re passing along, it’s hope. Hope that timely, accurate details will reach the right people and bring an end to a nightmare no child should ever face.

In this case, that hope became reality. Law enforcement arrested many offenders connected to trafficking and exploitation of children, helping prevent further harm of the two children and protecting countless others.

This case is not an outlier. It is a glimpse of what is possible when reporting works as it should. In the thousands of reports NCMEC receives daily, there are often fragments of information that, on their own, may not tell the full story. But when those pieces are brought together, lives can be changed. That is what NCMEC does every day. That is why reporting to NCMEC’s CyberTipline matters.

For over a decade, NCMEC has sounded the alarm that traffickers and buyers were using the internet to target, groom and exploit children through child sex trafficking. What has changed is not the crime, but our ability to see it more clearly.

Prior to recent legislation a handful of online companies voluntarily reported suspected child sex trafficking. As a result, the reports NCMEC received reflected only a fraction of the online child sex trafficking taking place.

But the REPORT Act, which now requires online companies to report suspected child sex trafficking to NCMEC’s CyberTipline, has allowed us to begin seeing the true scale of this harm.

In 2025, the first full year following the law’s passage, NCMEC received more than 113,500 reports – a 323% increase from 2024. Notably, 93% of reports in 2025 were submitted by online companies.

These numbers are alarming – but they also provide clarity. This increase does not mean the harm suddenly began. It means it is finally being seen.

Reports are about more than just data and information.  Behind every report is a child likely facing unimaginable harm.  Every report has the potential to provide the critical detail that brings the full picture into focus.

Report possible child sex trafficking at CyberTipline.org or call 1-800-843-5687.