The Issues
24-Hour Hotline
Children on the autism spectrum may wander and become lost at rates higher than their peers.
Child sex trafficking involves the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, obtaining, or advertising of a minor child for the purpose of a commercial sex act.
Child sexual abuse materials, more commonly known as child pornography, make up the majority of NCMEC’s CyberTipline reports.
An “Endangered runaway” is any child under 18 years old who has run away from a parent, guardian, or state care facility.
End-to-end encryption is a term used to describe blocking or preventing any third-party recipient from viewing, reading or becoming aware of information that one individual has sent to another. In response to growing concerns about online data security, many technology companies are adopting this strategy with potentially dire circumstances.
Abductions in which a child is taken, wrongfully detained, or concealed by a parent or other family member.
Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) technology allows a user to create new images, videos, audio and text based on user requests or prompts. This technology has many benefits, but at the same time, NCMEC is deeply concerned about the numerous ways it is being used to sexually exploit children.
When the remains of a deceased child are recovered, NCMEC assists in helping give that child back their name. Can you ID any of these children?
This type of abduction can take various forms; from a noncustodial parent abducting the infant, to a stranger abducting the child from the hospital, home, or a public place.
Children who have been missing for more than 6 months become classified as “Long Term Missing”.
This includes abductions or attempted abductions by someone known to the child (like a neighbor or online acquaintance, etc.) as well as abductions by someone unknown to the child.
A range of online victimization that includes enticing a child to share sexually explicit images, meet in person for sex, engage a child in sexual conversations or role-playing, or to sell/trade the child’s sexual images to others online.
Learn more about children who are lost, injured or otherwise missing and critically missing young adults.
A form of sexual exploitation in which non-physical forms of coercion are utilized, such as blackmail, to acquire sexual content (photos/videos) of the child, obtain money from the child or engage in sex with the child.