'Starving for hope': Tim Tebow urges Congress to fund tools to locate 'over 50,000' child sex abuse victims

Former NFL quarterback Tim Tebow urged congressional hearing members to pass legislation that funds Homeland Security Investigations and other tools he said are needed to help locate missing children.

In front of the House Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance, Tebow explained that the number of children who are missing and suffering from sexual abuse is more than twice what he had originally learned.

"20,000 boys and girls that have been abused and raped, their images and videos have been captured, but nobody has been able to identify them, they're unknown until someone knows them," Tebow told lawmakers. After gathering with representatives of Homeland Security, Interpol, Google, and more, Tebow said that he quickly learned that the number "was over 50,000."

"How do we protect them? And that's where Operation Renewed Hope was born," he explained. The Tim Tebow Foundation recently announced that it had rescued hundreds of children after a three-week "surge" of investigations into child abuse. Through the operation, the foundation successfully located "311 probable identifications of previously unknown victims, including 14 positive contacts and confirmed the rescue of several victims from active abuse."

The number was updated to 316 by the time of the hearing a week later.

"Why would we not give as much if not more resources to the frontline heroes that are going after the most vulnerable boys and girls on the planet?" Tebow asked. "Operation Renewed Hope identified that 316, and out of all those that were rescued more than half of them were right here in the U.S., and when you extrapolate those numbers that means that there's thousands of boys and girls that are starving for hope in our backyard and we have the chance to bring hope to those that are starving for it," he added.

Tebow's foundation said that it hopes to build a bill for congressional approval that helps fund tools to locate missing children. Chief among these tools is the International Child Sexual Exploitation database, operated by Interpol.

The system uses digital, visual, and audio content of photographs and videos to try and identify clues to where a child may be located. It also identifies overlaps in system data about any existing cases.

"Using image and video comparison software, investigators are instantly able to make connections between victims, abusers, and places," Interpol said.

The former college football star's foundation is asking supporters to send a letter to Congress with a form's prewritten text revealing more about what the foundation hopes to achieve through legislation.

"The workforce fighting these crimes simply isn’t big enough ... It is imperative that Congress takes proactive measures to expand law enforcement's ability to identify child victims, investigate, and prosecute offenders at scale," the text read.

The foundation urged Congress to support legislation that focuses "victim identification within law enforcement" and funding that deploys analysts internationally.

Additionally, it asked to expand HSI and Interpol's training capabilities because "American victims' images are shared by computers around the world."

Lastly, the foundation wishes to modernize the ICSE database to "keep pace" with the growing issue of child exploitation.

"The safety and well-being of our children must be a top priority, and I implore you to take meaningful action to address this urgent issue. These children are waiting," the form added.

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