The online world your children explore every day is not a playground, it’s a landscape of evolving threats. Just six months into 2025, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) released data showing a significant increase in reports related to online enticement, financial sextortion, AI-enabled exploitation, and child sex trafficking.
Importantly, NCMEC has noted that much of this increase reflects expanded mandatory reporting requirements under the REPORT Act, which took effect in 2024. While reporting requirements have contributed to this surge, these figures still represent real children being targeted right now, in ways most parents and caregivers might not even recognize.
Financial sextortion, where teens are pressured to share images and then blackmailed for money, has jumped from 13,842 reports in the first half of last year to 23,593 this year and the consequences are devastating. Tragically, some young people have lost their lives as a result of this type of abuse.
Technology is also rapidly changing the landscape of exploitation in disturbing ways. Tools like generative AI now allow predators to create harmful content or simulate abusive interactions without needing direct contact, making it easier for them to reach and manipulate children from anywhere. Reports of AI-enabled exploitation have skyrocketed from 6,835 last year to 440,419 this year.
Child sex trafficking remains a persistent and escalating threat, with an increasing trend of grooming, recruitment and exploitation beginning online rather than on the streets. Reported online cases have surged tenfold, from 5,976 in the first half of last year to 62,89 in the first six months of this year. As offenders adapt to new platforms and tactics, the volume and complexity of cases grow at an alarming pace.
If we break each of these spikes down to percentages, they amount to approximately:
- 70% increase in reported financial sextortion
- 6,345% increase in reported AI-enabled exploitation
- 953% increase in reported child sex trafficking
At Our Rescue, the trends are a call to action. The challenges are complex, but our mission is simple: children’s safety is non-negotiable, and collaboration is critical. We work closely with law enforcement agencies to investigate and stop the online exploitation of children in all of its forms. We also train community groups, organizations, companies, churches, and schools with age-appropriate content and tools around online child safety. Please see our free online safety course: Start Talking and Our Rescue’s OUR SHIELD. With Our Rescue’s community training materials and tools, we are able to respond quickly, share knowledge, and develop strategies that keep kids safe. It isn’t a solo effort – it requires partners, communities, caregivers, educators, law enforcement, and people just like you, working together.
The threat is growing faster than ever. Our response must also.
Give today to help fund urgent digital investigations, survivor care, training and prevention efforts that protect children from online predators—before more lives are harmed.
- Derek Benner, Our Rescue CEO
If you are interested in learning more about how Our Rescue can support your community or organization with training, prevention, awareness raising, and outreach efforts, we would love to hear from you – please let us know how we may support by completing this short questionnaire. A member of our team will be in touch.
