NEW VICTIM IDENTIFICATION LEGISLATION CALLED "RENEWED HOPE" TAKES HISTORIC LEAP FORWARD IN THE FIGHT AGAINST ONLINE CHILD EXPLOITATION

Our Rescue lauds the passage and signing of the Renewed Hope Act, a significant milestone in the fight against online child sexual exploitation.

WASHINGTON, June 16, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Spearheaded by Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) and supported by child protection experts including Tim Tebow Foundation, this new legislation makes an historic investment into Victim Identification, a critical step in the fight against child sexual exploitation and human trafficking.

President Trump signed a legislative package that includes provisions for Victim Identification and human trafficking, including 200 additional law enforcement positions specialized in the discipline of analyzing child sexual abuse material (CSAM) to identify and locate the children depicted in it.

The legislation addresses one of the most urgent challenges facing child protection professionals today: the identification and rescue of children who are actively being sexually abused, but whose identities and locations remain unknown to investigators.

Specialists in the field of Victim Identification investigators, intelligence analysts and forensic experts examine images and videos of child sexual abuse to determine who the child is, where they are, and whether they can be reached. 

Prior to this legislation, the DHS Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) department was woefully understaffed with roughly twenty individuals assigned to an estimated 89,000 unidentified child victims – children yet to be found. 

"The number of unidentified child victims continues to grow and if unchecked, this imbalance only gets worse, exacerbated by the introduction of AI and the ease of which criminals are able to create CSAM with deep fakes," said Derek Benner, CEO of Our Rescue and former HSI Executive Associate Director. "Law enforcement needs training, resources, and personnel to keep pace with the evolving threat of online child exploitation."

With the passage of this bill, those odds just improved by about 2,800 percent. 

"In addition to increasing headcount across the HSI teams that combat child sexual exploitation, the bill establishes the first dedicated training program to improve coordination on victim identification between federal, state, and local law enforcement," said Jim Cole, Senior Advisor for Cyber Strategy and Child Protection at Our Rescue, a U.S.-based, global nonprofit dedicated to ending child exploitation and human trafficking. "Training, partnerships, and coordination are 'force magnifiers' that help increase impact, with greater speed and efficiency to help identify, locate, and bring children to safety." 

For Our Rescue, the legislation is especially meaningful because of the work of Jim Cole. Prior to joining Our Rescue, Jim founded the Victim Identification Program and Laboratory at the HSI Cyber Crimes Center, which became one of the primary hubs for this mission in the United States. He chaired the INTERPOL Specialists Group on Crimes Against Children and spent more than 20 years as a federal agent specializing in child sexual exploitation and digital forensics before retiring and joining Our Rescue. 

In many ways, Jim helped build the very work Congress has now funded to expand.

On March 6, 2024, Jim testified before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance. He gave expert testimony on the Victim Identification mission, the scale of the crisis, and the case for expanding the specialist workforce. 

During his testimony, Jim shared a first-person account of an actual Victim Identification case that his team at the HSI Cyber Crimes Center worked on. This story became part of Senator Hawley's Senate floor remarks in support of the bill.

Jim described a toddler that was sexually abused by her own father who photographed and filmed the abuse and posted it to the dark web. Jim's team at HSI analyzed every frame of the CSAM looking for clues: background details, reflections, product labels, anything. After weeks of analysis and collaboration with outside experts, the team identified a specific playground in a city in the American South. Working in real time with the local HSI field office, agents canvassed the neighborhood while Jim's team guided them via Google Earth. Agents knocked on the door. The father answered and denied knowing the child. She appeared at the door beside her father, curious about the visitors. The father was taken into custody. A thumb drive was found in his pocket containing evidence of his crimes. The little girl was found and is safe today. 

"She couldn't ask for help. She didn't know she needed to be rescued. She just needed someone with the skills and resources to find her." said Jim Cole.

This story is a real-life illustration, one of many, that underscores the need for support in the field of Victim Identification. The 200 newly funded positions will help identify children around the U.S. who cannot advocate for themselves, who urgently need to be brought to safety.

For the children still waiting to be found, Renewed Hope is more than the name of a bill. It is a promise that more people, more training, and more resources are now dedicated to finding them.

Please join us in supporting the fight against online child sexual exploitation and human trafficking.

About Our Rescue
Our Rescue is a global nonprofit working to end human trafficking and child exploitation while empowering survivors to reclaim their lives and thrive on their healing journey. We partner in this fight with nonprofit organizations, law enforcement, governments, and supporters who share our vision of a world free from human trafficking and child exploitation.

Our Rescue provides resources, training, technology, and operational support to law enforcement agencies working to identify victims, pursue offenders, and build stronger cases. The organization also supports survivor care partners with the capacity, expertise, and resources needed to help survivors heal and rebuild. Through training and prevention efforts, Our Rescue works to educate communities and reduce vulnerability before exploitation occurs.

Together with a global network of partners, Our Rescue works as a collective and convener, boldly fighting to eradicate human trafficking and child exploitation everywhere.

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