[House Hearing, 113 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
PROTECTING AMERICA'S YOUTH: AN UPDATE
FROM THE NATIONAL CENTER FOR MISSING
AND EXPLOITED CHILDREN
=======================================================================
HEARING
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON HEALTH,
EMPLOYMENT, LABOR, AND PENSIONS
COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
AND THE WORKFORCE
U.S. House of Representatives
ONE HUNDRED THIRTEENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
__________
HEARING HELD IN WASHINGTON, DC, JULY 15, 2014
__________
Serial No. 113-62
__________
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COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND THE WORKFORCE
JOHN KLINE, Minnesota, Chairman
Thomas E. Petri, Wisconsin George Miller, California,
Howard P. ``Buck'' McKeon, Senior Democratic Member
California Robert C. ``Bobby'' Scott,
Joe Wilson, South Carolina Virginia
Virginia Foxx, North Carolina Ruben Hinojosa, Texas
Tom Price, Georgia Carolyn McCarthy, New York
Kenny Marchant, Texas John F. Tierney, Massachusetts
Duncan Hunter, California Rush Holt, New Jersey
David P. Roe, Tennessee Susan A. Davis, California
Glenn Thompson, Pennsylvania Raul M. Grijalva, Arizona
Tim Walberg, Michigan Timothy H. Bishop, New York
Matt Salmon, Arizona David Loebsack, Iowa
Brett Guthrie, Kentucky Joe Courtney, Connecticut
Scott DesJarlais, Tennessee Marcia L. Fudge, Ohio
Todd Rokita, Indiana Jared Polis, Colorado
Larry Bucshon, Indiana Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan,
Trey Gowdy, South Carolina Northern Mariana Islands
Lou Barletta, Pennsylvania Frederica S. Wilson, Florida
Joseph J. Heck, Nevada Suzanne Bonamici, Oregon
Mike Kelly, Pennsylvania Mark Pocan, Wisconsin
Susan W. Brooks, Indiana Mark Takano, California
Richard Hudson, North Carolina
Luke Messer, Indiana
Bradley Byrne, Alabama
Juliane Sullivan, Staff Director
Megan O'Reilly Minority Staff Director
------
SUBCOMMITTEE ON EARLY CHILDHOOD, ELEMENTARY, AND SECONDARY EDUCATION
TODD ROKITA, Indiana, Chairman
John Kline, Minnesota David Loebsack, Iowa,
Thomas E. Petri, Wisconsin Ranking Member
Virginia Foxx, North Carolina Robert C. ``Bobby'' Scott,
Kenny Marchant, Texas Virginia
Duncan Hunter, California Carolyn McCarthy, New York
David P. Roe, Tennessee Susan A. Davis, California
Glenn Thompson, Pennsylvania Raul M. Grijalva, Arizona
Susan W. Brooks, Indiana Marcia L. Fudge, Ohio
Bradley Byrne, Alabama Jared Polis, Colorado
Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan,
Northern Mariana Islands
C O N T E N T S
----------
Page
Hearing held on July 15, 2014.................................... 1
Statement of Members:
Loebsack, Hon. Dave, a Representative in Congress from the
State of Iowa.............................................. 4
Prepared statement of.................................... 5
Rokita, Hon. Todd, Chairman, Subcommittee On Early Childhood,
Elementary, and Secondary Education........................ 1
Prepared statement of.................................... 3
Statement of Witnesses:
Ryan, John, D., Dr., President and CEO, National Center for
Missing and Exploited Children, Alexandria, VA............. 7
Prepared statement of.................................... 9
Additional Submissions:
Questions submitted for the record by:
Loebsack, Hon. David, a Representative in Congress from
the State of Iowa...................................... 35
Walberg, Hon. Tim, a Representative in Congress from the
State of Michigan...................................... 36
Mr. Ryan's response to questions submitted for the record 38
PROTECTING AMERICA'S YOUTH: AN UPDATE
FROM THE NATIONAL CENTER FOR MISSING
AND EXPLOITED CHILDREN
----------
Tuesday, July 15, 2014
House of Representatives,
Subcommittee on Early Childhood,
Elementary, and Secondary Education,
Committee on Education and the Workforce,
Washington, D.C.
----------
The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10:04 a.m., in
Room 2175, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Todd Rokita
[chairman of the subcommittee] presiding.
Present: Representatives Rokita, Kline, Petri, Foxx, Roe,
Thompson, Brooks, Loebsack, McCarthy, Fudge, and Polis.
Also present: Representatives Walberg and Guthrie.
Staff Present: Janelle Belland, Coalitions and Members
Services Coordinator; Kathlyn Ehl, Legislative Assistant;
Lindsay Fryer, Professional Staff Member; Amy Raaf Jones,
Director of Education and Human Resources Policy; Cristin Datch
Kumar, Professional Staff Member; Nancy Lock, Chief Clerk;
Daniel Murner, Deputy Press Secretary; Brian Newell,
Communications Director; Krisann Pearce, General Counsel;
Lauren Reddington, Deputy Press Secretary; Mandy Schaumburg,
Education Deputy Director and Senior Counsel; Alissa
Strawcutter, Deputy Clerk; Tylease Alli, Minority Clerk/Intern
and Fellow Coordinator; Jamie Fasteau, Minority Director of
Education Policy; Scott Groginsky, Minority Senior Education
Policy Advisor; Eunice Ikene, Minority Labor Policy Associate;
Brian Kennedy, Minority General Counsel; and Brian Levin,
Minority Press Secretary.
Chairman Rokita. A quorum being present, the Subcommittee
on Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education will
come to order.
Good morning, everyone. We are pleased to hear today from
Mr. John Ryan, the president and chief executive officer of the
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, or NCMEC,
correct? Mr. Ryan will give us an update on NCMEC's important
work and how a number of legislative changes enacted last year
are enhancing the efforts of this vital organization.
At a ceremony opening the National Center for Missing and
Exploited Children, President Ronald Reagan said quote, ``All
Americans, and especially our youth, should have the right and
the opportunity to walk our streets, to play, and to grow, and
to live their lives without being at risk,'' unquote. Spoken 30
years ago, President Reagan's words are just as true now as
they were back then.
And if we are truly fighting for all people so that they
can build better lives for themselves and their families, one
of the key things we must be doing, is everything we can to
enhance the safety of their children.
No child should be afraid to walk home from school, hang
out with friends at the mall, or surf the Internet. Yet, sadly,
we know that is just not the case. Too often a predator is
lurking in the shadows ready to do harm.
Each year, thousands of children go missing or fall victim
to sexual exploitation and other heinous crimes. As the father
of two young boys, I cannot fathom the pain and suffering these
families are forced to bear. No one can, but we can do
something about it.
For 30 years, a national public-private partnership has
worked to protect children and safely return victims to their
families. NCMEC is at the center of this vital effort. The
organization provides services, resources, and other assistance
to victims of abduction and sexual exploitation, as well as
their families and those who serve them. The center's 24-hour
CyberTipline has provided law enforcement with more than 2.3
million leads of suspected child sexual exploitation. On its
own, this would constitute a stellar record, but the tip line
is only one part of a larger effort. The center also manages a
national database on missing children, organizes case
management teams to serve as a single point of contact for
families, and offers training and technical assistance to law
enforcement and professionals working in health care and the
juvenile justice system. These are just a few of the services
and support provided each and every day. The only way to
describe the work of NCMEC's staff is heroic. They are making a
difference in the lives of countless children and families. In
fact, just this year, I read that in partnership with the FBI
and the Department of Justice, NCMEC participated in Operation
Cross Country VIII. This week-long national campaign led to the
arrest of 281 child traffickers and the rescue of 168 children,
besting its work from the prior year.
However, we all know that despite these achievements, more
work needs to be done. To help support that effort, last year
Congress passed the E. Clay Shaw, Jr. Missing Children's
Assistance Reauthorization Act. This legislation extended our
partnership with NCMEC while providing additional
accountability and oversight protections. The law also includes
reforms to encourage greater coordination between law
enforcement, States, and schools. As one of many partners,
Congress cannot stop there. There is more that can and should
be done on behalf of these vulnerable youth. And toward that
end, a number of important legislative proposals were
introduced that will help strengthen our commitment to the
youth who are victims of sex trafficking. While no legislation
can provide a perfect solution, the bills put forward last week
will move our country in the right direction. Protecting
children has been and must remain a national priority.
Mr. Ryan, I would like to thank you and your staff for
the--for yours and their hard work and dedication. As a
committee, Congress, and Nation, let's continue working
together so we can, as President Reagan said, turn the tide on
these hateful crimes.
And with that, I will now recognize the senior Democratic
member of the subcommittee, Congressman David Loebsack, for his
opening remarks.
Congressman.
[The statement of Chairman Rokita follows:]
Prepared Statement of Hon. Todd Rokita, Chairman, Subcommittee on Early
Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education
Good morning. We are pleased to hear today from Mr. John Ryan, the
president and chief executive officer of the National Center for
Missing and Exploited Children or NCMEC. Mr. Ryan will give us an
update on NCMEC's important work and how a number of legislative
changes enacted last year are enhancing the efforts of this
organization.
At a ceremony opening the National Center for Missing and Exploited
Children, President Ronald Reagan said, ``All Americans, and especially
our youth, should have the right and the opportunity to walk our
streets, to play and to grow and to live their lives without being at
risk.'' Spoken 30 years ago, President Reagan's words are just as true
now as they were back then.
If we are truly fighting for all people, so that they can build
better lives for themselves and their families, one of the key things
we must help them with is the safety of their children.
No child should be afraid to walk home from school, hang out with
friends at the mall, or surf the Internet. Yet sadly we know that's
just not the case. Too often a predator is lurking in the shadows,
ready to do harm. Each year thousands of children go missing or fall
victim to sexual exploitation and other heinous crimes. As the father
of two young boys, I cannot fathom the pain and suffering these
families are forced to bear. No one can, but we can do something about
it.
For 30 years a national public-private partnership has worked to
protect children and safely return victims to their families. NCMEC is
at this center of this vital effort. The organization provides
services, resources, and other assistance to victims of abduction and
sexual exploitation, as well as their families and those who serve
them.
The center's 24-hour Cyber Tipline has provided law enforcement
with more than 2.3 million leads of suspected child sexual
exploitation. On its own this would constitute a stellar record, but
the tip line is only one part of a larger effort. The center also
manages a national database on missing children, organizes case
management teams to serve as a single point of contact for families,
and offers training and technical assistance to law enforcement and
professionals working in health care and the juvenile justice system.
These are just a few of the services and support provided each and
every day. The only way to describe the work of NCMEC's staff is
heroic; they are making a difference in the lives of countless children
and families. In fact, just this year, in partnership with the FBI and
Department of Justice, NCMEC participated in Operation Cross Country
VIII. This week-long national campaign led to the arrest of 281 child
traffickers and the rescue of 168 children - besting its work from the
prior year.
However, we all know that despite these achievements, more work
needs to be done. To help support that effort, last year Congress
passed the E. Clay Shaw, Jr. Missing Children's Assistance
Reauthorization Act. Enacted with overwhelming bipartisan support, the
legislation extended our partnership with NCMEC while providing
additional accountability and oversight protections. The law also
includes reforms to encourage greater coordination between law
enforcement, states, and schools.
As one of many partners, Congress cannot stop there. There is more
that can and should be done on behalf of these vulnerable youth. Toward
that end, a number of important legislative proposals were introduced
that will help strengthen our commitment to youth who are victims of
sex trafficking. While no legislation can provide a perfect solution,
the bills put forward last week will move our country in the right
direction.
Protecting children has been and must remain a national priority.
Mr. Ryan, I would like to thank you and your staff for their hard work
and dedication. As a committee, Congress, and nation, let's continue
working together so we can, as President Reagan said, ``turn the tide
on these hateful crimes.''
With that, I will now recognize the senior Democrat of the
subcommittee, Congressman David Loebsack, for his opening remarks.
______
Mr. Loebsack. I thank the chair for convening today's
important oversight hearing.
And I thank you, Mr. Ryan, for joining us today to provide
an update on the activities National Center for Missing and
Exploited Children, NCMEC. As a father and grandfather, I, too,
can only imagine the terror experienced by the parents of a
missing child. The parents in the midst of this trauma need the
full support of law enforcement, of schools, and other programs
designed to locate and recover missing or exploited children.
And of course, this is where the National Center for Missing
and Exploited Children comes in.
Since its creation in 1984, through the Missing Children's
Assistance Act, this private, nonprofit organization has
provided assistance, outreach, and support to missing and
exploited children and their families. NCMEC is tasked with
coordinating Federal efforts to locate, recover, or reunite
missing children with families as well as efforts to reduce and
end child sexual exploitation and trafficking.
Founded in response to several high-profile child
abductions, the center works with law enforcement to rapidly
respond to the approximately 10,000 to 13,000 missing children
reports they receive each year. NCMEC is also a partner in the
AMBER Alert program, the Nation's child abduction alert system,
named for Amber Hagerman, a 9-year old abducted and murdered in
Arlington, Texas, in 1996. The alerts are distributed widely
via radio, television, email, text message and highway traffic
signs. As of this May, 692 children have been successfully
recovered as a result of AMBER Alerts. Just last week, three
missing girls in Iowa were recovered thanks to a swiftly
dispatched AMBER Alert.
Further, NCMEC offers training and technical assistance to
law enforcement in identifying sex offenders, provides guidance
and information to community partners on how to effectively
locate and identify missing children and operates a tip line
for reporting missing children.
In recent years, the center has seen its workload relating
to cases of sexual exploitation of children increase
dramatically, unfortunately. In fact, the number of complaints
of child sex trafficking increased 1,000 percent from 2004 to
2008. Additionally, the Internet has increased the risk of
youth exploitation and Internet crimes against children, and
child pornography cases continue to rise.
Last September, Congress reauthorized the Missing
Children's Assistance Act and updated the role of the National
Center for Missing and Exploited Children to reflect this
evolving landscape. One of the most important provisions of
this reauthorization was the addition of a requirement that
NCMEC coordinate with the Interagency Council on Homelessness
in order to address the high number of homeless youth who were
victims of sex trafficking.
Runaway and homeless youth are particularly vulnerability
to sexual exploitation and trafficking. Last year, one in seven
endangered runaways reported to NCMEC were likely sex
trafficking victims. Many of these youth were in the care of
social services or foster care when they ran away and may have
experienced sexual abuse before they left their homes. These
children are at an increased risk of falling victim to sexual
exploitation or engaged in what is called survival sex in
exchange for food, shelter, or money. I am here to get an
update on how NCMEC is coordinating with services for homeless
and runaway youth to prevent children from ending up in his
devastating circumstances. I also recognize there is still more
we must do to prevent children from becoming victims in the
first place.
Despite the best effort of NCMEC, more than 10,000 kids
still go missing each year, and scores of children are forced
into sexual exploitation and trafficking.
I look forward to hearing from you, Mr. Ryan, on what
Federal supports do you believe needs to be to change this.
It is also important to note that the Runaway and Homeless
Youth Act is up for reauthorization this year, but at this
point, there has been no movement on this committee to carry
out that reauthorization. This law complements The Missing
Children's Assistance by providing targeted assistance to
homeless youth through initiatives like the Basic Center
Program, which provides youth with emergency shelter, food,
clothing, and medical care. By reducing the number of runaways
and homeless kids on the streets with nowhere to go, we can
lower the risk of exploited children. As we move forward, it is
critical that we provide NCMEC with all of the resources it
needs to carry out its mission, including adequate funding.
Thank you again, Mr. Chair, for convening this hearing. As
we can see, we have a lot of challenges ahead of us, and I look
forward to hearing from you, Mr. Ryan, about how we can address
those challenges. Thank you.
Chairman Rokita. And I thank the gentleman.
[The statement of Mr. Loebsack follows:]
Prepared Statement of Hon. Dave Loebsack, Subcommittee Early Childhood,
Elementary and Secondary Education
I thank the Chair for convening today's important oversight
hearing, and thank Mr. Ryan for joining us today to provide an update
on the activities of the National Center for Missing and Exploited
Children.
As a father and a grandfather, I cannot fathom the terror
experienced by the parents of a missing child.
Parents in the midst of this trauma need the full support of law
enforcement, schools, and other programs designed to locate and recover
missing or exploited children.
That is where the National Center for Missing and Exploited
Children comes in.
Since its creation in 1984 through the Missing Children's
Assistance Act, this private, non-profit organization has provided
assistance, outreach and support to missing and exploited children and
their families.
NCMEC is tasked with coordinating federal efforts to locate,
recover or reunite missing children with families, as well as efforts
to reduce and end child sexual exploitation and trafficking.
Founded in response to several high profile child abductions, the
Center works directly with law enforcement to rapidly respond to the
approximately ten to thirteen thousand missing children reports they
receive each year.
NCMEC is also a partner in the Amber Alert program, the nation's
child abduction alert system. Named for Amber Hagerman, a 9-year old
abducted and murdered in Arlington, Texas in 1996, the alerts are
distributed widely via radio, television, e-mail, text message and
highway traffic signs.
As of this May, 692 children have been successfully recovered as a
result of Amber Alerts.
Just last week, three missing girls in Iowa were recovered thanks
to a swiftly dispatched Amber Alert.
Further, NCMEC offers training and technical assistance to law
enforcement in identifying sex offenders, provides guidance and
information to community partners on how to effectively locate and
identify missing children, and operates a tip line for reporting
missing children.
In recent years, the Center has seen its workload relating to cases
of sexual exploitation of children increase dramatically. In fact, the
number of complaints of child sex trafficking increased 1000 percent
from 2004 to 2008.
Additionally, the Internet has increased the risk of youth
exploitation and Internet crimes against children and child pornography
cases continue to rise.
Last September, Congress reauthorized the Missing Children's
Assistance Act and updated the role of the National Center for Missing
and Exploited Children to reflect this evolving landscape.
One of the most important provisions of this reauthorization was
the addition of a requirement that NCMEC coordinate with the
Interagency Council on Homelessness in order to address the high number
of homeless youth who are victims of sex trafficking.
Runaway and homeless youth are particularly vulnerable to sexual
exploitation and trafficking. Last year, one in seven endangered
runaways reported to NCMEC were likely sex trafficking victims.
Many of these youth were in the care of social services or foster
care when they ran and may have experienced sexual abuse before they
left their homes.
These children are at an increased risk of falling victim to sexual
exploitation or engage in ``survival sex'' in exchange for food,
shelter or money.
I'm eager to get an update on how NCMEC is coordinating with
services for homeless and runaway youth to prevent children from ending
up in these devastating circumstances.
I also recognize that there is still more we must do to prevent
children from becoming victims.
Despite the best effort of NCMEC, more than 10,000 kids sill go
missing each year and scores of children are forced into sexual
exploitation and trafficking.
I look forward to hearing from Mr. Ryan on what federal supports he
needs to change this.
It is also important to note that the Runaway and Homeless Youth
Act is up for reauthorization this year, but at this point there has
been no movement in this committee to do so.
This law complements the Missing Children's Assistance by providing
targeted assistance to homeless youth through initiatives like the
Basic Center Program, which provides youth with emergency shelter,
food, clothing, and medical care.
By reducing the number of runaway and homeless kids in the streets
with nowhere to go, we can lower the risk of exploited children.
As we move forward, it is critical that we provide the National
Center for Missed and Exploited Children with all of the resources it
needs to carry out its mission, including adequate funding.
I look forward to hearing from you, Mr. Ryan.
______
Chairman Rokita. Pursuant to Committee Rule 7(c), all
members will be permitted to submit written statements to be
included in the permanent hearing record.
And without objection, the hearing record will remain open
for 14 days to allow such statements and other extraneous
material referenced during the hearing to be submitted for the
official hearing record.
It is now my pleasure to introduce our distinguished
witness. Mr. John Ryan is the president and chief executive
officer of the National Center for Missing and Exploited
Children here in Washington, D.C. He has served in that
position since December of 2013.
Mr. Ryan, before I recognize you to provide your testimony,
let me briefly explain the lighting system. You will have 5
minutes to summarize your written testimony. Of course, when
you begin, the light will be green. When there is 1 minute
left, it will be yellow. And then please make sure you are
finished up by the red light. And that is more of a reminder
for us up here sometimes than it is for you.
But after you are done, I will recognize members, who will
each have 5 minutes to ask their questions, and out of
deference to my colleagues, I am going to offer to take my
questioning last so we can get theirs in first and accommodate
their schedules.
So, with that, you are recognized for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF JOHN D. RYAN, PRESIDENT AND CEO, NATIONAL CENTER
FOR MISSING & EXPLOITED CHILDREN, ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA
Mr. Ryan. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and distinguished
members of the subcommittee.
I welcome this opportunity to appear before you today to
discuss the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
and how our role is continually expanding to respond to
evolving threats against our Nation's children. As you know,
the National Center is a private, nonprofit organization
designated by Congress to work in partnership with the Justice
Department and funded by both the public and private sectors.
The National Center is a unique public-private partnership
working with government agencies, military branches, private
industry, other nonprofits and public communities to build a
coordinated national response to the problem of missing and
sexually exploited children.
In April of this year, we commemorated 30 years of
operation, during which our national hotline has handled more
than 4 million calls. We have distributed literally billions of
missing child posters, assisted law enforcement in the recovery
of more than 160,000 missing children, coordinated the
secondary distribution of AMBER Alerts, leading to the recovery
of 695 abducted children and provided emotional support to
affected families.
We have trained more than 300,000 law enforcement, criminal
justice, military prosecutors, and healthcare professionals;
processed more than 2.6 million CyberTipline reports of
suspected child sexual exploitation; and reviewed more than 115
million images and videos of apparent child pornography to
assist law enforcement in identifying these victimized
children. To date, nearly 6,000 children have been identified
through clues gleaned from these images.
The National Center has done a lot to make our children
safer, but this organization is needed more now than ever. The
world is a different place than it was 30 years ago. The
Internet has transformed life in many positive ways, but it has
also fostered an explosion of child pornography, literally
images of violent sexual assaults against children, that are
traded amongst offenders from all walks of life. The Internet
has inspired new crimes, with names like online enticement and
sextortion, and has become a thriving marketplace for selling
children for sex.
Many children today have cell phones which function the
same as computers. This is why it is vital that we work even
more closely with our Nation's schools to help educate them
about the dangers on the Internet and the real world. As part
of our recent reauthorization, you gave us the authority to
provide more resources to State and local educational agencies.
We have started to use this new authority to expand our
programs to protect more children. Among our expanded
initiatives with schools are new prevention curriculums, such
as our KidSmartz prevention curriculum, which includes lessons
plans and teaching tools set to launch this summer in time for
the new school year. We have also been working to develop more
age-specific, grade-level appropriate online curriculum and
related educational resources for teachers to download from our
Web site to use directly in their classrooms.
When I became president of NCMEC 2 years ago, I was
appalled at the number of children being openly sold for sex on
Web sites like Backpage. Technology has changed the playing
field. A customer can shop online from the privacy of a home or
hotel room and a child will be delivered to their door.
As part of our work to combat child sex trafficking, we
assist the FBI with Operation Cross Country as has been
mentioned. That was headquartered at our center and it led to
the recovery of 168 children over a 3-day period and the arrest
of 281 pimps and predators. One example was a 16-year old who
reported to her mother that she ran away from a group home
because she was being recruited by gangs. The mother took the
initiative, looked up the Backpage, saw the phone number
advertised, called the National Center. We were able to track
that phone number to three States in the span of less than 3
days. We passed that on to law enforcement. That girl was
recovered during Operation Cross Country.
With respect to those children missing from foster care,
there are current laws before Congress now that we urge
Congress to pass. Right now, only two States have laws
mandating the reporting of children missing from foster care.
As has been pointed out, one in seven missing children are also
being sexually exploited; 67 percent of those are coming from
foster care children. No one is looking for these children.
They cannot be found until they are looked for.
So I want to first thank this committee for focusing your
efforts and giving us the ability to work more closely with
schools, with teachers, with communities, especially those
children with special needs.
One in 68, according to the CDC, suffer from autism. These
children are wandering more than 50 percent of the time.
Wandering is not the right term. They are bolting, and where
are they bolting to, unsafe environments, such as bodies of
waters. Forty-five children with autism have drowned in the
last 2 years. We set up new protocols for first responders
because the behavioral characteristics are quite different for
these children. Parents need to be educated. First responders
need to be educated, and we believe schools will play an
important role in the prevention and awareness of this new
phenomenon. It has reached epidemic proportions.
So, with that, Chairman, I devoted more time for Q and A
because I think that is more important to focus on what is
happening now, and how we think we can partner further with
this committee. I want to thank you, though, for the
reauthorization and the ability to meet these emerging
challenges.
[The statement of Mr. Ryan follows:]
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Chairman Rokita. And I thank Mr. Ryan. As I said earlier, I
am going to defer my questions to the end and the chairman of
the full committee is now recognized for 5 minutes, Mr. Kline.
Mr. Kline. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
And thank you, Mr. Ryan, for being here. It was a pleasure
to meet you and work with you when we were doing
reauthorization. And as you know, I think that the center just
does amazing, and almost unimaginable, unimaginably difficult
and challenging work, so we thank you for that.
I am looking at a couple of things here. I have got a--I
think probably provided by your office, a nice little chart
talking about the National Center's statistics for Minnesota.
And looking at the statistics since 1990, in Minnesota alone,
NCMEC worked on 1,699 endangered runaways, 373 family
abductions, 67 lost, injured, or otherwise missing, and so
forth. That is one State and not that big a State where you are
working all the time and doing, as I have said, unimaginably
challenging and difficult work.
Speaking of Minnesota, in Minneapolis, we have a little
company there called Lifetouch. It is a school portrait
company, and you have arranged to work with them to help law
enforcement and the media. How did that come about, and how
does that work?
Mr. Ryan. Lifetouch actually approached us back in 2004. As
you say, they are based in Minnesota. They are the largest
national school photographers, and they are now global, as they
grow. They stepped up on a voluntary basis, offered to take
free photographs for families of their children that families
could use and, with the assistance of Lifetouch, form a what
they call a SmileSafe ID card, which the families can hold and
has all of the relevant information, plus a photograph of their
child.
In addition, Lifetouch with the parents' permission
digitizes that photo and information, so when law enforcement
is called upon to find a missing child, and we get that notice,
the first thing we do to see if we have that photo and
information on file. Invariably, we do now, because of
Lifetouch. With this program, we found missing children in over
20 States because their child's photo was in Lifetouch's
digitized inventory.
Mr. Kline. Thank you. Again, another example of great
innovation and progress. You are one of those agencies where
everybody is busy all the time, coming up with new ideas and
new approaches, because you are on a mission. And it is
reassuring to know that you are there and that you have the
relationships that you have with law enforcement.
You mentioned autism, and the increasing numbers of
children with autism, and the things that you are doing. Can
you expand a little bit, sort of my remaining time here, and
tell me how this is different and how you developed
partnerships to make this work? It has got to be fairly
challenging.
Mr. Ryan. It is, Congressman. We learned from the first-
responder community that the characteristics of a typical
search for a missing child weren't applying in certain cases.
And the common denominator they found was these children
suffered from one of the syndromes of autism. These children
are attracted to high-risk environments. When we use the term
``wander,'' that comes from the discussion dealing with the
elderly, when they go off and you know, and typically, it is a
benign situation. But with these children, they are literally
bolting, in the blink of an eye, and they are attracted to
bodies of water, to high-density traffic areas. And within
seconds, they can be thrust into these environments, despite
the best care of parents, despite the best response of the
first-responder community. So we have learned that it is
critical to educate the parents in terms of what measures they
could take to safeguard this child, both within their home and
within the schools, because these children are bolting from
schools.
We saw that in New York City. Avonte Oquendo, last year,
literally bolted from the classroom and later turned out went
right in the East River. And what is the lesson learned there?
Schools need to know what measures they can take to prevent a
child like that from having open access and egress from that
school. Who should be notified, you know, when these incidents
occur? So we are focusing a lot of our attention and partnering
with organizations like Autism Speaks. We are engaged on a PSA
campaign to educate the community at large because the
awareness level is not where it should be. The public will turn
out to be the eyes and ears and first responders to this
problem, but they need to know what to look for and how they
should respond.
Mr. Kline. Thank you.
I see my time is expired. I yield back.
Chairman Rokita. The gentleman's time is expired.
The ranking member is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. Loebsack. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Ryan, thanks for being here again. I really appreciate
this and the wonderful work that you folks are doing, and I
just want to talk a little bit more about how the reauthorized
Missing Children's Assistance Act is working and what more you
might need from us. You know, we are often having discussions,
arguments about funding and all of the rest. I like to say we
are in a very highly constrained fiscal environment here in
Washington, D.C. I think we can all agree to that. But you
know, is there more that you can do? And if there were more
funding, is there more that you could do, or are you pretty
much at a point here where you recognize the reality that
funding is in short supply, and the chances of maybe getting
more probably aren't so great at this point? What is your sense
of that?
Mr. Ryan. Well, one of the things NCMEC does well is do
more with less. For instance, in the area of designing
educational curriculums, we have our own in-house studio. We
create the content that we use. We don't have to use third-
party vendors that can be very expensive. We leverage our
partnerships with a number of companies. They serve as the
distribution platforms. Again, we are cutting into those costs,
but where we need to be further engaged is getting in front of
the schools on a nationwide basis, not on a community-by-
community, even state-by-state, but on a nationwide approach
because we have the age-appropriate messaging. It is not a one-
size-fits-all. And we can track these kids from kindergarten
through high school, because the nature of the problem is
different. But we have--because we are the clearinghouse, we
know the trends and patterns. We have the ability to design
preventive messages. We have the ability to create the format,
whether they be games or lesson plans, so we need--you know, I
think this committee is uniquely positioned to help us partner
with the educational community to push these messages out.
Mr. Loebsack. I think it is great, and like the idea of a
public-private partnership. I think we are, as a country,
moving more in that direction all the time as well, given the
limited resources that we have at the Federal level, whether it
is on transportation or any number of other things. This is an
area that, you know, clearly that seems to be working well. I
would be interested in finding out from you if you could
provide us some information or writing at some point sort of
how it is that you judge how you are doing your job, what the
metrics are, that kind of thing. If, you know, I could get that
from you, if I could get that from you in writing, I think we
would all probably appreciate that. I have no doubt you are
doing a great job. You are doing your job and doing it about
effectively as you possibly can.
Can you elaborate a little bit more on the educational
aspect of this? You have already mentioned a number of things
that you are doing with schools. There may be more things that
you would like to do with schools, with public schools, and
private schools for that matter as well. Can you elaborate on
that a little bit?
Mr. Ryan. Sure. Where we think we can make a difference is
train the trainers. In this case, the trainers would be the
teachers. We know that they are in position to be an early-
alert system. We learned here, close to where we are now, in
Fairfax County one of the better school districts in the
country, over a 3-year period, there was a major operation
where gangs were recruiting high school students from the
schools and trafficking them commercially through neighborhood
and community hotels. These children were going home at night.
They were going to school for the most part. But nobody was
picking up on the signs. So we learned from that. We work with
law enforcement. We then have the conversation with the
teachers. What did you see that was different? Performance
dropping off, coming in late, maybe bruises? It could have been
very well dressed, flashy jewelry, the whole range of symptoms
that if the teachers were made aware of what to look for, they
then could intervene at an early stage and pass that
information on.
Mr. Loebsack. I know at someplaces in Iowa, for example--my
wife taught second grade for a long time. Teachers are
mandatory reporters, too, and you know, that is something that
is really important because teachers are in a situation, as you
just said, where they are, you know, right there on the front
lines. The school counselors, school nurses, a number of those
folks are really critical. And if we can continue to do that
across the country, I think it makes a heck of a lot of sense.
Thank you so much.
My time is almost up. I am going to yield the rest of my
time. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Chairman Rokita. I thank the gentleman. The gentleman
yields back.
The gentleman from Tennessee is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. Roe. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
First of all, thank you for what you do every day. And I
have to tell you with our human trafficking bills that the
Congress passed in a bipartisan way just a few weeks ago, it
really helped educate me about the enormity of this problem. I
had no idea it was as large as it was. And I look at this graph
that you have on your CyberTipline, and do you think--I mean,
down here from 1998 or 2000, now it just, there is an
astronomical increase.
Mr. Ryan. Right. And what is the reason for that? Is it
because of a better awareness, do you think, because I can tell
you, I was clueless about how enormous this problem is and how
subtle you just very well described it could be in a school if
you are not really paying attention, and don't know what to pay
attention to. Somebody can be right there in front of you
carrying on an apparently normal life and they are not carrying
on a normal life.
Mr. Ryan. I think one of the critical factors that has
caused the increase is the online classified ad platforms on
the Internet, the Backpages of the world. This has provided a
relatively inexpensive business model for pimps and predators
to advertise their clients, minors, for sex. And for a modest
investment, they are trafficking these children around the
country, usually under the radar of local law enforcement
because they are moving them from community to community, State
to State, and these are children from all walks of life. The
majority of them start off as endangered runaways, but some of
them come from stable households. They are applying for jobs
that they think may be modeling, or something in the
entertainment business, and they are lured by these predators
and taken then across the country. So it is in everybody's
backyard. If people are not aware of it, they are not looking
for it.
Mr. Roe. What is the way to--I didn't know what Backpage
was 3 months ago, or 4 months ago. How do you go after those
folks? One of the bills we passed was to go after the people
who advertise. Is that an effective method to do it, because it
is cheap, as you said, to put up a Web page.
Mr. Ryan. Currently, there are no regulations that they
fall under, so unlike the responsible electronic service
providers who have a legitimate business model, they choose not
to know who their customer is. They turn a blind eye. If they
see something that may look like potentially child pornography,
they may make a preliminary report, but they are not searching
their systems. So if they see a phone number associated with
potentially illicit activity, well, search your system. That is
not an isolated occurrence. That child associated with that
number has probably popped up in multiple States as we saw in
Operation Cross Country. So they are doing the bare minimum.
So--
Mr. Roe. A wink and a nod is all they are doing.
Mr. Ryan. Exactly, precisely.
Mr. Roe. And one of the things we did, I think, in the bill
is extremely important, is to take the victims, not make them
criminals, but make them victims, and so they can turn
themselves in and not be prosecuted. Some of the fears are
probably they are afraid I will go to jail because I am engaged
in something illegal. I thought that was a huge issue to take
these children. They are not--they are victims of these crimes.
Mr. Ryan. You are 100 percent right, sir. And when they are
treated like victims--they were not reporting, because they
felt that the law enforcement was not a potential ally, a
potential threat. And the gap still exists though. When these
minors are recovered, for instance, in Operation Cross Country,
where do they go? Where are they placed? Because they are not
in the criminal justice system now, which is good, but there is
no hold over them. We don't want them going back to the same
environment because the rate of recidivism is very high. That
24, 48-hour period is critical to put them in the right hands,
to get them the care, the therapeutic care that they need. And
I think this committee is well situated to identify those
resources and agencies that we can partner with.
Mr. Roe. And there is a real shortage there, as I
understand, as I learned about this.
The other thing I want you to, in my short time remaining,
is talk about the missing from foster care. I would think that
would be amazing to me, that only two States have any
requirement that if a child walks away from foster care, that
no one would know that. What can we do or what should States do
to alleviate that?
Mr. Ryan. Sure. Presently, there is legislation in front of
this Congress with bipartisan support, that would require
social service agencies, those foster care facilities, to
report every instance of a child going missing to law
enforcement, and then on to the National Center. We know the
two States that currently do that, Florida and Illinois, we
received over 4,000 reports over the last year. We can
intervene with law enforcement at an early stage. We can find
out because they frequently run away. It is not an isolated
situation. We know where they are likely to go, who they are
with. And if law enforcement gets that information, they can
intercept them before they are exploited. So a mandatory
uniform program of reporting will be immeasurably an
improvement.
Mr. Roe. Thank you for what you do. You are making a
difference in this country.
I yield back.
Chairman Rokita. The gentleman's time is expired.
I now introduce a legislator who is a dear friend to
everyone on this committee, the gentlelady from New York,
Representative McCarthy for 5 minutes.
Mrs. McCarthy. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
And thank you Ranking Member Loebsack.
Just listening to you and reading your testimony, but a few
things bother me, especially on the foster children and also
the children that are in the schools. My sister is a school
nurse, and she does report an awful lot of things to social
services. If it is not a high-level case, they can't take it.
And they just let it go. This is one of the biggest complaints
that I hear from her when she knows something is going on. And
of course, the child does not open up. So I think that is
something that we really need to look at, you know, because you
are talking about social workers, which we don't have enough of
them. We don't have enough school nurses to be able to have,
like everybody does go to her, the children. You wear that
white uniform, that is safe. So I don't know how we are going
to, you know, solve that problem.
But the children with disabilities, you know, I am sitting
here, they already got two strikes against them, especially
those that have a hard time communicating. And that is going to
be a real problem, and that is a real problem. And I am
thinking of some people my age, a little bit older, some of us
have pendants, so if we fall or something, and it is kind of
like a GPS, someone can respond. And I don't know what the
privacy laws would be, but especially with children that can't
communicate well, can like a GPS watch help them to recover?
Mr. Ryan. Absolutely, and there are some programs in place
based on GPS tracking. And it is a voluntary process where the
family decides to, you know, implement that device. It can be
something in their school bag so it is not, you know, visible,
so it is not going to be something that is going to, you know,
cause any alarm, or you know, undue discussions. And some
police districts have signed on to support that. So that device
will only be triggered when a family member activates it. It
goes directly to the police agency. We had a case here recently
in Montgomery County, where actually the child of one of the
Autism Speaks executives, their young boy traveled to school
back and forth on a school bus. Inadvertently, he was put on
the wrong school bus, gets lost in the system for many hours
which is a nightmare for that child. That child had that device
in his school bag. They called Montgomery County. It was
activated. They found that child within 15 minutes of the
activation.
Mrs. McCarthy. And just to follow up, the programs that you
are going to be doing in the schools, are you also reaching out
to the PTA so that the parents are also educated? Because one
of the things that we found, especially with trying to educate
parents on they should know what their children are looking on,
on the Internet, there are so many good programs out there, but
we are finding a lot of parents don't take advantage of that.
Mr. Ryan. You are right, Congresswoman. We provide--our Web
site is our principal resource for parents in the community.
But if they don't know about us, they are not going to go to
us. So we have to do a better job of getting out to the
communities, raising awareness of what services and resources
we can provide, all of them for free. And I think, again, that
is why the schools are the nexus.
Mrs. McCarthy. Yeah.
Mr. Ryan. Because the parents are connected to the schools
for a range of services and guidance. So I think if we can, you
know, get our foot in the door there, we can do a better job
dealing more directly with the parents.
Mrs. McCarthy. Now, have you been doing a lot of work with
some of the social workers, especially for those children that
are placed into a foster home? Because you hear and you read
about so many cases where these children are put into these
foster homes, and they are there for a number of years, but the
turnover or the runaways are extremely high. Is there any way
where the social workers are actually the key to really see
that this abuse is going on, but a lot of times the social
worker comes in, the child is petrified, doesn't want to say
anything, especially depending on the age. And then by the time
they get to be a teenager, they bolt.
Mr. Ryan. That is right. We have, in connection--in
addition, I should say, with the two States that are reporting,
we have made outreach efforts to a number of States through
social service agencies and law enforcement agencies, to form
partnerships and protocols of reporting. And we have had some
success in the number of States where, again, social service
workers are the key. They are the ones outside the classroom
that have the most contact with these children. And even if
they are not getting information from the child, if they know
something is wrong, they are not being told something, and what
is that? If they know that the National Center may be able to
provide additional information, what could be happening, then
we form that link that kind of closes that gap. You have social
services. You have law enforcement. You have the National
Center. We may know where that child is going from, because
with the dialogue with the social workers, does that child have
a phone? What is that phone number? We have access to all of
the public databases, the social media platforms; like that
mother did of that 16-year old. She looked for her daughter's
phone number on Backpage. We could look up that number. We may
see where that surfaces, and it may not be a good story, but we
could pass that information on so there is intervention before
exploitation.
Mrs. McCarthy. Thank you for your service.
Chairman Rokita. The gentlelady's time is expired.
The gentleman from Pennsylvania is recognized for 5
minutes, Mr. Thompson.
Mr. Thompson. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Ryan, thank you. Thank you for being here for, you
know, one of our most crucial missions, keeping our children
safe. I really appreciate your work.
I was pleased to learn of your initiative Safe to Compete,
which raises awareness of child athlete sexual abuse and
provides training and preparedness opportunities. I am sure we
can all agree that putting forth a set of best practices will
ensure our children will be safer when participating in sports.
Can you briefly describe what is currently being done to ensure
athletes are protected and how, as policymakers, we can further
assist with those efforts?
Mr. Ryan. Yes, sir. As a result of that Safe to Compete
conference, where we drew together most of the Nation's largest
youth sports entities and mental health professionals as well
as community leaders, they signed on to what you have referred
to as best practices, which includes that critical stage when
an organization is taking on either a volunteer or a paid staff
member who will have close contact with these children. Many of
these organizations have overnight, weekend stays, even week to
a month stays. So parents need to know who they are entrusting
their children over to, who is literally going to be
responsible for their children. These organizations now are
doing background checks. They are doing criminal history
checks. So they are able to detect red flags before they turn
over the care and custody of these children to these, whether
they be volunteers or staff members. Now, more needs to be
done. And that is where I think Congress can help because we
need a nationwide uniform program of background checks. The
larger organizations can afford it. They can, you know, pass
that on through dues or other, you know, grants that they get,
but the small, local community-based organizations, and there
are thousands of them, they cannot. So we need to supplement
their ability to do the same background checks because it is
equally as important because there is a gap there.
And predators find the gaps. They are not going to go to an
organization where they know they are going to, you know, be
vetted and checked out. They will go to a small organization,
because as long as they have kids, that is all they need. And
if they are not going to be properly, you know, vetted, then
they get in the front door, and that is where the problems are.
So we need a nationwide, uniform approach of background
checks. Fingerprints have proven to be the most reliable and
comprehensive. There is a cost associated with that, but there
are ways to spread that cost around. We have worked with some
of our partners, like LexisNexis. They have, as a result of
Safe to Compete, they actually helped fund that conference,
Congressman, and they offered a discount rate to community
organizations to provide those necessary checks, to ensure the
cost was not a prohibiting factor. So we are prepared to work
with Congress. We can identify some of these corporate partners
who could help defray some of these costs, but it needs to be
done.
Mr. Thompson. Very good. Thank you.
I want to switch gears here. You do such great education, I
wanted to zero in on your NetSmartz workshop. It seems like a
valuable tool to students, teachers, and parents. Can you talk
a little more about this program, and how will the new
initiative, KidSmartz, differ from your main education program?
Mr. Ryan. Well, we are expanding--NetSmartz started out as
primarily a Web-based platform where we provided the access to
teachers and educators to come to our Web site, download the
resources, and then utilize them in their school. Because we
have grown, as I mentioned, we have our own in-house studio
now. Some of them get a little carried away. They think they
are like Disney animators, but they have created characters and
formats, again, that are age appropriate. So you don't want to
scare kids at the age of five. But yet, some of these kids have
access to iPads. So you can't neglect them and say, well, wait
until they get a little older. You have to approach them and
address them as soon as they are starting to access these
devices. So but yet the same message, the same cartoons, you
know, a high school student is going to say, obviously, not for
me. But they are still vulnerable. Sexting, sextortion, those
are new offenses that are targeting what we call tweens. They
are the ones who are socially adept at utilizing the
technology, much more so than I, but yet, they don't know the
real-world problems that are being facilitated through those
devices. So, again, we now have the ability to target these
messages, and we have the platform now, but we still need that
entre. You know, I think we need a committee like this and
other partners to get into this discussion because it is free.
At the end of the day, it is free.
This KidSmartz program that we are going to launch in
September was totally paid for by Honeywell; not a dime of
taxpayer funds, and they are committed. If this is successful,
as we hope it is, they are not going to just say this is a one-
time release. They will stand behind it. And other partners
will step up. We have been in touch with the Rotary
Association. I didn't realize how strong they are, 1.2 million
members, and they are all of the stakeholders that we would
hope to deal with; business leaders, educators, political
leaders, you know, the schools. They are adopting now some of
our challenges. They are about to take on child sex trafficking
as maybe their next national campaign after polio. That is huge
because they touch all of the important sectors that we need to
touch, that we couldn't do without support like that.
So, again, we look forward to the partnership with this
committee because you have the same charter and we can, I
think, with our subject-matter expertise in this area, work
well together.
Mr. Thompson. Thank you.
Chairman Rokita. Thank you.
The gentleman's time is expired.
The gentlelady from Ohio is recognized for 5 minutes.
Ms. Fudge. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
And thank you Mr. Ryan, for being here today.
Mr. Ryan, I represent the 11th District of Ohio, where
national news was made last year when we found three young
women had been held in a home for more than 10 years. But we
also found that there was a great amount of change needed
within our police department because their practices in some
ways made the problem worse as it relates to how we search for
and find missing, exploited children. How much work do you do
with local police departments to prepare them to look for these
young people?
Mr. Ryan. We actually worked--we worked very closely with
that community. We have ongoing training. We call it the CEO
training course. We bring in national law enforcement leaders
to the National Center; usually a class size is about 50 to 75,
and it is train the trainers. We teach them and expose them to
the resources that the National Center can provide, so when
they go back home to their respective agencies, they become our
ambassadors. Cleveland is a good example. We held--it wasn't a
CEO training course, but we held what we called a long-term
missing children summit in the afternoon of the Cleveland case
because there were a lot of lessons learned and takeaways.
Ms. Fudge. Absolutely. But these police departments are not
required to do it, correct? They just do it because, in
Cleveland's situation, they only did it because they had to,
because of the situation.
Mr. Ryan. It is voluntary.
Ms. Fudge. What do we do to make sure that every single
local police department has the proper training? Because I am
telling you, that is a major part of the problem.
Mr. Ryan. I think it should be built into the training
curriculum of every police academy, because it is going to
become a critical part of their mission. It only takes one
missing child case, and if they are not familiar with how to
deal with that case, what resources are available, who to
partner with, we will see what happened 10 years ago in
Cleveland, where those cases, you know, fell through the
cracks. So that should never happen again. We actually had the
Cleveland girls at NCMEC. We had the chance to talk with them.
We learn from survivors. What can they teach us? What can they
teach law enforcement? Because they have a powerful story to
tell.
Ms. Fudge. Thank you.
And let me just take this one step further. Just this year,
a year later, our local paper ran an editorial titled ``Put a
Face on Greater Cleveland's Faceless Missing Children.'' I was
shocked to realize how often the descriptions of these missing
kids aren't accompanied by a photograph of some sort, and/or
they are not put on police Web sites, or Web sites of
nonprofits.
How do we encourage nonprofits as well as our police
departments to make sure that these--the faces of these kids
are on their Web sites?
Mr. Ryan. We have a photo distribution partnership with
well over 1,000 corporations, including the social media
platforms, Facebook, and Google. They have dedicated Web sites
for missing kids, and they provide profiles of who these kids
are, age-progressed photos of these children.
Ms. Fudge. Right. I understand. I am talking about police
departments and local nonprofits, I mean, because a lot of
times people don't go to those sites. If I live in Cleveland, I
want to go to my Cleveland police department and see it.
Mr. Ryan. Sure.
Ms. Fudge. But let me ask you my last question. What is the
recovery rate as it relates to demographics with your agency?
Certainly, at least from our experience at home, we find that
minority children are not recovered nearly as quickly as
nonminority children. Do you find that to be true?
Mr. Ryan. Well, we don't keep recovery rates based on, you
know, any of the demographics like race, gender. We have an
overall recovery rate.
I agree with you, Congresswoman, that more needs to be done
because we do know that over 50 percent of those children who
go missing are from minority communities.
Ms. Fudge. Precisely.
Mr. Ryan. They do not get the same level of media attention
that is warranted. We have taken a number of steps to, you
know, actually convene major networks and publications to do
what we think is a more responsible effort to keeping these
cases alive because it is critical because as these cases age,
out of sight, out of mind, and that should never happen.
Ms. Fudge. Thank you very much.
I yield back.
Chairman Rokita. I thank the gentlelady.
The gentlelady from Indiana is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mrs. Brooks. Thank you.
And thank you, Mr. Chairman, for holding this important
hearing.
I actually had the opportunity when I was U.S. attorney--
and I now don't recall what year--we toured your center, and
learned--it was sometime between I would say 2002 and 2006 that
I toured the center and was very involved in our Internet
Crimes Against Children Task Force with Assistant U.S. Attorney
Steve DeBrota, who I know works a lot with the center. And my
question is, how, when we have ICAC forces all around the
country, as well as maybe local jurisdictions have child
exploitation task forces, when kids come up in their
investigations and photos, but you don't know enough, you don't
know who the child is, or even where, you know, the crime is
taking place, how are the photos or the images of those
children shared with you so you can figure out if you have
information in your databases about what law enforcement is
looking at?
Mr. Ryan. That is a great question. Well, the--we get our
images from a number of sources. The principal one is our
CyberTipline, which, again, we have received over 2.6 million
reports, many of them do contain images of yet-to-be-identified
children. We populate our databases with those images, and
through the support of some of the technology companies, like
Google, and Facebook, and Microsoft, they help us with what we
call tools, visual aids that we can go through these reams of
images--there are millions in number--what are the common
links? Where have we seen that before? Because many times,
these images are part of a series, and some of the series may
be innocuous, benign images, but we have to match that up with
that elicit scene of that same child and we are able to do
that, but we are actually working now--the problem is this: We
cannot be a State actor. If we are a State actor, then we harm
law enforcement's prosecution of these cases which we make
referrals to. So we don't accept images from law enforcement.
We push out to law enforcement. Having said that, we have a
fairly robust and comprehensive inventory, or library so to
speak, because we are being fed by the largest ESPs.
Mrs. Brooks. Well, that is my concern about this, is that
you do have this huge database of images, and yet, it seems
that law enforcement and the cases would benefit and their
investigations would benefit if they were required to push the
image to you, you might be able to make the match.
Mr. Ryan. Well, they have access to ours. They have
access--and we coordinate through INTERPOL, so there are common
databases that have access points. But again, we have to
segregate what we receive from law enforcement to ensure it is
not tainted for potential Fourth Amendment challenges when
these cases are prosecuted.
Mrs. Brooks. Okay, I would like to talk to you about that a
bit further offline as to how we can help resolve some of this-
-
Mr. Ryan. Absolutely.
Mrs. Brooks.--because I think that your center and all of
these task forces, maybe we should talk about how they can work
in even closer cooperation. And I know, because I work on
emergency preparedness issues, that there are platforms where
Red Cross and where FEMA and others monitor Twitter feeds and
Facebook. Are you in a position, either working with Google,
Palantir, Facebook, where you are monitoring Twitter feeds and
Facebook maybe in geographic areas to try to find out what is
going on in some communities?
Mr. Ryan. Well, we don't monitor, but we do have links and
both through the--all of the companies that you mentioned, they
actually partner with us, provide access to their software
applications and, more importantly, their audiences, in the
case of Google, and Facebook. So we have an active dialogue
through all of those social media applications. We don't
monitor them, per se. We encourage an active engagement,
though.
Mrs. Brooks. Are you familiar though with what I am talking
about, that FEMA and Red Cross actually monitor for maybe
public health outbreaks or, you know, after emergencies, cries
for help, and so forth?
Mr. Ryan. Sure. We actually partner with FEMA, because as
you know, Congress has designated the National Center as a
national relocation center when children go missing in a mass
disaster. And so we work closely in establishing protocols with
FEMA and the Red Cross in the event of a potential crisis. So
we kind of piggyback on their resources, and programs, and they
bring us in when they see the need.
Mrs. Brooks. Thanks so much for your incredible help, and I
am interested in learning if there are any legal impediments
that you have to work even closer with law enforcement.
Mr. Ryan. I look forward to that dialogue. Thank you.
Chairman Rokita. The gentlelady's time has expired.
The gentleman from Kentucky is not on the subcommittee,
but, without objection, I would like to recognize him for a
line of questioning, if he would like, regarding this matter.
Mr. Guthrie?
Mr. Guthrie. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate it very
much for allowing me to do so.
I am over on this side of the room. Good to see you again.
Yeah, good to see you.
Mr. Ryan. Did somebody come in?
Mr. Guthrie. Yeah, somebody came. I apologize, I am not on
the subcommittee, so I am down here, but I think they just had
a new Member come in, so I apologize for that.
But before I get to what I was going to ask, on the
question of not requiring to report, there are only two States
required to report. That is reporting to law enforcement,
right? They have to report that if they have somebody in their
foster care who leaves their foster care, they report it to
social services or somebody, I am sure, right? Or they just
don't have any reporting at all?
Mr. Ryan. That may be the case. It varies by State. But I
am referring specifically to reporting to law enforcement.
Mr. Guthrie. Okay, that is what I thought.
And I was in the Center, and I did the authorization last
year and, you know, it shows that when we find common ground in
the House and the Senate we can work together. Senator Leahy
and I were the primary sponsors of your reauthorization, and so
I came to tour the Center. And I recommend it to all my
colleagues, to do that.
And the techniques that you have to go through to find,
one, who the child is in the image and who the person is
creating the image who we want to find is interesting, how you
do that, and it is something we need to know, and it certainly
is a skill and an ability. It is something needed, because
there are things going on in this world most people can't even
get their minds around that happens.
And the issue with me, I am from Bowling Green, Kentucky,
and this always happens in the big city, you think, and so when
we are home working in August, I am trying to highlight the
fact this does happen everywhere, anywhere that has a computer.
It is just not somebody out on the street or so forth. So we
are going to try to do roundtables or conferences in different
parts of my city.
What kind of things do you think, just advice for us, we
should make sure people know are going on in their communities?
Because you see it everywhere. You see what is happening. What
kind of things do you think people don't know, in general, that
they need to know about what is probably happening in their
community?
Mr. Ryan. One of the most prevalent venues where these
minors are being trafficked are in local hotels. Now,
typically, you know, people aren't paying attention to who is
coming and going in these hotels, but those who are in the
business of operating hotels, they are in a position to take
notice of the behavioral characteristics consistent with this
trafficking.
For instance, many times, a pimp will come in with three,
sometimes five young girls. The girls will be off to the
corner; the pimp will go in and make the arrangements for three
to five rooms, it might be for a 3-day period, typically cash.
These girls will go up to their rooms. They will never leave
their rooms. Food will be delivered. Nobody sees them again
until they leave.
That is strange. What is going on? Why is that pimp hanging
around? Why is he walking the hallways, you know, 24/7?
Something is going on that is inconsistent with the regular
routine of the trade of that hotel.
And I am not just talking about the very small, seedy
hotel. I am talking about very well-known, you know, reputable
brands.
Mr. Guthrie. Chain hotels. Yeah, my home is exit 22, and I-
65 is, like, it is right there, and so every chain that you
know that has a--
Mr. Ryan. It is every chain.
Mr. Guthrie.--you know, it is there.
Mr. Ryan. And what I invite people to do, and I say this
with some degree of reluctance, but if you want to see the
scope of the problem in your own neighborhood, go to a back
page, because they promote ads in communities, in towns. It is
not just cities, but they break it down, you know, into
counties, into boroughs, into communities. So if they are
advertising your area in an adult escort service, that means
you have a problem. A child, if not multiple children, are
being exploited in that area.
Mr. Guthrie. If I could privately reach out to you--I know
Ms. Brooks is going to--and just get those ideas of what you
think we should present. I didn't think about inviting hotel
owners to come to a roundtable, but that sounds like--
Mr. Ryan. Also tourism.
Mr. Guthrie. Or a tourism group.
Mr. Ryan. You know, these young girls--there are some boys,
but mostly it is young girls--they are being trafficked from
State to State, so how are they getting to and from? Many
times, they are flying, but then they are getting into cabs.
We have had many reports; law enforcement gets reports.
They see the same young girls over the course of a month, 2
months, come through their area, go to the same hotels, go
back, you know, at some point to the same.
There are a lot of eyes and ears in different sectors who,
if they are properly educated, alerted, who can they call?
Typically, it is going to be law enforcement. They can get to
the bottom of this and do incredibly good work.
Mr. Guthrie. Thank you. Appreciate that.
I yield, and thank you for the time, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Rokita. The gentleman's time has expired.
I will now recognize the gentleman from--Mr. Sablan for 5
minutes.
Mr. Sablan. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
And welcome, Mr. Ryan.
And while looking at this map of registered sex offenders
in the Northern Marianas--I mean, throughout the country, we
see--we are grateful, one, that we are included in the map,
because usually the territories are, for some reason, excluded.
But I want to welcome you and tell you a little story,
also, about, you know, our island and the district I come from.
One morning in May of 2011, there was the tragedy of two
missing sisters, actually, that fell hard upon our community.
Maleina, who was 9 years old, and Faloma, who was age 10, were
last seen at their bus stops as they were on their way to
school. And law enforcement authorities were notified that the
young girls were missing only after the sisters failed to
return home from school that afternoon, and so there was that
gap of time that was lost.
But I want to thank your organization, sir, in particular,
Maureen Heads and Bob Hoever, for working with our office to
ensure that we were included in the information in this map
that we have before us.
And it has been 3 years since the girls have not been
found. There have been leads, according to law enforcement
officials, but the girls remain missing and there have been no
arrests. And we have not forgotten, the entire Northern
Marianas community have not forgotten about Maleina and Faloma,
and we continue to pray for their safe return. And I hope that
your organization, NCMEC, we can still find them alive and
unhurt.
But under the reauthorization, the 2013 reauthorization,
your organization is required to include local educational
agencies, or LEAs, on information, services, programs, and
resources for missing and exploited children. If we could be of
any assistance to your organization in connecting you to our
school officials, we would be very - more than happy to do
that.
But I need to ask, if you could tell me if you have reached
out to our LEAs, our public school system. And if you did, what
can you share with me as a result from your coordination with
them?
Mr. Ryan. Congressman, I have to look into that to see if
there has been direct contact.
I know that our case managers, on the case that you
reference, for instance, would be in touch with the law
enforcement investigators, because one of the things we do and
are doing in cases like that, we--two things to keep that case
alive in, you know, the efforts of law enforcement: We do an
age progression, which we do every year, and we release that
and update that to law enforcement and all our poster
distribution partners. So that should be going on within your
respective district.
And the other thing we do is a comprehensive, what we call,
actually, an anniversary campaign. So, every 2 years, we will
disseminate stories about, in this case, those two young girls
who went missing, again, to try to generate a lead and a tip to
come in. Because, you know, as people's memories fade, if you
keep the story in front of them--
Mr. Sablan. Yeah.
Mr. Ryan.--they may remember that one crucial piece of
evidence that they may not have thought important a year or 2
ago, but now, in context, they will call.
Mr. Sablan. Right.
Mr. Ryan. So we are doing that, I can tell you that.
Mr. Sablan. Yeah. And the reason I am offering to help your
organization hook up with our public school officials, for
example, is, from just the information that we have been able
to receive from those law enforcement authorities, the time
since the girls were last seen at the bus stop and the time
that law enforcement authorities were notified, those were,
according to some people, very important, very critical time
that would have been very useful in probably solving the crime.
And, unfortunately, you know, the authorities were not notified
until the girls didn't come home from school.
I understand that the authorities were not informed when
the girls did not report to school. And I know that some of our
school officials have changed the system and have updated, but
we need your cooperation, sir.
Mr. Ryan. Sure.
Mr. Sablan. And I would be willing to connect you with her
if you have not made any contact or any coordination.
Mr. Ryan. We will definitely follow up, Congressman.
Mr. Sablan. We need your assistance in getting our school
officials up to date on what are the basic things or what are
the important things they need to do to keep the children safe,
you know, so we don't repeat this whole thing again.
My time is up, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Ryan. Absolutely.
Chairman Rokita. I thank the gentleman.
The gentleman's time has expired. I would note for the
record the gentleman is from the Northern Mariana Islands. The
chair's ignorance of the two-letter postal abbreviation, that
caused the confusion in introducing him.
The chair recognizes himself for 5 minutes.
Mr. Ryan, thank you again.
My blood boils, at the beginning when you gave that brief
example about how a child could be delivered to a hotel room as
easily as ordering a pizza. As a father of a 6-year-old and 4-
year-old, you know, if I saw that gentleman, I don't know if I
could contain myself. I would probably be in jail right
alongside of him for battery, if not worse.
You came from the Internet business, if I looked at your
bio right. You worked for AOL. This has nothing to do with AOL,
but I am just trying to establish a record here. Something
along the way, your career led you to this position now, after
working on the Jerry Sandusky scandal, or the aftermath of it.
You mentioned at the beginning of your testimony that the
world is a different place, and you immediately transitioned to
the Internet. Did the Internet cause this? Did the Internet
enable this? Is this world a different place because of the
deterioration of society generally? Or were these people--I am
struggling for my Christianity here--have these people always
been here and with us in our society?
I am not asking you--you are not a psychologist, you are
not a--I want your personal opinion.
Mr. Ryan. I think the Internet clearly has opened up
opportunities that did not exist that facilitates the
commission of these traditional crimes. I mean, there were
always predators. The modus operandi, though, has changed
online.
Because when you think about it, now the Internet provides
a global platform. It provides the ability for a predator to
so-called groom a potential victim. Because through all the
information that is imparted on different social media sites, a
predator will glean that information and then turn that around
and target an individual. They will know the name, the school
they go to, their activities, their friends. So when they start
the dialogue with a potential victim, that victim feels, oh,
this is a peer, they know me, they are just like me. Their
guard is down.
That is what the Internet has encouraged and enhanced. And
it has made the apprehension of these predators more difficult
for law enforcement, because, you know, they can operate under
the radar, so to speak.
So it has caused, I use the term ``explosion'' of these
offenses, because these predators have additional tools, they
have the ability to, you know, stay undetected, and they have
much more opportunity to target a larger pool of potential
victims.
Chairman Rokita. Regarding the Internet, do you have any
solutions for companies, anything that you haven't mentioned
yet, short of censoring or--
Mr. Ryan. Well, a lot of companies--
Chairman Rokita.--you know, that you want to get on record?
Mr. Ryan. Absolutely. At AOL, we employed what we called
parental filters. You enable parents to restrict the level of
access that children have on the Internet, and it requires a
partnership.
Chairman Rokita. What about those kids that don't have
parents, effectively, the ones that might be going to the
social worker that was brought up in earlier questioning and
that sort of thing?
Mr. Ryan. It enhances the problem, but, you know, whoever
is entrusted with the care and guardianship of that child,
whether it be a social worker or even a teacher during that
school day, they have to be that responsible person who, if
they are providing access to the Internet, which all schools do
now, they have to take on the added responsibility to know
where they are allowing that child to navigate and what tools
and filters are in place.
Chairman Rokita. Thank you.
In the time I have left, you mentioned several times the
committee being well-situated, quote/unquote, to help develop
the partnerships. Can you give more detail on what you mean by
that?
I would just as soon you develop the partnerships. Don't
wait on this committee or Congress or anything else; go forth
and do this work.
Mr. Ryan. Well, for instance, we have had the ability, in
this past year alone, since we engaged and got more familiar,
you know, educating this committee about our work, and,
frankly, we have learned more about your mission and charter,
which has been extremely helpful. We have worked with the staff
members in terms of their work to try to help identify
legislative measures that could address some of the challenges
that are emerging.
Just prior to this conference, this testimony, I was
engaged with a very, you know, excellent dialogue with a staff
member, just talking about what we are seeing, what are some of
your challenges, and where that intersection may be, what fixes
you are thinking about, and what is our take--a dialogue. I
found that a dialogue by interested stakeholders is more likely
to end up with a mutual solution, that if you don't have that
dialogue, you are flying blind.
Chairman Rokita. Okay. Thank you. My time has expired.
I will now recognize the ranking member for any closing
remarks.
Mr. Loebsack. Well, thank you, Mr. Chair.
I just appreciate the fact that we have had you here today,
Mr. Ryan. I have learned quite a lot.
I, too, would like to just associate myself with the
remarks of our chair about how enraged I think we all are when
we hear some of the things that we have heard today. I think
that just leads us all to want to go forth and make sure we do
everything we can to cooperate with you to minimize these
issues that are out there, if not eliminate them entirely.
And I do agree, too, that the role of the Internet, no
doubt, has been really important in magnifying the problem,
multiplying the problem, perhaps, in many instances, too.
So thank you for being here today.
And I want to thank the chair again for having this
hearing. Thank you.
Mr. Ryan. Thank you, sir.
Chairman Rokita. Mr. Ryan, thank you again for being here.
We really appreciate your leadership, appreciate your
commitment to this country and our kids. We join you in that
effort. And we look forward to continuing our relationship and
that dialogue you spoke of and doing everything we can so that
families can build better lives for themselves.
And, with that, seeing no further business before the
subcommittee, the subcommittee stands adjourned.
Mr. Ryan. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
[Questions submitted for the record and their responses
follow:]
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[Mr. Ryan's response to questions submitted for the record]
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[Whereupon, at 11:18 a.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]
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