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DENVER – The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) is sounding the alarm over a surge in financial sextortion schemes that are targeting teenage boys at unprecedented levels, often with devastating consequences.
Callahan Walsh, son of child safety advocates John and Revé Walsh and a key leader at NCMEC, says the surge in cases is unlike anything they’ve seen.
“We saw a massive shift in sextortion after COVID,” Walsh told Fox News Digital. “Teenage boys were now being targeted at a much higher rate for financial gain, often by overseas criminal enterprises.”
These predators often pose as peers on gaming platforms and social media apps, Walsh explained, luring boys into sharing explicit images. The second a photo is sent, the blackmail begins.
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“The threat is real and it’s relentless. The message is: pay up or we expose you to your school, your family, your entire online world,” Walsh said.
During a Sept. 16 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., emphasized the urgency of addressing sextortion and online exploitation of minors, calling it a crisis that demands a more “targeted approach.”
“We need answers. I want to talk about child sexual exploitation,” Britt said, thanking FBI Director Kash Patel for making child protection a top priority. “We know that that is the greatest gift that we have. That is our greatest treasure here in the United States — the next generation. And finally, we have an FBI director that is putting that at the top of his list.”
Britt, who noted she is raising teenagers herself, described the toll sextortion is taking on American families. “I have had a number of parents sit in front of me telling me terrible, heartbreaking stories about their children ultimately taking their own life because of being blackmailed,” she said.
Patel acknowledged the severity of the problem. “That is a problem that we are seeing explode on generative AI and private sector and social media companies,” he testified.
Citing alarming data from the NCMEC, Patel warned: “They have seen a 1,325% increase in generative AI leading to sextortion and child sexual abuse.”
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The FBI, Patel said, has stepped up its response through operations under its Violent Crimes Against Children initiative, noting that agents had arrested 1,500 child predators and 300 human traffickers, while identifying and saving 4,700 children in the past year.
“We arrested 400 individuals in one month,” he added, calling it evidence of “a mission that our agents and intel analysts have never left.”
NCMEC, founded after the 1981 abduction and murder of 6-year-old Adam Walsh, now runs the nation’s CyberTipline, which received over 36 million reports of suspected child sexual exploitation in 2023 alone.
“Obviously, our number one goal is to analyze those reports, try to find out who are these children that are being exploited and fight back against it, and recover those children and find the perpetrator,” Walsh continued.
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The organization is currently working on approximately 30,000 active missing-child cases, a scale Walsh says requires cutting-edge tools, robust data analysis, and unwavering public support.
“We’ve helped recover over 480,000 missing children since our inception,” he said.
Founded in a Florida garage with “a card table and a landline,” NCMEC, which was originally named “The Adam Walsh Center,” now leverages high-tech tools like digital billboards, social media campaigns, genetic genealogy, and real-time analytics to help law enforcement identify and locate missing children faster than ever before.
“DNA is the fingerprint of the 21st century… and it’s revolutionizing the way we find missing kids,” Walsh noted.
One of NCMEC’s current battles isn’t just against predators – it’s against misinformation.
“You do not have to wait 24 hours to report a missing child. Call law enforcement immediately,” Walsh emphasized.
He also urges the public to rethink how they talk about “runaways.”
“That label can hide grooming or abuse. These kids may be in the custody of a predator and those cases deserve to be taken seriously.”
The organization relies on both federal funding and private donations, but Walsh emphasized that greater action is needed from lawmakers and technology platforms.
“We need the tech industry and Congress to keep the lights on,” he said. “These aren’t just statistics – they’re kids, families, and futures on the line.”
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Still, Patel cautioned that law enforcement alone cannot solve the problem. “That cannot be countermanded by the FBI alone,” he said. “We need help from social media companies. We need help from the private sector and the internet service providers that allow this generative AI to be hosted on their platforms. We have got to get a resolution on that with our partners in Congress, in the private sector.”
Britt pledged to continue working with the FBI and her Senate colleagues to bring an end to sextortion, framing it as a national emergency requiring coordination, urgency, and new tools.
“What are you doing to protect children and specifically sextortion?” she demanded, underscoring the hearing’s central question.
Walsh, who now co-hosts “America’s Most Wanted” with his father, says the pain of his brother Adam’s loss continues to drive NCMEC’s mission.
“We always said we need to make sure Adam didn’t die in vain. And if his song is to continue that, we must do the singing. We try to do that every day,” Walsh said about keeping his brother’s legacy alive.
“Adam’s disappearance changed the way we look for and protect children in America,” he continued. “Every child deserves a safe childhood.”
When asked about his goals for the coming years, Walsh smiled and said he hoped to one day be out of a job.
“I would love to say every missing child’s been found. There’s not going to be any more missing children. And we’ve eradicated exploitation online. That’s our goal,” Walsh shared. “We want to put ourselves out of a job. Unfortunately, we’re not there yet, and I don’t know if that’s going to happen in 5 or 10 years, but we’re trying, and we really look towards the tech industry to help us with that.”
For more information or to report a tip, visit missingkids.org or call 1-800-THE-LOST.
Stepheny Price covers crime, including missing persons, homicides and migrant crime. Send story tips to [email protected].
