Issue 60

In the final issue of 2024, we review AATTAP’s work with U.S. territories and other countries dedicated to safeguarding their children. We highlight the rescue of two boys in Texas—a case assisted by the revolutionary new geolocator tool, what3words. (We also tell you what you need to know about the technology—and share our partners’ takes on it.) We turn a spotlight on Volusia County, Florida, where Sheriff’s Deputy Wes Brough’s dramatic water rescue of a boy with autism underscores the need to act with urgency. And we share important child protection headlines from the U.S., Indian Country, and around the world.

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Features

Young hands holding a globe / photo illustration

A World of Good

More than 236 million citizens in U.S. territories and other countries benefit from AATTAP collaboration. The need for AMBER Alerts [..]

AI-generated photo illustration of two boys in a swampy forest using a cell phone to find help

Finding the Right Words

With every minute precious in [..]

Photo showing Volusia County, Florida, Sheriff's Deputy Wes Brough during the water rescue of a boy with autism.

Moving With a Purpose

Sheriff’s Deputy Wes Brough’s dramatic [..]

U.S. Briefs

U.S. Marshals rescue 200 missing children

Calling it one of his agency’s “most sacred missions,” U.S. Marshals Service Director Ronald L. Davis vowed that recovering the nation’s critically missing children will remain a top priority. His comment came on the heels of a nationwide operation that recovered 200 missing children, including endangered runaways and those abducted by noncustodial parents, deemed at [..]

AI could become ‘playground for online predators’

The growing use of generative artificial intelligence (GAI) is raising concerns about the dangers it poses to child safety, with the Internet Watch Foundation calling it a potential “playground for online predators.” Pedophiles and bad actors are using GAI to manipulate child sexual abuse material (CSAM), with a child’s face transplanted onto the footage, or [..]

Kentucky enacts alert for children with autism

The tragic story of a 9-year-old boy with autism who drowned after running away from a children’s home has led to a new missing child alert in Kentucky. The “lan Alert,” named after Ian Sousis who died in 2022, is designed to help quickly and safely recover missing autistic children through a notification system comparable [..]

Indian Country Briefs

Two senators introduce bill to ease Tribal law enforcement access to electronic evidence

Tribal courts could soon have easier access to electronic evidence such as emails and social media messages in criminal cases—a move that would be beneficial, among other things, in Internet crimes against children investigations. U.S. Senators Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada and Mike Rounds of South Dakota introduced the bipartisan Tribal Access to Electronic Evidence [..]

U.S. Justice Department in process of building partnerships to address MMIW crisis

Saying that there is “still so much more to do,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland vowed to continue prioritizing efforts to combat the Missing or Murdered Indigenous Persons (MMIP) crisis. Initiatives include the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) MMIP Regional Outreach Program which places attorneys and coordinators in regions across the U.S. to help [..]

Arizona motorcycle group shines light on missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls

Indigenous female motorcyclists continue to rev up their engines—as well as their messaging—to raise awareness about the high rate of missing and murdered girls and women in Native American communities. This past July, the Medicine Wheel Ride motorcycle group from Phoenix partnered with the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians in Santa Barbara County, California, [..]

International Briefs

Legal red tape keeps missing children in UK

Legal red tape is preventing two Israeli children from returning home until the end of the year or longer. In July, the Jewish Chronicle reported that a 12-year-old girl was sent to the UK alone by her mother; her 9-year-old brother arrived a year earlier to live with a family friend in Leeds. The girl, [..]

El Salvador war babies search for families

During the Salvadoran Civil War in the early 1980s, babies and young children were regularly seized by the army during anti-guerrilla operations, some taken by soldiers directly from their parents. Others were discovered in hiding places, apparently left behind as their families fled, and later given away for adoption. The nongovernmental organization Pro-Busqueda has helped [..]

Investigation: Cartels exploiting migrant children

European cocaine gangs are torturing and raping unaccompanied African child migrants to control and force them into the country’s expanding cocaine trade, according to an investigation by the British newspaper The Guardian. Some of the most dangerous criminal networks recruit vulnerable children to exploit for trafficking—a tactic that helps the networks evade prosecution and protect [..]

AI partnership finds 110 child sex abuse victims

The International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (ICMEC) and Clearview AI conducted an operation in Ecuador this past spring that resulted in locating and positively identifying 110 previously unknown child sexual abuse victims. The operation, held in Ecuador and hosted by ICMEC, used Clearview AI’s facial recognition technology as a main resource. Argentina, Chile, [..]

AMBER Advocate Magazine