AMBER Advocate Magazine

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 high risk for danger. The May-June “Operation We Will Find You 2,” the second of its kind, brought together federal, state, and local agencies; the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) provided technical assistance. The search led to the recovery and removal of 123 children from dangerous situations. An additional 77 missing children were found to be in safe locations. NCMEC President and CEO Michelle DeLaune said the effort is a “shining example of the results we can achieve when we unite in our mission to find missing children.”

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 to create deepfake sexually explicit videos using an innocent photo of a real child. IWF expects more—and higher quality—CSAM videos to emerge as the technology grows. The group is pushing for controls, such as making it illegal to create guides on generating AI-made CSAM. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children is also pushing for updates in federal and state laws pertaining to GAI CSAM. Additionally, AI-made CSAM is reportedly overwhelming law enforcement’s ability to identify and rescue real-life victims.

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 to the AMBER Alert. Children with autism are drawn to water and face drowning as the leading cause of death. The new alert will cover gaps between other alerts and use the same system as the AMBER Alert. Kentucky Emergency Management has been developing policies for implementation after Governor Andy Beshear signed the alert into law. “This is another tool in the toolbox,” said Lieutenant Phillip Ridgell of the Boone County Sheriff’s Department.

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 Act as a way to give Tribal courts equitable access and better equip them to deliver justice for victims. “We know that criminals are using online tools to traffic drugs and commit other crimes in Indian Country,” Cortez Masto said. “What we also know is that Tribal courts struggle to get electronic evidence because tech companies won’t honor those Tribal warrants.” Rounds added that it’s important that Tribal law enforcement is able to do its job “without the federal government getting in the way.”

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 prevent and respond in MMIP cases. And during a visit to the Crow Indian Reservation in Montana, Garland announced that, based on the Not Invisible Act Commission’s recommendations, DOJ is working to improve funding, enhance research to better trace underlying causes, and develop guidance on engaging the public when someone is reported missing. “Tribal communities deserve safety, and they deserve justice,” Garland said in highlighting some of the efforts on National Missing or Murdered Indigenous Persons Awareness Day in May. “This day challenges all of us at the Justice Department to double down on our efforts, and be true partners with Tribal communities.”

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, for a “We Ride for Her” event. Organized through the Santa Ynez Tribal Health Clinic, the event featured a screening of the “We Ride for Her” documentary highlighting the motorcycle group’s work, which includes fundraising, assisting advocates searching for missing Native American girls and women, and raising awareness through annual rallies and rides. The Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians remains the only federally recognized Chumash Tribe in the nation.

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, who is staying in a hostel in London, has now claimed asylum in the UK. Officials in both countries are working to repatriate the children but have been hampered by international law governing minors. Additionally, asylum cases can take years to resolve, according to the Israeli Ministry of Social Affairs. The children’s case remains under police investigation and Chief Inspector Avi Rosh of Tel Aviv District Police said he expects to charge the mother with neglect of a minor and abandoning a minor.

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 locate 400 children since its founding in 1994 and is still searching for as many as 500 others reported missing during the 12-year war.

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 their core members. The newspaper’s investigation reported that thousands of migrant children could be involved. An investigation by the journalist collective Lost in Europe found that nearly 47 unaccompanied child migrants vanish each day after arriving in Europe, totaling tens of thousands in the past three years.