U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz and former NFL quarterback Tim Tebow on Thursday unveiled a renewed international effort to combat online child exploitation, bringing together government officials, law enforcement leaders and anti-human trafficking advocates to strengthen cooperation against predators operating across borders. The initiative, announced at an event in New York, aims to enhance global collaboration in rescuing exploited children, dismantling trafficking networks and prosecuting offenders.
Tebow, speaking exclusively to Fox News Digital after the event, warned parents that the threat is not confined to distant countries or obscure corners of the internet. “It's happening in their backyard,” he said, urging families to remain engaged with their children's digital activities. He compared unprotected online access to “dropping them off at a playground knowing that pedophiles are circling that playground. You would never do it.”
The event highlighted how the United States is partnering with nations worldwide to address the growing crisis of online child exploitation. Officials pointed to recent international operations, new funding from Congress and a U.S.-led United Nations resolution targeting online sextortion as key steps in the fight. Waltz emphasized that child exploitation criminals operate across borders, making a global response essential. “The United States is leading the charge to combat child exploitation in partnership with civil society groups like the Tim Tebow Foundation,” he said during the event.
Tebow described online child exploitation as “one of the worst evils in the world,” noting that predators constantly seek vulnerabilities to exploit young victims. “There are so many predators online that are looking for a vulnerability and an access to a boy or girl so that they can exploit, so that they can lure, so that they can groom, so that they can sextort,” he said. He stressed that the problem requires an international response as global as the threat itself, adding, “Right now, children around the world are being harmed, and we cannot look away. No child should be invisible, and no predator should be able to hide.”
When asked whether some countries are refusing to cooperate with U.S. investigations, Waltz said the larger challenge is that many nations lack the legal tools and investigative resources needed to pursue child exploitation cases. “I don't know that there's countries refusing to cooperate,” Waltz said. “But what I can tell you, there's countries all over the world where they don't have the laws on the books that make these things a crime. They don't have the extradition treaties. They don't have the prosecutors or the investigators that know how to handle the electronic evidence in the right way.” He added that U.S. agencies and United Nations partners are working to help countries strengthen those capabilities through training and international cooperation.
Waltz also argued that migration and human trafficking remain closely linked, saying vulnerable girls are often exploited by criminal organizations during migration routes. Tebow added that investigators around the world continue to face enormous challenges identifying victims because offenders deliberately work to avoid detection. “When we also talk about this, there are so many places that are underfunded, under-equipped, and it does take some training and understanding of what is happening online so we can best use victim identification,” Tebow said. “Those victim identification specialists really are specialists. They're incredible at what they're doing because those that are performing this evil, they're not trying to get caught. So it takes really special people to be able to understand, to find them and then bring them to justice. More importantly, bring that kid into freedom.”
The collaboration between the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, the Tim Tebow Foundation and international law enforcement partners is intended to strengthen cross-border efforts to combat child exploitation through expanded cooperation, technology and coordinated investigations. The initiative builds on recent U.S. actions, including a United Nations resolution targeting online sextortion and increased funding from Congress for anti-trafficking programs. Officials said the effort will focus on training local law enforcement, improving victim identification and ensuring that predators cannot hide behind national borders.
Tebow urged parents to take advantage of online safety tools and remain vigilant, emphasizing that the threat is pervasive and requires constant attention. “If it's unprotected, it's similar to dropping them off at a playground knowing that pedophiles are circling that playground,” he reiterated. The former NFL star, who has long been an advocate against human trafficking through his foundation, said the fight against child exploitation is a moral imperative that demands action from governments, communities and families alike.
