well good morning I want to thank everybody for being here today and especially to Tim TBO for Lending his voice and advocating for the most vulnerable of our citizens we all know that the internet is a an incredible contribution to our society share photos information conduct a business but it also can be exploited by those who would use to use it to Target and be Predators on uh against our children we know that the uh the child sexual abuse is a epidemic the national Center for missing and exploited children more than doubled those reports more than doubled between 2019 and 2023 and it's not just here in the United States no child should be the subject of online sexual exploitation and abuse today we're here to introduce the renewed hope act which would enhance the government's capacity to identify rescue and protect kids and bring perpetrators to Justice this bill would equip ice Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security investigations with greater resources and more training and new and advanced victim identification methods so again I'm grateful to be here with all of my colleagues in a bipartisan bamal effort and again want to thank Tim TBO for Lending his celebrity to uh do good it's uh really really impressive and I'm grateful to him for that but I hope this uh is just the next step in working together to stop on online child abuse and to get Justice for victims Richard I'm Richard Blumenthal United States senator from Connecticut having spent a good part of my life in law enforcement as the United States Attorney the chief Federal prosecutor in Connecticut as 20 years as attorney general as my colleague John Corin served as well and I want to join in thanking TBO for Lending his celebrity to this cause but it shouldn't take a celebrity to put this measure across the Finish Line America ought to be committed for square fully relentlessly to stopping the scourge of child sexual abuse material in the course of these last 10 20 years of the internet I have met had hundreds of parents loved ones whose children's lives have been decimated and sometimes lost because of this Scourge the internet can be a great force for good but we've seen again and again and again how it can be mely and maliciously exploited these images of children the exploitation of them and the loss of them is absolutely unacceptable I just want to give you a few numbers from the global study of what child sexual abuse material actually depicts 84% have depicted the actual sexual assault of a child 56% have depicted children under 12 years old with 4% depicting infants and toddlers 47% depicted extreme abuse including sedom masochistic abuse these numbers are abstract and they failed to depict the true horror of this crime provid hiding resources to combat it giving law enforcement the tools the investigators the actual troops on the ground boots that can combat this Scourge I know as a former prosecutor absolutely necessary to deter and prosecute these cases we are doing here the bare minimum that we owe our children to stop this Scourge and I want to thank my colleagues in both the Senate and the house in both parties for stepping forward to send a message that we will stand strong thank you good afternoon everyone I'm congresswoman Laurel Lee and it is an incredible honor to be here today with my colleagues with Tim tibo uh and so many of you who are dedicated to ending the abuse of our children I too am a former Federal prosecutor and spent much of my career fighting to end the exploitation and abuse of children and what we stand here to do today is a vital part of ensuring that we meet the Contemporary needs of the men and women of law enforcement who are combating these sexual predators in recent years the proliferation of child sex abuse materials on the Internet or cesam has exploded the workforce that we presently have is working around the clock to try to find remove these images to try to prosecute predators and to try to protect our children but they need our help and they need additional resources we know know through operation renewed hope that when we get a dedicated group of professionals computer forensic analysts investigators the national Center for missing and exploited children when these groups join together they succeed their project yielded such important results and we saw that that collaboration was not only effective it absolutely identified victims helped protect children and is what we need to model for our future allocation of resources and so we are here today to support legislation that would ensure that Homeland Security investigators have the resources and the Personnel they need with the appropriate expertise and that their partnership with NEC Mech and other state and local law enforcement agencies and the FBI Can Be an Effective tool in meeting this Inc increased need this increased demand so that we stay ahead of these offenders it is no accident that today's bill is bipartisan and by Camal this is something that we all agree on and that we all support I want to particularly thank Tim tibo and the tibo foundation for shining a light on this incredibly important work these children that we are here today to advocate for are the voiceless and the vulnerable and together the TBO foundation and the members here are committed to ensuring that we give them that voice and that we provide the men and women of law enforcement the resources and the tools that they need to stop predators and to protect our children you so much I'm congresswoman Debbie werman Schultz I'm also vertically challenged um I want to thank my colleagues both senators and congresswoman Lee as well as Tim TBO um what you're seeing in front of you is a reconstitution of a team that has come together on both sides of the aisle on both sides of the capital repeatedly over the last nearly 20 years I'm proud to be the original author of The protect our children act which was legislation that where we finally were able to make sure sure that we put a process in place and ended the siloed nature of how investigations are conducted across the federal government we put the experts from inter agency task forces around the table we codified the internet crimes against children task forces into law and we made sure that they were able to get funded and and not have their funding be subject to the whims of of politics we know that there are hundreds of thousands of images across the internet embedded deep in the dark web and these are not what is commonly known as child pornography in the sense of the word that is normally meant these are crime scene photos every single one of these photos represents and and picts real children who are being horrifically abused and over the years we've been able to Senator cornan and I have been able to reauthorize uh different versions of the protect our children act and keep it in law make sure we provided resources to it and ensure that we even funded the original group of Heroes who were retired military who were veterans who were trained in forensic investigations to make sure that we had Specialists who were on the front lines investigating these horrific criminal acts and then had tool use those tools to be able to go after and find these perpetrators the renewed hope Act is going to allow us to put in more resources because this does require bodies it requires brains it requires human beings and we have to fortify our front line of of investigators who literally are the the first line of defense between the perpetrators and whether a child who is being victimized and abused by a perpetrator is rescued or not we don't have anywhere near the percentage of rescues that we could because we really aren't putting enough resources or Personnel on the battlefield and having Tim TBO here I've known for many years all the way back to when he was in college uh and the platform that the Tim TBO Foundation represents to add his celebrity to add his clout and to add his remarkable empathy is so incredibly important so we're going to get this done because every time this team comes together we're able to get this done our job has quite literally been to been to pick up the ball and run with it and move it down the field pun intended so that we because the further all the more yardage we get the more children we save thank you so much and I'd like to introduce the great Tim TBO thank good job thank you so much it really is such an honor to be here and not just because I'm standing next to two awesome Gators but because we're here for something so much more important than a game and that a game will ever be it really is humbling um there's a couple people that I'd love to thank and I'd love to start by thanking Camille Cooper from our team who has put so much work into this and been a part of fighting for people for a very long time that was the first clap of the day let's go yeah you can loosen up you can have a little fun with it and I also want to just thank Senator Corin for authoring this bill um thank you for um for stepping up and doing this and um congresswoman Debbie werman Schultz and Senator Blumenthal with Senator Corin I think the three of you guys have for the last 20 years done more to help fight and protect kids than almost anybody else that have walked these grounds and so I want to say thank you you've done it for a long time and Cong congresswoman Laura Lee I know your heart beats for these kids we've had many conversations and I know that your heart beats to want to protect every single one of these boys and girls and so it's my honor to be able to stand up here with the four of you um because I know that this matters that this isn't um about policies or politics it's about people it is about people it about every single one of those boys and girls it is about how can we Poss possibly get to as many of those boys and girls as possible so I'm honored to be able to stand up here you know five months ago we came and we had the opportunity to testify and kind front of Congress and and share our heart about what we believe is one of the worst evils in the world and that's the abuse of all of our boys and girls right here in our backyard and you just heard Senator Blumenthal share some of the Staggering statistics because sometimes people just think oh it's just a it's a photograph it's an image it's a video no it's not it's a boy or it's a girl it's a little boy or it's a little girl and we just need to to meditate for a second on some of the numbers that he mentioned 4.3% of those are infants little boys and girls that's over 2100 infants 47% of them are rap bondage torture beastiality it's not just images it's not just videos it's boys and girls that are in the worst moments of their life and then people are celebrating it medit ating on it focusing on it reliving it over and over and over again and you think well this isn't that bad why I just want to read one of the the chats recently of some of the offenders of what they were saying in a chat room and by the way this is also filtered so it can be a little bit more appropriate for today one of the offenders in the chat asked what the others were into next man replied he was mainly into five to niney olds NE said he was 60 and a very violent man and no isn't an option for him one of the offenders then said he has 20 terabytes of baby rape videos and if they DM him he would give them to him for a good price another offender confirmed and said he would show the others how to abuse his own kids and get away with it then another replied he has a daughter that he would love to share then the next replied when asked if his wife knew about his abuse the man said heck no it's our little secret though I am on the lookout for others as she is getting old now next responded how old is she the offender said eight that's what we're talking about here today that's why it's so important that's why we're we have to be urgent that's why it's so important that we're bipartisan that's why I'm so grateful that all of you would come together to fight for every single one of these boys and girls and we really believe that we're not just here today talking about one of the biggest problems but also giving a piece of the solution is it the whole solution I don't think so but is it a piece absolutely and we believe that this bill the renewed hope Act of 2024 is going to do four very crucial things it's going to build a bigger Rescue Team it's going to be able to allow C3 to bring in experts it's going to allow them to coordinate and deconflict and then it's allow the best victim identification training in all of the world and why would we not have the best training in all of the world because our boys and girls should matter that much to us I hope that they do and I believe that they do to the four of these in incredible men and women but you know when I I read that chat it hurts and I mourn and grieve a little bit when I read it but I also have hope because I know that we're being able to bring a piece of the solution here today and you know unfortunately many times people with a goal to do evil work better than people with a goal to do good I say that today with a heavy heart but you know I also believe here today that people with the goal to do good are working together in an incredible way and that gives me hope that gives me a lot of Hope today and you know I love what this bill is called renew renewed hope Act of 2024 and I love what renewed means to give someone the ability to flourish once more and man I hope from this bill from all of these incredible wh men and women that there would be so many lives that have the chance to flourish one more because we are willing to come together to put down our differences and to say for every single one of those boys and girls they're worth it to do whatever it takes however it takes whatever we got to do so that they could be protected so that they could be loved so that maybe they could experience the faith hope and love that they so desperately desperately deserve and desperately need because right now as we're talking they're crying so we better do more than talk we better act because they're waiting thank you guys so much and God bless yes sir is very important but you know those on social media the social media companies have such a tight grip here on Congress and they put so much money into this other issues such as section 230 and getting rid of that allowing these victims to be able [Music] to well you're right that we are continuing to struggle with what's the right balance holding the social media company is accountable for not policing their sites uh we passed two important pieces of legislation and sent them to President Biden just recently the the uh um children's online what do we call kids online safety act kids online safety act um and Kaa too Kaa and kosa I think we call them but uh the point is that's really just a down payment on a much bigger problem because it's not just social media platforms that we need to held accountable there's a lot of encrypted sites um that uh or encrypted means of communication where this information is transmitted back and forth that uh law enforcement can't get into because of the nature of encryption so this remains a work in progress and like Tim said we may not be doing everything but we are getting started uh but we still have a whole lot more work to do Richard was one of the main sponsors along with Marsha Blackburn and the Senate let me ask him to respond yeah I I have a very simple answer and it's an really important question uh and my answer is 91 to3 91 to3 that is the margin that we pass the kids online safety act bipartisan overwhelming support from my great colleague John cornin as well as from the vast majority who not only voted for it but joined as co-sponsors 70 members and still counting of the United States Senate co-spon despite the opposition of big Tech we can beat big Tech we can win the social media War for decency and children and the kids online safety act is a step in the right direction we're hoping our colleagues in the house will pass it very soon and te Tim TBO is absolutely right this bill is also a step by no means the total solution but a journey of a th000 miles begins with those kinds of steps and we can win against big Tech because their goal is money our goal is protecting children people will win over profit I would also add that just recently the report Act passed both Chambers and signed into law and that was a really critical step toward ensuring that big Tech and companies shared information that related to the abuse of children with neck Mech with law enforcement and that that information was preserved long enough that when law enforcement was conducting investigations and bringing cases it was there for them that too was a bipartisan byic cameal bill that has been signed into law and is one more step in our fight against the abuse of children I I do want to point out we what we're here to talk about today though is in spite of the lack of progress that we would all like to see about holding the social media companies accountable because we don't have to we're not at their Mercy we don't have to only rely on the social media company's willingness to compromise or our ability to move legislation that ensures that we can hold them accountable this legislation we can use our Appropriations process to provide the resources to pay for the training and the and the salaries of the actual investigators the renewed hope act makes sure that we can do all of that and none of that is related to the grace of the social media companies it's putting our army of investigators in homeland security and the coordination of that that effort to go after child sexual predators on the front lines and literally not doing it without with one hand behind our back because we don't have enough people we need human beings on the ground making sure actually in front of the computer screens with the training necessary to do the forensic investigations in spite of our lack of progress big Tech big Tech ought to support this Bill yes we CH let you know I think we challenge big Tech step forward do the right thing show where your hearts are you guys have children and you know about this Scourge you to be supporting this bill 100% join Tim TBO even if you don't care about us join Tim TBO and his foundation and advocating for this cause no doubt your celebrity status is moving this forward this is just a beginning but I have to ask you deal with this on a constant basis trying to help out these kids how do you keep class um I believe that's a really important question because we do um see a lot of evil and we have to fight against it but I also like the name of this bill so much I mentioned what renewed means but I also love what hope means and we use hope a lot of times in the sense of flipping a coin I hope it lands on heads but the biblical form of Hope means to look forward with confidence expectation and anticipation because we get to hold on to God's promises even in the midst of disappointment chaos tragedy um and hardship and and so you know what we want every single kid to be able to look um forward with confidence expectation and anticipation because they have real hope that's what this bill is that we could give kids the the hope that there's someone that is coming after them someone that wants to protect them someone that wants to love them someone that wants to be able to provide for them so that they can look forward with confidence expectation anticipation because tomorrow can be better than today and so that's something that um I believe um my faith helps give me every day is a hope because it's based on God's promises not un flipping a coin well I think what's important for us to consider today is two things first is the identification and rescue of children and that's one of the things that the group of members who are here today and the TBO Foundation are so focused on is never loing losing sight of the fact that these are real children these are real children in need of identification rescue we need to bring them home uh second as for the offenders and the types of penalties they face that's something that uh each state is left to decide for themselves it's an appropriate consideration for state legislators thanks everybody thank you a of one of the issues a lot of male victims are afraid to come forward because there's a stigma attached to male sexual abuse victims uh do you find that to be and is there a way you know um go go ahead Debbie I was just going to say I I really just want to make sure that we help people focus on what this bill is about this bill is about making sure we have enough investigators on the front lines to find the digital footprint of where these photographs are being traded and moved around the dark web and find the digital footprint so that the law enforcement officers can go and rescue that child who's in the midst of violent sexual abuse these are young children down to as young as infants um these are little boys and little girls who don't even have a voice they're not even at the stage and I'm so sorry for what you went through but um this is this is so much sooner than that this the entire focus of the renewed hope Act is to go after the bad guys perpetrating this rescue the children being victimized and then arrest the perpetrators and put them away for a very long time answer that um I just like to say I'm sorry for what you've went through um I I genuinely mean it I I'm sorry um one of the reasons why this is also so important is how do you tell I don't know nine or 10 years ago I was sitting with this thought mourning over it what do you tell a boy or girl when the person that's supposed to love them is the first person to sell them what do you tell someone what love looks like when their dad was the first person to abuse them and it's a very very hard conversation I want to say I'm sorry for for what you went through but there is a lot of boys and girls that are suffering at the hands of those that have been called with the responsibility to protect them out of the majority of these studies it looks like like around 80% of those that are abusing these boys and girls are doing it from their trusted Circle Mom Dad coach Pastor chaplain teacher babysitter someone in their trusted circle is doing this that's also why it's so important because who do you go to who does a boy or girl go to if they if the person they're supposed to trust is the person that's abusing them that's also why there is such an urgency with this because they have no one to go to no one to ask for help well guess what maybe we can give them someone that they can ask for help because maybe that person is going to show up on their front door and one of the stories that I want to share from operational renewed hope one was a girl that got rescued thank the Lord but in rescuing her in finding the perpetrator they found eight more kids and why that's so important is because we know that there's at least 50 at least 50 and this is just one database at least $50,000 boys and girls that are being abused but we don't even know all of the ones that are behind the camera we don't even know all the ones that we haven't that law enforcement hasn't been able to see yet and so it's more than the numbers that most people are are are um studying and guessing on it's more than that that's so many boys and girls and once again I want to say I'm sorry for what you've gone through yeah I I would Jo I would join in expressing are sympathy and let's be really honest shame and stigma are a continuing Challenge and you're coming forward demonstrates a lot of courage and strength and I thank you for it the burden should not be on the Survivor the burden is on us if we fail to provide law enforcement with the analysts the investigators the prosecutors they need to stop it we are complicit it's on us we can't put the burden on children to come forward they're too young and when they get old enough they're already burdened by the harm that they've suffered they shouldn't have to bear the burden of going through reporting it to law enforcement so I think that it really is on us that's why we're here thanks everyone thank you Tim thank you brother be well thank you see you again thanks