Former Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Tim Tebow dug into Congress on March 3, making an impassioned speech regarding child sex trafficking.
He opened up by speaking on unidentified victims of online child sexual abuse. Tebow noted that just two years ago, that number was estimated to be around 20,000, but investigative partnerships through the Tim Tebow Foundation, found that that number was grossly underestimated, with more than 57,000 children yet to be identified.
‘Every day, [these children] are praying that we are going to respond,’ said Tebow. ‘But how are we going to respond?’
Tebow’s testimony mostly hinged on child exploitation in digital spaces, asking the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism to find gaps in their federal investigation systems in order to more accurately assess child trafficking crimes.
You can watch Tebow’s full testimony here.
How did Congress respond to Tebow’s statements?
The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism is led by Senator Josh Hawley. Hawley has long backed Tebow’s statements. In December 2025, he called child trafficking a ‘scourge on our society.’
Hawley was one of the first people to challenge the subcommittee to change how it looks for these crimes.
Hawley said that what the government currently lacks to attack child trafficking is funding and the capacity to identify victims. He said, ‘These are children who our government could identify and rescue if we had the will and the resources to do it.’
Vice president of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children’s Analytical Services Division, Staca Shehan, claimed that her organization had received more than 21 million reports of child sexual exploitation in 2025, with more than 61 million pieces of media covering said reports.
What does Tim Tebow’s foundation do?
The Tim Tebow Foundation works in several areas, but particularly in anti-human trafficking/child exploitation, having assisted in rescuing more than 3,500 survivors of child sexual exploitation, per their website.
The foundation operates in 60 countries with 46 safe houses worldwide for abused children.
The company’s stated mission is to ‘bring faith, hope, and Love to those needing a brighter day in their darkest hour of need.’