Tim Tebow says it's 'more important than ever' to fight human trafficking, child exploitation
Former college football star Tim Tebow appeared on "Fox News Live" on Sunday and talked about his fight against child exploitation and human trafficking.
Tim Tebow fought hard to help the Florida Gators win national championships on the football field. But the toughest battle of his life has come on the front lines of the human trafficking fight.
Tebow appeared on "Fox News Live" on Sunday and said that the present is "more important than ever" to help fight human trafficking and child exploitation.
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"We've been in this fight for over 10 years, since my dad was overseas and was able to purchase the freedom of four little girls," the Heisman Trophy winner said. "And I just knew that day that I was called to fight for the most vulnerable. And that's what we're trying to do.
"And we're fortunate to be able to do that. And just over 90 countries around the world … fight for the MVPs, the world's most vulnerable people. But specifically, this campaign that we're talking about today is for those boys and girls that are being exploited and being abused … many times in their own home."
The former Denver Broncos quarterback gave some startling statistics about child sex abuse.
"In the last 12 months, there have been over 500,000 unique IP addresses that have downloaded and shared child sexual abuse material," Tebow said. "And we know, on average, that 55 to 85% of those that are downloading and sharing it are also hands-on offenders. That means that there's hundreds of thousands of boys and girls that are being abused, that are being hurt, that are being exploited, and we have to do something against it.
"Your average offender has 13 victims. That means there are so many boys and girls that we have to protect. You know, we're calling this campaign ‘unknown and unfinished’ because we started it last year as unknown. But we're unfinished because there are so many boys and girls that we haven't got to. Yes, we made progress with our partners and nonprofit and law enforcement, but there's so many more that we have to get to."
The Tim Tebow Foundation works with law enforcement in hopes of bringing the abusers to justice. Tebow and the foundation worked with Homeland Security Investigations on "Operation Renewed Hope2," a three-week "surge" of investigations into child abuse in 2023.
The foundation said it located "311 probable identifications of previously unknown victims, including 14 positive contacts and confirmed the rescue of several victims from active abuse."
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