Tebow Urges Congress to Unite Behind Anti-Child Exploitation Bill: ‘We Are Losing the Battle’
Activist and former Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow on Tuesday urged lawmakers from both parties to unite behind legislation aimed at identifying and rescuing children appearing in online sexual abuse images and videos, warning that law enforcement is “losing the battle” and needs greater resources to confront the crisis.
Tebow testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism in support of the Renewed Hope Act, which would increase funding and staffing for law enforcement and investigators tasked with identifying child victims depicted in online abuse images and videos so they can be located and rescued.
Incredibly, an emotional Tebow said, law enforcement has images of 89,000 unidentified boys and girls who are victims of child sexual abuse and whose identities remain unknown to investigators. Just two years ago, he said, that number was 57,000.
“With all of the work that all of these people and amazing law enforcement agents and nonprofit NGOs [non-governmental organizations] are doing all around the world … we are losing the battle, and we are losing the war, and boys and girls are suffering for it,” he told senators.
Law enforcement agencies are massively understaffed, he said. To illustrate the scale of the problem, Tebow showed senators a map of the United States covered with thousands of red dots – 338,000 in all – each representing “someone that is downloading, sharing or distributing child rape images,” just in the last six months. Very few of them are being investigated, and most of the images involve children under 12, he added.
Look at the map. 338,000+ red dots.
— Tim Tebow (@TimTebow) March 4, 2026
Unique IP addresses trading, distributing, and sharing child sexual abuse material… children under 12.
Do you notice the blue dots? Probably not. Those are the actual investigations.
Law enforcement needs more resources, more support… a… pic.twitter.com/Kch2bBTABz
“The scale of harm right here in America is, to a certain extent, hard to comprehend, but that's why we're here,” Tebow said.
The average offender, he said, victimizes 13 children in a lifetime.
“We have to have more people, and we have to do a whole lot more, and we have to do it faster, because every day we wait, they're suffering, they're crying. And I believe right now, many of them are praying that we would respond – but how are we really going to respond?” Tebow asked.
“... But the question is, will we actually accept the responsibility of caring for these boys and girls and truly protecting them, or are we just going to continue to talk about it? There's so much we can do.”
The bill has cleared the House Judiciary Committee but has not yet been approved by the full House or Senate.
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Photo Credit: ©Getty Images / Kent Nishimura / Stringer
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
Listen to Michael's Podcast! He is the host of Crosswalk Talk, a podcast where he talks with Christian movie stars, musicians, directors, and more. Hear how famous Christian figures keep their faith a priority in Hollywood and discover the best Christian movies, books, television, and other entertainment. You can find Crosswalk Talk on LifeAudio.com, or subscribe on Apple or Spotify so you never miss an interview that will be sure to encourage your faith.
Originally published March 04, 2026.
