Tim Tebow delivers powerful message at congressional hearing on combating Child Sexual Abuse Material
Tim Tebow took a trip to Capitol Hill on Wednesday, offering testimony in support of a yet-to-be-drafted bill to create and provide resources for a federal-level agency or entity to combat Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) online. It’s an issue that Tebow has taken up of late via the Tebow Foundation and its “UNKNOWN” initiative.
And speaking before the House judiciary subcommittee on crime and federal government oversight, Tebow delivered some at-times stirring opening remarks. The entire hearing took a little more than 90 minutes.
Tebow began by recounting how he was first made aware of the scope of the problem through meeting Camille Cooper, who now works with Tebow in the campaign against CSAM and was on hand to testify on Wednesday.
One of the biggest hurdles to clear in starting to help victims of CSAM, Tebow said, is identifying them in a safe, ethical manner.
“Until someone knows them, how could someone rescue them? And I knew that day that my heart was broken and my eyes were open and we had to do something,” Tebow said.
He then recalled pulling together a meeting around a year ago, involving numerous international law enforcement agencies, other advocacy groups combating CSAM, tech firms seeking to get CSAM off their platforms and various representatives from several countries. Through that meeting, Tebow said, they learned that there were probably upwards of 50,000 unidentified victims of CSAM.
And though there are numerous non-governmental organizations and law enforcement agencies actively working to identify and aid victims of CSAM, Tebow is pushing for a dedicated, high-level task force or something akin to address the issue, formed via federal legislation. The Tebow Foundation is drafting the legislation in concert with legislators.
“This bill is going to build a big enough rescue team to get to all those boys and girls,” Tebow said. And we need you to say yes to creating those positions on the rescue team. We need you to say yes to funding those teams. We need you to say yes to giving them the best training and the best technology. I’ve been fortunate to be on many different teams in my life, and on almost all of them, we had incredible resources, the best funding, and great support – and all of it was done for us just to win a game! But this is to rescue lives. The most vulnerable people on the planet — children. And would we not put our best forward?”
Tebow’s ultimate message, though, was one of taking action. He feels there are ways to make strides, to help people with the technology and abilities already available, if the resources are provided so the right people have the time and money to get CSAM off the internet as fast as it gets shared.
And he veered from his prepared opening remarks when wrapping up.
“But if all we do today is speak, if all I do is speak, I also missed the mark,” Tebow said. “We have to do more than just talk about it. We have to act on it and be about it.”