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Former NFL quarterback Tim Tebow testified before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism, where he urged Congress to pass the bipartisan Renewed Hope Act of 2026, which addresses the growing online child exploitation crisis.
Tebow, founder and chairman of his Tim Tebow Foundation (TTF), gave emotional testimony before the House Judiciary Committee in March 2024, including reading a message from one of at least 20,000 boys and girls whose images and videos of their sexual abuse and rape were housed in a global Interpol database, and whose identity was unknown.
Tebow said the same thing Tuesday, when he dismantled “Operation Renewed Hope,” the world’s largest victim identification operation.
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Tim Tebow testifies before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Oversight on Capitol Hill March 6, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)
“Over the course of three operations, 1,119 children were provisionally identified. 500 children were protected. Nearly half of them were American children,” Tebow said during his testimony.
“In preparation for this hearing, we asked Interpol what the new number of unidentified images was. And there are now over 89,000. And that’s just one database. The UK has a database called CAID. The Child Abuse Image database. Canada has a database. Their database has over 94 million unclassified files awaiting assessment that it has pulled from the dark web. We don’t even know not yet how many children that represents.”
Additionally, over the past six months, more than 338,000 unique IP addresses in the United States have been identified exchanging child sexual abuse images on peer-to-peer networks.
The Renewed Hope Act of 2026 would establish and equip a dedicated workforce of analysts, investigators, and forensic specialists tasked with identifying unknown children seen in sexual abuse images so they can be located and protected.
The bill passed out of committee in the House on January 13.
Tim Tebow speaking at a Tim Tebow Foundation event. (Tim Tebow Foundation)
Currently, the Homeland Security Investigations Cyber Crimes Center has seven full-time victim identification analysts tasked with identifying the large number of children affected by sexual abuse and rape. And identification requires a lot of time and coordination with jurisdictions before law enforcement intervenes.
“Our country’s most precious and vulnerable lives have been forgotten,” said Tebow, the national champion Florida Gators who played three seasons in the NFL. “Every day these children lose hope, and it’s not law enforcement’s fault that they wait. They clearly and simply need more resources.
“I am deeply grateful to the members of Congress on both sides of the aisle who are coming together to support the Renewed Hope Act of 2026. This legislation gives our nation the opportunity to build a stronger relief team of analysts and investigators so that children who are suffering can be identified and protected. This is a problem we can solve.”
Tebow and his foundation, in partnership with the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE), are also filing an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to hear a landmark case against
Professional baseball player Tim Tebow visits “Fox and Friends” at the PK Press Club Channel studios on October 9, 2019 in New York. (John Lamparski/Getty Images)
With faith, hope and love as three pillars of his foundation, Tebow continues to fight for what he calls the world’s MVPs – the most vulnerable people.
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