Help stop exploitation before it starts.
Sex trafficking, grooming, and online sexual exploitation demand a response. Protect the children in your life—and equip others to do the same.
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Start the conversation today.
You do not have to know every app to become a safe person for a child to talk to. Make it clear: if someone pressures, threatens, or embarrasses them online, they can come to you for help.
- Talk regularly. Ask who they talk to in games, messages, and social media. Discuss boundaries and requests for secrecy, private images, or meetings.
- Review privacy together. Use private account settings, limit contacts to people they know, and turn off unnecessary location sharing. Review new apps before downloading.
- Practice what to do. Help children identify trusted adults and learn how to block and report unwanted contact.
- Keep the door open. Respond calmly when a child shares a concern. Exploitation is the offender’s responsibility; a child needs support, not blame.
Recognize grooming and sextortion.
Grooming can involve building trust to manipulate someone into sexual activity or exploitation. Online contacts may use fake identities, flattery, gifts, secrecy, or pressure to move conversations into private channels.
Sextortion involves threats to expose sexual images to demand money, more images, or sexual activity. Children and teens of any gender can be targeted. A threat can be serious even when the person making it claims to be another child.
If someone is being threatened, seek help promptly. Do not pay or send more images. Preserve the account details and messages for reporting; do not forward or repost sexual images of children. Follow specialist guidance on reporting and next steps.
Use trusted tools. Equip someone else.
These resources come from specialist organizations. Follow their links for current materials and training.
For parents and caregivers
Tim Tebow Foundation offers a free online child safety awareness guide, delivered after signing up.
Request the Tim Tebow Foundation guide →
For families, churches, and communities
Our Rescue offers free awareness-level courses, including Human Trafficking 101 and Start Talking online child safety training in English and Spanish.
For educators and youth leaders
A21 provides trafficking prevention education resources for different age groups. Choose materials appropriate for the children you serve.
Get help. Report a concern.
Immediate danger: contact local emergency services. In the United States and Costa Rica, call 911.
United States · Child sexual exploitation
Report suspected online child sexual exploitation, including online enticement and sextortion, to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children’s CyberTipline.
Costa Rica · Child protection
PANI, Costa Rica’s national child protection agency, accepts reports about suspected violations of children’s rights. Its 1147 line offers support for children and adolescents. For an emergency, call 911.
Elsewhere in the world
Contact your local emergency services or national child protection authority. Reporting systems and emergency numbers vary by country.
Divergent Life is a ministry and resource guide, not an emergency response or reporting service. Use the specialist services above for urgent concerns.
Put your faith into action.
Pray. Give. Share your skills. Help make a different future possible through the love of Jesus.