Dr. Sandie Morgan and Dave Stachowiak interview Callahan Walsh, a child advocate for the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) and co-host of In Pursuit with John Walsh on Investigation Discovery. They discuss how COVID-19 has presented challenges and opportunities in the fight against child sexual exploitation and how we can make sure that kids are equipped with safe and smart decision making to prevent online exploitation.

Callahan Walsh

Callahan Walsh is a child advocate for the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) and co-host of In Pursuit with John Walsh on Investigation Discovery. He is the son of John and Revé Walsh, who co-founded NCMEC in 1984 after the kidnapping and murder of their first son, Adam. Following in his parent’s footsteps, Callahan has focused his energy on fighting crime, helping find missing children, reducing child sexual exploitation, and preventing child victimization.
Key Points

John Shehan, NCMEC Vice President, shared, "In the first quarter of 2020, NCMEC became aware of predators openly discussing the pandemic as an opportunity to entice unsupervised children into producing sexually explicit material."
Parents, educators, community leaders, and law enforcement have access to free online resources through NetSmartz that can help create a safer online community for kids.
Coming together as a community and using online safety programs can prevent the issues of missing and exploited children.

Resources


NCMEC
CyberTipline Report
NetSmartz
NetSmartz Student Project Kit
NetSmartz Classroom Activities

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Transcript
Dave [00:00:00] You're listening to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. This is episode number 230 - Callahan Walsh of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children on Protecting Our Children.

Production Credits [00:00:12] Produced by Innovate Learning, Maximizing Human Potential.

Dave [00:00:33] Welcome to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. My name is Dave Stachowiak.

Sandie [00:00:39] And my name is Sandie Morgan.

Dave [00:00:41] And this is the show where we empower you to study the issues, be a voice, and make a difference in ending human trafficking. Sandie, I'm so glad for our guest today because he and his family have been such an important voice and important partners in the work that so many of us care so deeply about. And today I know we're going to learn so much from him. I'm so pleased to welcome Callahan Walsh to the show today. He is a child advocate for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and co-host of In Pursuit with John Walsh on Investigation Discovery. He is the son of John and Reve Walsh, who co-founded the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in 1984 after the kidnapping and murder of their first son, Adam. Following his parents' footsteps, Cal has focused his energy on fighting crime, helping find missing children, reducing child sexual exploitation, and preventing child victimization. Cal we're so glad to welcome you to the show.

Cal [00:01:40] Thank you for having me. I really appreciate being here.

Sandie [00:01:43] So, Cal, I've been associated with a National Center for Missing and Exploited Children for many years, worked with some greats that have been part of the team there. And when I read the latest statistics, National Center for Missing and Exploited Children published this note: that you have experienced a 90.46 percent increase in Cyber Tipline reports between January and June 2020 versus the same time period last year.