federal legislation
PROTECT Our Children Reauthorization Act of 2025
Signed into law in 2025, the PROTECT Our Children Reauthorization Act of 2025 strengthens and extends the federal government’s coordinated response to online child sexual exploitation.
“My experience showed me how easily minors can be targeted online and how quickly things can escalate.”
– Ari, survivor
Key Provisions of the PROTECT Our Children Reauthorization Act of 2025
• Reauthorization through FY2028. The law reauthorizes funding for the National Strategy for Child Exploitation Prevention and Interdiction and the National Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force Program through fiscal year 2028.
• Modernized National Strategy. The bill updates and streamlines requirements for DOJ’s National Strategy, consolidating prior reporting elements and requiring analysis of current trends, emerging challenges, and the overall magnitude of the threat of child exploitation.
• Expanded investigative capacity. ICAC task forces must increase law enforcement capacity to identify child victims and report annually on the number of child victims identified.
• Improved information-sharing. The law requires the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children to provide additional information to law enforcement when referring reports of online sexual exploitation for investigation.
• Limited liability protections. The bill limits certain civil and criminal liability for ICAC task forces arising from decisions related to leads on internet crimes against children, helping ensure task forces can focus resources on identifying victims and holding offenders accountable.
“Online games, specifically chat programs within games connected to the internet, allowed abusers to groom me and then get me onto secondary platforms for more private chats.”
– Sarah, survivor
Learn About Tech-Enabled Sexual Abuse
Tech-enabled sexual abuse isn’t a future threat. It’s here—and the scale is unprecedented. Here’s what every technology and AI user needs to know.
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Last updated: February 27, 2026