The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), a child safety nonprofit that works closely with the government and major tech platforms, has recently removed publications that reference queer and transgender children from its website. The removals come amid reports that NCMEC was ordered to cull mentions of LGBTQ+ issues under threat of losing government funding, part of President Donald Trump’s push to eradicate recognition of trans people in the US.
NCMEC’s website hosts numerous reports on the state of various child endangerment issues, including data about abduction, sex trafficking, and online enticement. However, comparisons with the Wayback Machine show that at least three documents on its “NCMEC Data” page — including a report on missing children with suicidal tendencies, a report on male victims of child sex trafficking, and an overall data analysis of children missing from care — have been removed since the page’s last archived date of January 24th. Archived copies of all three reports included mentions of LGBTQ+ and particularly transgender children. The 13 remaining publications on NCMEC’s data page do not appear to contain these references.
Within the same date range, NCMEC removed three guides to recognizing and preventing child sex trafficking. That includes an overview that mentions homeless youth who have been “kicked out due to lack of acceptance of their sexual orientation or gender identity” and a guide for parents that mentions victims of child sex trafficking include “boys, girls, and transgender youth.”
It’s not clear when precisely the reports were taken down, and website data can be removed for many reasons; NCMEC did not respond to a request for comment from The Verge. However, last night, reporter Marisa Kabas (who writes the newsletter The Handbasket) posted that the Department of Justice had threatened to withhold NCMEC’s funding unless it conducted a review of its site.
Kabas posted an email that was allegedly sent on Wednesday to staff members, saying that NMCEC had been “contacted by our primary grantor” on Monday to ensure all its materials were “in compliance with the spirit of the President’s Executive Orders.” Don McGowan, a former NCMEC board member who has previously criticized its management for failing to address dangers to trans children, also said on Bluesky that he’d heard about the purge request from friends still at the center.
Losing funding would likely devastate NCMEC, whose last financial report said it received $50 million of its roughly $70 million in revenue from government contracts and grants. It’s responsible among other things for operating the CyberTipline that receives and processes reports of child sexual abuse. The tipline has become a major link between government investigators and tech platforms, which use it to file millions of reports each year.
Trump has signed multiple executive orders targeting transgender children and adults, including one that attempts to bar the legal recognition of trans people and another that restricts gender-affirming care for trans youth. Numerous lawsuits are pending against these orders, and at least one has been temporarily blocked by a judge.
