2026 School Safety Training Forum

A panel of experts helps bring hidden threats into clearer view while offering strategies to help keep children safe and to provide support and resources to child victims. In 2024, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) received more than 546,000 reports of child online enticement, a 192% increase over 2023. In DHS’s January 2026 Report, “Online Recruitment of Child Sex Trafficking Becoming Endemic,” DHS noted that “[i]n 2025, reports of online enticement towards children rose 80% higher than the year before” according to NCMEC. Emerging threats to teens now include financial sextortion, sadistic exploitation, and AI-generated intimate images. Child victims feel desperate, leading tragically to suicide, self-harm, depression, anxiety, and the like. Schools can play a key role in understanding this threat, empowering kids to protect themselves, and helping ensure that child victims receive the support and care that they need and deserve.