NCMEC was established in 1984 as a private, nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization to provide services nationwide for families and professionals in the prevention of abducted, endangered, and sexually exploited children. Pursuant to its mission and its congressional mandates, NCMEC:
* Serves as the national resource center and information clearinghouse for missing and exploited children
* Operates a national 24-hour toll-free hotline, 1-800-THE-LOST® (1-800-843-5678), to intake reports of missing children and receive leads about ongoing cases
* Operates the CyberTipline, the “9-1-1 for the Internet,” that the public and electronic service providers may use to report Internet-related child sexual exploitation
* Provides information about services and Federal programs for missing and exploited children and their families
* Provides assistance to families and law enforcement agencies in locating and recovering missing and exploited children, both nationally and internationally
* Works with law enforcement and the private sector to reduce the distribution of child pornography over the Internet
* Operates a child victim identification program to assist law enforcement in identifying victims of child pornography
* Facilitates the deployment of the National Emergency Child Locator Center during periods of national disasters
* Provides an annual report on the number of missing children reported to NCMEC to the Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
* Provides guidance to state and local governments and nonprofit agencies on how to use school records and birth certificates to locate missing children