MillionKids.org

The podcast content may contain sensitive topics. Listener discretion is advised. Today’s kids are growing up in a world where animation, AI, fantasy, and endless digital stimulation shape their emotions long before they understand what those feelings mean. Many very young children now receive more daily input from adevice than from a parent and that imbalance can quietly shape how they see themse...

The podcast content may contain sensitive topics. Listener discretion is advised. Online exploitation of minors isn’t just rising; it may bethe fastest‑growing crime on the planet. In 2025 alone, the NCMEC CyberTipline processed over 21.5 million reports of potential online exploitation. That’s more than 70,000 a day. And almost every young victim believed the same thing: “It won’t happen to me.” ...

The podcast content may contain sensitive topics. Listener discretion is advised. When the nation woke up to breaking news about a 19‑year‑old from Ohio allegedly plotting an attack on the UFC Freedom event in Washington, D.C., most people saw a headline. But behind that headline was a terrified mother who made an unthinkably brave choice: she contacted law enforcement and handed over the evidence...

On this episode of the Protect & Prevent Podcast (P3 Kids), Opal Singleton Hendershot of MillionKids.org, one of the leading voices in keeping kids safe from predators, looks at the most important conversation you can have with your teen and what to say. You are holding one of the most powerful devices in human history. A phone or tablet isn’t just a gadget, it’s a doorway to more than five bi...

The podcast content may contain sensitive topics. Listener discretion is advised.   CAPACITY.  It’s the single most important and often most overlooked factor in protecting children from online exploitation.   Parents often ask, “What age is safe for a child to be online?”  But age isn’t the real question. Capacity is. Does your child have the maturity, reasoning skills, and emotional grounding to...

Financial Sextortion: Words Every Parent Should Know (and Never Have to Deal With) The podcast content may contain sensitive topics. Listener discretion is advised. Financial sextortion is not a “rare online scam.” It is a heart‑breaking, fast‑growing crime that has already stolen the lives of more than 40 bright, successful young people across the United States. These were athletes, scholars, and...

The podcast content may contain sensitive topics. Listener discretion is advised. About 40% of relationships now begin online. Many turn into beautiful, healthy, lifelong partnerships. On this episode of the Protect & Prevent Podcast (P3 Kids), Opal Singleton Hendershot of MillionKids.org, one of the leading voices in keeping kids safe from predators, talks about the other side of online relat...

The podcast content may contain sensitive topics. Listener discretion is advised. A story broke recently that should shake every parent totheir core. In Southern California, the Riverside County Child Exploitation Team identified 500 suspects and arrested 42 individuals in a massive child‑exploitation sting called Operation Volcano. The alleged offenders weren’t the “monsters in the shadows” we im...

The podcast content may contain sensitive topics. Listener discretion is advised.  We’re suggesting a different kind of conversation about social media — one that goes beyond rules, restrictions, and arguments about screen time. For years, families have wrestled with what to allow, what to block, and how to keep kidssafe online. I wanted to share something I heard recently because it changes every...

The podcast content may contain sensitive topics. Listener discretion is advised. For more than a decade, Million Kids has carried a mission that no family ever wants to need. It is the Million Kids Missing Kids program. It began with heartbreaking conversations:parents sitting across from us, voices shaking, describing the moment their teenager vanished. The fear. The confusion. The unbearable si...

THE WORLD HAS SHIFTED… Have you noticed? And whether we’ve noticed or not, our kids are alreadyliving in a new reality. Today, 5.5 billion people are online. Nearly all of themhave access to the same powerful tools your family does including 5G speed, global money transfer, geolocation tracking, AI-driven data mining, anddeepfake technology that can make anyone look like someone you trust. That me...

(The podcast content may contain sensitive topics. Listenerdiscretion is advised.) This week, our team dug into two recent cases of sextrafficking involving young girls and women. These cases were so brutal and heartbreaking they make you stop in your tracks. As we read and analyzed them, one conviction rose to the surface: never again should another young person beviolated, manipulated, or sexual...

( The podcast content may contain sensitive topics. Listener discretion is advised.) How serious is it? Are terrorists, pedophiles and extremistsactually targeting our kids? The short answer: Yes! The tactics are far more sophisticated than most families realize. On this episode of the Protect & Prevent Podcast (P3 Kids), Opal Singleton Hendershot of MillionKids.org, one of the leading voices...

(The podcast content may contain sensitive topics. Listenerdiscretion is advised.) Every day in America, kids disappear and for too many ofthem, the danger begins the moment they walk out the door. Missing and runaway minors are among the highest at risk victims of sex trafficking, and the numbers are staggering. NCMEC reports that 1 in 7 missing children they handle are likely victims of traffick...

(The podcast content may contain sensitive topics. Listener discretion is advised.)   What about digital empathy, digital ethics, or even digital reputation? These questions matter more than ever,because many teens genuinely believe the online world operates by different rules. I once had a group of Christian teenagers tell me that sin on the internet “wasn’t real” because the online world isn’t r...

(The podcast content may contain sensitive topics. Listener discretion is advised.) Why do some seem to kids walk through life with confidence making solid choices, trusting their instincts, and resisting pressure while others feel defeated, insecure, or easily pulled into risky situations? After fifteen years of working with families and young people on the front lines of online exploitation prev...

The podcast content may contain sensitive topics. Listener discretion is advised. Do you actually know what the internet says about you? More importantly do your kids? Most young people are under the illusionthey can “spot a predator.” They’ll roll their eyes and insist, “I’d know if someone was fake.” But when you ask them how they know, their answer is usually the same: “They know things about m...

Five very dangerous words being used by predators to trap kids online. And most kids would say: “It won’t happen to me.”  Almost every teen will tell you they can “spot a predator.” They’re confident they’ll recognize danger, avoid blackmail, and outsmart anyone tryingto sextort them. And most of them use the same outdated test: “Do I know this person? Do they know me? Do they know someone I know?...

Most parents have never heard of many of them but predators, cartels, and global scam networks use them every single day to target kids. If you don’t know what they mean, your child is already at adisadvantage. FINANCIAL SEXTORTION: The fastest‑growingonline crime against minors — run by globalcriminal groups who can empty a family’s bank accountand destroy a child’s mental health in hours. FRIEND...

Most people have heard the word “sextortion.” Almost no one understands how radically, and dangerously,it has evolved. Parents are still relying on advice from five, ten, evenfifteen years ago… while predators have upgraded to AI‑driventactics, global money‑transfer systems, geolocationtools, and industrial‑scale scam farms. The gap betweenwhat families think keeps kids safe and what’sactually hap...

The podcast may contain sensitive topics. Listener discretion is advised. Countless kids regularly unwrap their very first phone, tablet, or gaming device and in an instant, they step into a digital world most parents never had to navigate at their age. For many families, this is the first time their child has ever been online. And that moment comes with real risks that most adults don’t see comin...

The podcast content may contain sensitive topics. Listenerdiscretion is advised. This holiday season, millions of kids unwrapped their veryfirst phone, tablet, or online device. And with that gift came something far bigger than mostparents realize: instant access to a world of 5.5 billion people  including strangers, scammers, cartels, andcriminal networks who know exactly how to disguise themselv...

The podcast contains sensitive topics. Listener discretion is advised. In just the past few years, more than 40 young people, mostly boys ages 13–17, have taken their own lives after becoming victims of financial sextortion. They were not reckless kids. They were victims. Many were some of the most promising young people in America: smart, faith-based, goal-driven teens. Many had already chosen a...

(The podcast may contain sensitive topics. Listener discretion is advised.) What if the bad news you don’t want to hear is the very thing that could save a young person’s life? Would you listen, really listen, during the time it takes to learn? What if one fact… one warning… one moment of awareness could be the reason your child, grandchild, student, or teen in your life survives a predator’s trap...

(The podcast may contain sensitive topics. Listener discretion is advised.) This is a very important podcast and one that every parent, teacher, coach, and faith-based leader should hear. Yes. It happened again. In November, a West Virginia 15-year old teen boy took his own life after becoming the latest victim of a sextortion scam. Are we ready to say NEVER AGAIN should we lose a brilliant young...