Protecting Kids Online: Missing Children, AI Scams, and Digital Exploitation with Shawnna Hoffman

In this episode of the Family IT Guy Podcast, I sit down with Shawnna Hoffman, CEO of the International Center for Missing and Exploited Children (ICMEC), for a raw and deeply personal conversation about online exploitation, AI-enabled scams, human trafficking, and the growing risks facing kids and teens online.

Shawnna shares her journey from decades in Big Tech and AI leadership to leading a global organization focused on returning missing children to their families. She also opens up about her own family’s experience with a long-term online scam that targeted her autistic son, exposing how sophisticated, patient, and psychologically damaging modern online exploitation has become.

This episode covers:

• How online grooming and long-term scams target kids and young adults

• The role AI and social platforms play in exploitation and manipulation

• Why parental controls alone are not enough

• The reality of missing children and trafficking on a global scale

• How ICMEC measures success by one metric only: kids reunited with families

• The difference between facial detection and facial recognition

• Why digital safety requires community action, better safeguards, and real accountability

If you are a parent, caregiver, educator, or anyone concerned about child safety online, this conversation is essential listening.

🔒 Learn more about protecting kids online: https://familyitguy.com

🌍 Learn more about the International Center for Missing and Exploited Children: https://www.icmec.org