Tebow made his comments to the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance during a hearing on child sex abuse materials (CSAM) and the fight among federal, state and international partners to stop it.

More than 50,000 children, Tebow told the subcommittee, have been victims in child sex abuse materials but have yet to be identified.

“They’re unknown,” Tebow said. “Until someone knows them, how could somebody rescue them?”

But there have been victories, he noted. Last year, he said, the Department of Homeland Security partnered with officials in 13 countries and domestic organizations including the Tim Tebow Foundation to make 316 probable identifications of child sexual abuse by using technologies such as facial recognition and artificial intelligence. More than half of them were in the U.S., he said.

“It was an incredible operation,” he said. “But that’s a tiny dent.”

Tebow urged Congress to pass a proposed Victim Identification Bill he is championing that would, according to his foundation’s website, “build a rescue team of analysts to locate and protect the children seen in sexually abusive imagery at the global level.”

“There’s so many frontline warriors and heroes, but there’s just not enough,” he said. “…We need more of them to get to these 50,000 boys and girls.”

Referencing society’s infatuation with sports, Tebow said law enforcement needs the same type of commitment and resources — if not more — that athletes receive.

“I’ve had the privilege of playing for a lot of sports teams in my life,” he said. “On almost all of them, we’ve had incredible resources to give us a better chance at winning a game — something that, ultimately, as much as we care about it, doesn’t matter. Why would we not give as much, if not more resources, to the frontline heroes that are going after the most vulnerable boys and girls on the planet?”

Tebow said he believes the battle against child sex abuse materials can be won.

“We have the chance to bring hope to those that are starving for it,” he said. “… I love using the biblical definition of hope — to look forward with confidence, expectation and anticipation. How many of these boys and girls do not get to look forward with any form of confidence, expectation or anticipation — because they believe their tomorrow is going to be just as bad as today. But maybe because of all of us — because of all of you — maybe one day they’ll be able to look forward with true confidence, expectation and anticipation.”

Image credit: ©Getty Images / Kent Nishimura / Stringer