I want you to remember this number for a minute. In 2017, when we launched the Innocent Lives Foundation, I thought we would do a few cases a year.

Today, we have almost 40 volunteers and 493 cases handed to law enforcement. I am humbled. This was a passion to help stop predators, and I didn’t know so many would be so passionate about it too. 493 is not a small number; each case might represent tens to hundreds of children saved. The effect we have had is huge. ILF has changed drastically over these 6 years.

Our mission is the same, but our personality, maturity, growth, and focus have been honed and almost perfected. The team is made up of dedicated people who love the mission and want to save kids. I need to appeal to you.

This mission depends on the generosity of strangers and friends. Donations keep us afloat. We have been blessed with support from Neil Fallon, AJ Cook, Aisha Tyler, Robin Dreeke, Dr. Kathie Mathis, Stephanie Paul, Erin Grey, and many others. The number of folks who gave their blood, sweat, and tears for the heavy lifting goes unsung. All of this is possible because some stranger decided to give money to help us with this mission.

Can you help us continue this mission?

We need you. From 2021 to 2022, images reported to NCMEC increased from over 29 million to over 32 million. One report stated a 66% increase in self-generated child abuse images of children as young as 10 years old. These are disturbing to read and hear. This is why I am pleading for your help this year.

ILF is in a unique position to help law enforcement locate and stop these predators, but to expand our operations, we need your help. This year, a desperate parent reached out to us about their underage daughter being groomed by an adult male. Local police said there was not much they could do since no real crime was yet committed. We investigated and found he was a serial predator. Working with federal agents, we saved this young girl from a life of misery and abuse. Today she is reunited with her loving family.

That case took dozens of hours, and we need your help to continue this work. As you read this impact report, please consider how your donation can save a child, or dozens, or even hundreds. Thank you for your continued support and for turning my tiny vision almost 7 years ago into a real machine helping to stop child abuse.

With much love,

 Christopher Hadnagy
 CEO and Founder

The Innocent Lives Foundation is a charity that identifies online child predators to help bring them to justice. As a non-vigilante organization that partners worldwide with law enforcement, our vision is a world where all children can live innocent lives. Using innovative online investigative techniques, ILF’s team hunts down the worst of the worst — pedophiles, sexual predators, and human traffickers — and then provides critical evidence and identifying information to U.S. and international law enforcement agencies to aid in their capture and arrest. Founded by renowned social engineer Chris Hadnagy (aka “The Human Hacker’’). The foundation’s board of directors includes such notable figures as Douglas Ash an executive with more than 30 years of experience in senior positions, Timothy Maloney our Attorney and chairman of the board, Dr. Kathie Mathis a CEO with over 35 years of administrative and mental health experience, Stephanie Paul an executive, coach, actress, director, and producer, and Erin Gray an internationally known actress, speaker, writer and founder of “Heroes for Hire.”

Most of us are very familiar with the internet’s positive uses. We use it for school, banking, online shopping, and entertainment nearly every day. However, there often needs to be more clarity regarding its negatives. It is not unusual to run into parents who are unaware of the dangers the open web presents to their children. For years, the media and entertainment have often presented dangers on the internet as lurking in deep, mysterious, and dark places on something called the dark web. The open web also poses incredibly serious dangers to our families. At the time of this writing, 55% of the cases worked by the Innocent Lives Foundation are open web cases!

A member of the Innocent Lives Foundation Predator Identification Team (P.I.T) was reviewing an open web forum for persons talking about sexually abusing children. The predator, whom we will refer to as “Frank,” had submitted several posts detailing the sexual abuse of his sons and daughter.

Additionally, “Frank” wanted to livestream the rape of his children and was actively wanting to connect with other “pedo dads/moms” to share Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) with them.

After scrutinizing his post and applying several OSINT (Open Source Intelligence) techniques and tools, our Agent determined that “Frank” also used several other open web accounts, such as Pinterest, Facebook, and YouTube. The information revealed in these accounts confirmed our research, including the horrific realization that his children are all under the age of 9 and that he had access to children who were not his.

Although hiding behind multiple usernames, our PIT Agent established “Frank’s” real-life identity. After being processed by the ILF’s Quality Assurance team to verify our Agent’s conclusions, the case was submitted and accepted by our Federal partners.

Why do we share this story?

Reason #1 – Inappropriate content is found on both the “Open Web” and the “Dark Web.” Awareness and vigilance are critical to protecting our families whenever the internet is used.

Reason #2 – Understanding that this story is not a unique example is also crucial. In our 2020 Impact report, we told the story of “The Baby Doe Case,” which is eerily similar to our current story. We want to be clear that these are entirely separate cases with no known connections between the suspects. At the ILF, we see cases like this all the time, this is why we dedicate ourselves to identifying predators, in the hopes that another child has an opportunity to live an innocent life.