The World Cup Is Weeks Away. Trafficking Will Happen. Are We Prepared?

In late January 2026, just days before the Super Bowl, a 14-year-old girl was reported missing to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) by child welfare. She had left her placement for unknown reasons — but was known to frequent surrounding cities while missing. She had been missing before. And each time she disappeared, there were concerns she was possibly being victimized through trafficking.

At this time, NCMEC’s Child Sex Trafficking Team (CSTT) was assisting a law enforcement agency in the San Francisco Bay area with a large-scale operation, around the time of the Super Bowl.

On the second day of this operation, a CSTT analyst used Spotlight to search for online advertisements that might be connected to the child.

And for the first time, of all the times she had gone missing, there they were.

Ads that were posted recently. Believed to be associated with the girl. One of them posted 40 minutes away from where she went missing, near the location of the ongoing event.

The CSTT analyst shared this information, immediately, with law enforcement in the command center. At the same time, NCMEC’s Recovery Services Team coordinated with child welfare to help ensure the appropriate resources were ready and a recovery strategy was developed in advance.

The identification of active online advertisements through Spotlight, combined with rapid information sharing and law enforcement response, directly led to the successful recovery of the child.

The Role of Major Events in Child Sex Trafficking

Large events concentrate people, money, and demand in one place — in a compressed window of time. They draw travelers from around the world. They strain local law enforcement resources. And they create conditions where exploitation is easier to hide.

We’re not saying that these events cause child sex trafficking. Child sex trafficking happens every day, in every major city, independent of these events. But trafficking does not pause for them, either. The infrastructure to identify victims and surface the evidence that law enforcement needs must be in place well before any event.

The 2026 FIFA World Cup arrives in five weeks. It will run from June 11 to July 19 across sixteen host cities in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Eleven U.S. cities will host matches, including Atlanta, Miami, Dallas, Houston, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and New York/New Jersey, where the final will be played.

That is a lot of cities. A lot of people and money moving through them. And a lot of demand concentrated in a short period of time.

The Gap That Still Exists

The girl recovered in January was found because an analyst ran the right search at the right moment, and law enforcement acted quickly. But there aren’t large-scale operations every day. And not every investigator knows Spotlight exists.

Spotlight by Canary is free. Free to every law enforcement agency working relentlessly to identify and protect victims of child sex trafficking. There is no barrier to access — only awareness.

As 16 cities prepare to welcome the world this summer, we are asking a direct question of every law enforcement agency, every prosecutor, every task force that will be operating in a host city between June 11 and July 19:

Do you have the tools to find them?

What You Can Do

If you work in law enforcement and are not yet using Spotlight, reach out.

If you know someone who is, share this post; bring awareness to the heightened demand during major events.  

If you are a funder or partner who wants to ensure every stakeholder — law enforcement, recovery services, and survivor organizations — are equipped for what may come, we want to talk.

The World Cup is coming. Let's ensure we’re all prepared well before it.