The Congress finds that
(1) each year thousands of children are abducted or removed from the control of a parent having legal custody without such parents consent, under circumstances which immediately place the child in grave danger;
(2) many missing children are at great risk of both physical harm and sexual exploitation;
(3) in many cases, parents and local law enforcement officials have neither the resources nor the expertise to mount expanded search efforts;
(4) abducted children are frequently moved from one locality to another, requiring the cooperation and coordination of local, State, and Federal law enforcement efforts;
(5) the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
(A) serves as the national resource center and clearinghouse;
(B) works in partnership with the Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of the Treasury, the Department of State, and many other agencies in the effort to find missing children and prevent child victimization; and
(C) operates a national and increasingly worldwide network, linking the Center online with each of the missing children clearinghouses operated by the 50 States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, as well as with Scotland Yard in the United Kingdom, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, INTERPOL headquarters in Lyon, France, and others, which enable the Center to transmit images and information regarding missing children to law enforcement across the United States and around the world instantly.
