HOPE with TEETH: Frontline Warriors Expose the Hidden Child Trafficking Crisis

"Right now there's over 50 million taken, enslaved, and tortured men, women, and children on the planet," says Robbin Leigh Hill in the opening moments of this unflinching episode of HOPE with TEETH. "How that happens while people are watching... cannot be bared anymore."

What follows is not easy to hear—but it may be the most important conversation you watch this year.

What happens when the system meant to protect children becomes the predator?

Leah's journey into this work began on the streets of Phoenix, where she spent two years with a team ministering to trafficked youth every Friday night. What she discovered shattered assumptions: "A good majority of the young people that were out in the streets were from Child Protective Services. They were aged out... and they had decided that it was safer there than it is in foster care."

The bus her team used was shot at by pimps. Girls were beaten in the streets. The danger forced them to pause—but Leah couldn't stop. She documented what she found in the documentary Cages (available on Rumble), then shifted to the judicial battleground.

For the past 22 months, she's been fighting for one family whose five children were taken interstate "due to lack of resources and disheveled hair and dirty feet" during a family trip to care for a sick relative. "The children were taken and the family... were left homeless in the state of Nevada," Leah explains. "They were told if they left the state of Nevada, their children would be immediately adopted out."

Johnny knows this system from the inside. After his own family became a victim of what he calls "Title IV-E federal incentivization," he went through his case deliberately gathering documentation to expose the machinery. "I fought for three years alongside mom," he shares. "I went through my case knowing that I was going to lose in order to acquire the documentation that is required to show the systematic abuses."

How are children being targeted and trafficked—and what are the warning signs?

The mechanisms are more widespread than most realize. Leah describes finding FBI pedophile symbols "on shopping malls, on schools, on restaurants. These pedophile signs are everywhere."

Young boys are blackmailed through online schemes where predators pose as girls, solicit photos, then threaten exposure. "These kids covertly are being targeted and blackmailed," Leah says, "and then they have to steal or they have to work extra to pay off these perpetrators."

Girls are lured with modeling promises and validation. Leah works with a survivor named Pearl who "was a young girl in high school trafficked by her boyfriend and her boyfriend's father every single day while in high school going home at night."

The medical system has become another entry point. "In the bottom of every single hospital, there is a Child Protective Service advocate person that works there and they also have a magistrate that is on call 24 hours a day," Leah reveals. "You can come and check into the hospital and you never check out with your children."

Johnny explains the financial incentive: "For every dollar they collect, the program gets reimbursed 66 cents... They don't make money when the kids go home. They make money when they place them."

Even more disturbing, Leah has uncovered evidence suggesting refugees are being placed as foster parents, creating pathways for children to disappear internationally. When she brought this information to the Maricopa County Sheriff, her "one hour meeting ended up being 15 minutes. He excused himself out of that meeting and didn't want to discuss it any longer."

What can ordinary people do to stop this?

Both Leah and Johnny emphasize that awareness is the first weapon. Parents must educate children about privacy—location services on photos, oversharing sports schedules and school information, the dangers lurking in Snapchat and Roblox.

"When you post a picture on the Internet, it has location services," Robbin reminds viewers. "Even if you don't tell people... someone's watching and they know the exact location."

Johnny, who operates under We Expose Monsters Media Group, is building new tools and systems to help families navigate and resist these predatory structures. Leah is launching a court-watching program that requires only time and minimal cost—ordinary citizens witnessing and documenting to hold corrupt officials accountable.

"It's going to show these courts, we're not stepping down, we're stepping up," Leah says. "And it's not going to be eight of us, it's going to be 8 million of us."

Robbin calls for technological solutions too: LIDAR imaging to detect tunnel systems used for trafficking, particularly in Hawaii where children are moved through subterranean networks to boats in international waters.

The episode closes with a call that extends beyond any single action: "When you fail to protect the defenseless, you have lost your way as a race," Robbin states. "It's time to stand up for the defenseless... We're talking about baby's lives here. We're talking about innocence here. And we're talking about your family."

Watch the full episode to hear Leah and Johnny's complete testimony, learn the specific signs of trafficking in your community, and discover how you can join the growing movement to protect children. This is not comfortable viewing—but it is necessary. As Robbin says: "Once you know, you know."

For those ready to support frontline advocates like Leah and Johnny, the full conversation includes information on how to get involved with court-watching initiatives, advocate training, and the practical tools being built to dismantle these systems "brick by brick."

▶ Watch the full episode on humankind →