May 2025
Shocked by the rise in online sexual exploitation of children, last month property entrepreneur Tyler Newman completed the gruelling Marathon des Sables to support IJM’s work to protect children from this abuse.
Having run only 21 km throughout the whole of 2024, Tyler completed the gruelling 250km ultra-marathon in the Sahara Desert in 62 hours, raising more than £65,000 for IJM.
For nine days, Tyler swapped his self-professed luxurious lifestyle for ‘the toughest footrace on earth’, carrying his own gear and food and sleeping on the sand with no access to a shower or even a toilet.
Giving himself just weeks to prepare, Tyler faced soaring temperatures between 40 to 50 degrees during the day and desert storms at night.
Tyler reflected, “12 weeks ago, I wasn’t fit enough to run a half marathon. But we all underestimate what the mind and body is capable of if you just commit to going all in."
“My top tips for anyone else thinking about doing the Marathon des Sables would be to get a coach who’s done it before and prepare yourself psychologically as it’s more of a psychological challenge than a physical challenge.”
In the moments where he was battling heat exhaustion and felt unable to go on, Tyler said he was driven forward by the stories he’d heard of children in the Philippines being abused via livestream for sex offenders in the UK to watch live online.
“I am not a runner. I don’t even like running. In 2024, I ran a total of just 21 km. Training for this event has been brutal—but if pushing my body and mind to the limit means we can help these children, then it is a small price to pay.”
Tyler raised more than £1,000 for every hour – which will help IJM support police to bring multiple children to safety from online sexual exploitation and provide them with ongoing trauma-informed support. He’s hoping to increase this total over the coming weeks.
Abigail Sumption from IJM UK shared, “Online sexual exploitation of children is growing, and urgently needs to be stopped. We’re so incredibly grateful to Tyler for choosing to support IJM’s work to protect children from this disturbing abuse.
“No child should be abused in these ways, and it will take a movement of people like Tyler, as well as governments, police, tech companies, survivors and NGOs, to help stop this crime.”
Online sexual abuse and exploitation of children is a brutal crime where children are sexually abused by traffickers, often family members, in places like the Philippines, who share or livestream the abuse for sex offenders around the world, in places like the UK, to watch.
Europol recently warned that: ‘Live-distant child abuse [livestreamed abuse] is a persistent threat, where offenders watch child sexual abuse on demand with the support of one or more facilitators who perpetrate the abuse on the victim(s) in exchange* for payment.
'Livestreamed abuse stands out as the main form of commercial sexual exploitation of children.’
Western sex offenders are driving the demand for this abuse. According to UK NCA, the UK is the third largest global consumer of livestreamed child abuse. Sex offenders in places like the UK pay Philippine-based traffickers as little as £15 to participate in online sexual abuse of children.
In 2022 alone, nearly half a million Filipino children, or roughly 1 in 100 children, were trafficked to produce child sexual exploitation material for profit, according to estimates from IJM and the University of Nottingham Rights Lab.
IJM has supported Filipino authorities to bring more than 1,400 children to safety from abuse. Thanks to the donations raised by Tyler, IJM and police will be able to find and bring even more children to safety.
Inspired by Tyler's challenge?
You too could take on an epic fundraising challenge to make an impact for children around the world!
Start your own fundraiser >>