Protect Children. Expose Exploitation. Demand Accountability.
Child exploitation is happening in Minnesota communities, and increasingly through the devices children use every day. We’re here to expose it, prevent it, support those affected by it, and follow what happens when offenders enter Minnesota’s justice system.
KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN.
The Threat Has Changed.
Predators no longer need to physically approach a child to reach them.
Social media · Gaming platforms · Messaging apps · Chat rooms · Phones
Children can be groomed, solicited, manipulated, threatened, sextorted, and exploited without ever leaving their bedroom.
Parents need to understand the threat. Kids need to recognize it. Communities need to talk about it.
Eyes Open Minnesota exists to make sure we do.
Exploitation thrives in darkness. We keep Minnesota’s eyes open.
Eyes Open Minnesota exists to protect children from sexual exploitation and human trafficking by educating communities, supporting victims, exposing those who target children, supporting lawful efforts to stop offenders, and bringing transparency and accountability to the systems and public institutions entrusted with protecting Minnesota’s children.
Four Areas of Action
PROTECT — Give children and families the information they need to recognize grooming, sextortion, online solicitation, trafficking, and exploitation.
SUPPORT — Stand alongside victims, families, victim-service organizations, investigators, and law enforcement.
EXPOSE — Bring awareness to child exploitation and follow significant Minnesota criminal cases from charges through sentencing.
ADVOCATE — Examine Minnesota law, sentencing policy, plea agreements, judicial decisions, and legislation, and push for policies that better protect children.
COURT WATCH
An Arrest Isn’t the End of the Story.
Someone is arrested. A headline gets published. The public moves on. But the criminal case continues.
Charges can be reduced. Counts can be dismissed. Plea agreements can change the offense of conviction. Judges can impose probation, stayed sentences, departures, or prison.
We intend to keep watching.
Know What Your Child Is Facing Online.
Grooming rarely begins with an obvious threat. It usually builds one step at a time:
Attention and compliments
A friend request, often from someone posing as another teen
The conversation moves private
It turns sexual, then asks for an image
The threat: “Send more or everyone will see it.”
If someone threatens or pressures you online:
SCREENSHOT. BLOCK. TELL.
Accountability Matters.
Protecting Minnesota’s children requires more than catching offenders. It requires asking whether our laws, sentencing guidelines, plea agreements, courts, prosecutors, lawmakers, and public institutions are producing outcomes that truly protect children.
We use public records and verified information to help Minnesotans understand those decisions, and the difference between what an offense could carry and what Minnesota’s sentencing system actually presumes.
Facts first. Children always.
OUR COMMITMENT TO ACCURACY
These cases affect victims, defendants, and families permanently. We clearly distinguish every stage: Charged · Accused · Pleaded guilty · Convicted · Acquitted · Dismissed · Sentenced. When information changes, our reporting changes with it. Protecting children doesn’t require exaggerating the truth. The truth is powerful enough.
OUR VISION
A Minnesota where predators fear accountability more than children fear speaking up.
FOLLOW THE MISSION
Help us keep Minnesota’s eyes open.
Follow us for Court Watch updates, child-safety tips you can share with other parents, and alerts when lawmakers need to hear from you. Every follow and share puts this information in front of another family.
GET INVOLVED
Join Us
Keeping children safe requires an informed community. Follow our work, share our resources, talk with your kids, support victim-service organizations, and contact lawmakers when child-protection laws need attention.
KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN.
DONATE
Support Our Work
Your gift funds child-safety education, Court Watch reporting, and research that helps Minnesotans push for stronger protections.
Eyes Open Minnesota is a Minnesota nonprofit organization.
GET HELP
Need Help Now?
You don’t have to be certain to make a report. Trained professionals will take it from there.
Immediate danger: call 911
National Human Trafficking Hotline: 1-888-373-7888 or text 233733
NCMEC CyberTipline (online exploitation and sextortion): 1-800-843-5678 or report.cybertip.org
Dodge & Olmsted Victim Services 24/7 crisis line: 507-289-0636