Isaiah 1:17 says, “Learn to do right; seek justice.” That has been Compassion’s approach to child protection and safeguarding from the beginning. We are committed to continually learning, speaking up for the vulnerable, and pursuing justice whenever wrongdoing is identified or even suspected. That commitment drives our ongoing investment in people, processes, and technology designed to strengthen protections for every child we serve.
Protecting children is, and will always be, our highest priority. Compassion has and continues to develop an ever-evolving comprehensive safeguarding ecosystem that includes child protection policies, mandatory trainings, screening processes, correspondence reviews, reporting mechanisms, investigations, ongoing monitoring, and dedicated child protection professionals throughout our global ministry.
Recent articles paint an incomplete and misleading portrayal of Compassion's long-standing child protection and safeguarding efforts. In our commitment to transparency before and after publication, we provided the journalist with detailed information about Compassion’s entire safeguarding and child protection ecosystem, including how every sponsor letter is reviewed before delivery. Sadly, much of that information was not included in the articles and most of our responses were buried in a link later in the first piece.
Safeguarding is like a tapestry that grows stronger with many layers woven together. One of those layers is a Compassion developed AI model, called PATCh (Protect All The Children)—an innovative, proprietary technology that screens people and content who may engage with participants registered in our programs. PATCh is a visionary AI product, which has components still under development and is specifically designed to complement our current systems and serve as an additional layer of protection to identify potential risks and better protect children.
One of the functions of PATCh is to analyze letter correspondence and flag potential content concerns for further review. These alerts are not determinations of misconduct—rather, these alerts help identify communications that may warrant additional review by our safeguarding experts. Human review is still ongoing. We have not abandoned the human review process for AI and do not intend to do so.
The media reports blur the distinction between potential alerts flagged by an AI tool in development and confirmed safeguarding concerns that require follow up action. It’s easy to look at the numbers being used and think Compassion sponsor correspondence is harming children by the thousands. But that’s not true. Flags are not harms. They are an AI model asking a human to look at something to determine if there’s anything harmful there.
The reports would have you believe that if the AI model flags it, no further review is necessary; it must be true. But we know that’s not true. AI is not perfect. In this case, the AI model is still in development. Letter content that triggered an initial alert during the recent AI test may be, and in most cases are, phrases that are appropriate and supportive in the context of a sponsor/participant relationship (e.g., sponsors telling their sponsored child “Jesus loves you and so do I.”). Right now, our teams are reviewing a sub-set of the flagged examples that will help us refine the model to more accurately flag the types of content that warrant our attention. A flag is the beginning of a review process. Not the end of one. Acting on the flags alone would be irresponsible and could harm both children and sponsors.
Furthermore, the AI test was conducted on a set of old letters, sent between 2017 – 2025. At the time those letters were received they went through our existing child/youth safeguarding processes that were already in place. Any letters that were identified to have potentially harmful content during that period were dealt with at that time. This is our safeguarding tapestry at work.
We recognize that child protection work requires constant vigilance, humility, and continuous improvement. That is why Compassion continues to invest in dedicated people, robust processes, specialized expertise, and innovative technology designed to strengthen safeguards and respond to emerging risks. In fact, the real story here is of a 75-year-old organization that is thoughtfully exercising due diligence as it invests in, innovates, and pioneers in the child protection and safeguarding space.
We welcome thoughtful conversations about child protection and believe such conversations are best served by complete and accurate information. Thoughtful conversations are not one-sided. Compassion remains fully committed to identifying, learning, responding, and adapting—doing everything reasonably possible to safeguard every child entrusted to our care.
Micah 6:8 tells us to “Act justly…” (we take child protection seriously and investigate every concern) “…and to love mercy…” (we remember there are children, sponsors, staff and communities on the other side of these conversations) “…and to walk humbly with your God” (we acknowledge that safeguarding requires continual learning and improvement. We carefully and prayerfully seek God’s guidance as we listen for His voice, follow His leading and faithfully steward the children He has entrusted to our care).