No, Human Traffickers are Not Coming for Your Children... Here's Why and What You Can Really Do To Help.
Of all the immoderate things that have come across our newsfeeds and social media pages in recent days, the QAnon conspiracy theory that claims a massive child abuse trafficking conspiracy that reaches the highest level of government is definitely the icing on the cake (though this is 2020, after all, so something else may be coming). If this were just a fringe theory held by a few random people, we wouldn't worry about it, but even relatively reasonable people are being sucked into the more nuanced versions of this conspiracy theory, so it's important to debunk it from start to finish. (And if you have no idea what we're talking about consider yourself lucky but also check out these discussions from The Week, the BBC, and Rolling Stone, among many others). Also check out our linked post this week to understand more about why fake news like this spreads so quickly (spoiler: because we're immoderately afraid!).
So first, what does this conspiracy theory entail? Without giving clicks to any sketchy sources, what we've noticed in our own feeds (and what the media from various sources has reported on) are the following claims:
Child sex abuse trafficking is an epidemic and can be linked to highly organized and widespread child trafficking rings.
These rings include people in the highest levels of power, including Democrats, Bill Gates, and the United Nations.
Those participating in these trafficking rings are almost exclusively liberal or left-leaning individuals or organizations.
What is also implied or explicitly stated in many of these posts is that COVID-19 is a hoax perpetuated in part to facilitate child sex trafficking through mask wearing and social isolation.
Posts will often claim that child trafficking is the "real" epidemic, again casting doubt on the reality of COVID-19.
Here's why this is immoderate:
This shouldn't actually require explanation, but here goes!
First, it's untrue. And our commitment as Radical Moderates is always to the truth, first and foremost, wherever that may lead. But you don't have to believe us on that...
because, second, this conspiracy relies on falsification of data and manipulation of various sources. For example, many posts will claim that 800,000 children disappear in the United States each year. That would in fact be an epidemic of child disappearance if it were true. The reality is much more nuanced. Of those children, most are teenage runaways and many have been taken by non-custodial parents. Most return home. Only around 300 children are abducted by strangers each year, which makes up just about .1% of the total number of children who go missing. None of this means trafficking isn't a problem. Children who run away are at the greatest risk of being coerced into sex work. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children estimates that around 15% of runaways end up victims of trafficking, which ends up being around 4,000 cases each year, most of whom are trafficked by people they know (not elite conspirators). Unfortunately, these numbers are themselves complicated, because many of these cases represent single instances that are reported multiple times (if a child runs away multiple times, each instance is recorded as a separate case), but many children aren't reported missing at all, so it's hard to know precisely what we're dealing with. But either way, we know that trafficking of children is real, but it's nowhere near the numbers being shared on social media.
The people sharing this info ignore the real victims. Sex traffickers are not targeting suburban kids from stable families, as is implied in many of the posts we've seen. The most likely children to end up being trafficked into sex work are precisely the victims that most people spreading QAnon conspiracies don't seem to care much about: low-income youth; Black and Latino kids and teens; LGBTQ youth in crisis; children and teens fleeing abusive homes; teens struggling with addiction; and so on. People who traffic children want easily manipulatable targets whose families may lack the resources or bandwidth to fight to bring them home.
It politicizes the pain of trafficking victims. Let's be clear: human trafficking is real and it strikes the most vulnerable among us. Teenage runaways, those struggling with poverty or addiction, children living in unstable or abusive homes are all the most likely victims of sex abuse and trafficking into sex work. Using their pain and suffering for political ends is very very gross.
It ignores the broader reality of child sex abuse, which is overwhelmingly most likely to be committed by a close relative, family friend, or someone the child knows well (teacher, religious leader, coach, etc.).
Finally, it ignores the reality of tradeoffs and perverse consequences. Anxiety about unlikely abduction will lead parents to make decisions that make their children even less safe. As just one example, you put your child at roughly 1,300% greater risk driving them to school each day rather than letting them walk unaccompanied. Car accidents are a much greater threat to children's lives than kidnappers/traffickers, but our fear of the latter makes us discount the reality of the former. Parents who don't let their children wear masks because they're afraid of child abduction are making us all less safe.
What's Actually Going On
There's a fair amount of evidence that QAnon is spreading false information ahead of the election and that Russia may be involved (also here) in facilitating that spread. The fact that most of the posts target liberal-leaning politicians suggests a political angle, but most sources we've read suggest that the real purpose is just to sow chaos and fear ahead of the 2020 election. Don't let them do this!
What Can You Do?
The best way to be a Radically Moderate citizen in an age of conspiracy theories is to recognize the symptoms and combat them in your own circle.
Challenge people's social media posts. Friends have told us that they were confused by posts on social media arguing, for example, that face masks make children targets for abduction. Recognize this and other more nuanced arguments as part of this project to hijack our country and use facts and persuasion to correct these falsehoods. But as always, be civil. Some people posting these ideas may not even know that they are perpetuating a harmful conspiracy theory. They may simply think they're spreading important information to keep children safe. Which leads to number two...
If any social media post seems surprising or too-crazy-to-be-true, do some digging before sharing. We didn't even realize the QAnon element to what we were seeing on social media until we Googled a suspect hashtag, but there's lots of evidence that the more outrageous-sounding fake news is, the more it gets shared. So if someone shares something that you've never heard of or that seems incredibly shocking, Google first, check a few different sources with different political leanings, and only then share.
Come armed with the real data on child sex abuse: abduction by strangers is very very rare; most sex abuse occurs in families or by close friends and acquaintances; most of the people posting on social media are not those whose children are at risk of sex trafficking, but they should know about organizations that work with victims and survivors (links to post below) and they should channel their energies to helping those groups; children in America have never lived in a safer time to be a child, despite what the internet tells us.
Ask for sources and evidence. Often, these posts are accompanied by standard language that says that the person has "done their research and you should do yours too." Ask for that research! Figure out what they're reading. If they're close enough to you, you can find ways to combat these sources. If they're mere acquaintances, you can at least throw a counter link (see above) into the fray and feel as though you've done your civic duty.
Many people on Twitter are bots. Focus your energy on people you actually know, with whom you have existing relationships. There's no point in wasting mental energy on robots, and it may actually do harm by promoting those posts.
Link up with real organizations in your community that assist survivors of human trafficking and sex abuse. There are tons (see below)! If this is a topic you're passionate about, there are plenty of ways to help that do not involve social media keyboard warriorism.
Focus on absolute, not relative risk. The sources we link to below all have good data, but because their goal is to highlight the extent of the issue they tend to make the world seem more dangerous than it actually is. Repeat to yourself: being a child in the United States has never been safer; my child has a much greater chance of being hit by a car than abducted by anybody; I can teach my children commonsense skills to keep them safe from people who want to harm them; my children are probably not at risk, but other people's are and I can try to help by volunteering with legitimate organizations.
RELIABLE RESOURCES FOR OUTREACH AND INFORMATION
The State Department's 2020 Trafficking in Persons Report provides a comprehensive global overview.
The Center for Missing and Exploited Children has comprehensive data and ways to get involved in preventing sex abuse and trafficking on their website.
THORN focuses on the role technology plays in aiding and preventing sex trafficking of children. The site has numerous resources for more information as well as how to get involved.
The Polaris Project has information and data on human trafficking in the United States.
How about you? Drop resources and ways to help that we've missed in the comments!