How #SaveOurChildren is Harming Kids at Risk, and How To Actually Help Them
If you’ve been on social media at all in the last few months, you’ve likely seen the trending hashtag, #SaveOurChildren. Your friends who share this campaign believe that they’re helping children who are caught up in sex trafficking rings, but in reality, they’re making it harder for real victims of this crime to be saved. Though the tag is bringing a wider scale of awareness to child sex trafficking, #SaveOurChildren isn’t a way for everyday people to get involved and make a difference in the world; it’s just the latest ploy by QAnon to distract from the real horrors we face every day.
What Is QAnon?
According to Julia Wong at The Guardian, QAnon is a giant web of conspiracy theories where the core belief is that wealthy, Satanic Democrats and Hollywood elites are trotting around the globe sex trafficking children left and right, and no one is stopping them. An example of this that may be familiar to you is Pizzagate, where a man shot up a pizzeria back in 2016 believing that he would be saving children held captive in its basement by Bill and Hillary Clinton. Pizzagate, just like #SaveOurChildren, started as a social media rumor, then evolved to something bigger and more dangerous. Even if misinformation seems harmless, it can lead to situations like Pizzagate, where civilians feel they must take the law into their own hands. I’m as much of a fan of Batman as the next person, but real-world vigilantism can lead to innocent people getting hurt.
Why Should We Care?
It’s not just the fact that people actually believe this stuff enough to bring it into the real world, though it is dangerous that individuals would take up arms over something without reliable sources. The biggest danger here is the fact that it’s harming children who have actually been sex trafficked. Believing that children are being snatched up by Wayfair and the Clintons harms public understanding of how this stuff actually happens in real life, to real children (more on that later). Not only this, but QAnon is also causing direct roadblocks to saving the victims of child sex trafficking. When the Wayfair scandal went live, the people who believed in it actually clogged up the National Human Trafficking Hotline (1 (888) 373–7888). While this may not seem like a big deal, it could stop people from being able to report sketchy situations, like if they see a child who resembles a missing person. This directly harms victims of sex trafficking, and could be the reason some children are never seen again. Situations like this show these rumors aren’t harmless, and they make it harder to save real victims.
How Does It Really Happen?
So if the Hollywood Satanists aren’t the ones stealing children, who’s to blame? Well, it’s probably just the creepy guy who lives two streets down from you. The most prominent way children are roped into sex trafficking is by grooming, especially when it takes places over the Internet. The United States Department of Justice explains in more detail, “After cultivating a relationship with the child and engendering a false sense of trust, the trafficker will begin engaging the child in prostitution, and use physical, emotional, and psychological abuse to keep the child trapped in a life of prostitution.” So, children join chat rooms, Facebook groups, and other online gatherings, and that’s when they are contacted by a predator. “But I taught my kid not to talk to creepy strangers online!” I hear you shouting. I know, but these people have been doing this for years, and they know exactly what to say to make it feel like they just want to be a friend. They prey on your child’s need for empathy, and they make them feel important and listened to. These things are happening every day, and belief in QAnon conspiracy theories only makes the public less likely to see the true dangers that their children go through. The Internet has made it worlds easier for human traffickers to find naive, impressionable children to prey on, and directing our attention to things like Pizzagate, the Wayfair scandal, and #SaveOurChildren instead of the everyday occurrences of these situations will only endanger our children more.
What Can We Do?
Instead of continuing to circulate hashtags that spread misinformation, the best place to start to make real change for victims of human trafficking is at the local level. Organizations, such as Stand Against Trafficking, are working here in the Ozarks to make change in our communities and on the national level. If getting involved with an organization isn’t an option for you, simply educating your children on Internet safety is a great place to start. A lot of children fall prey to trafficking because they want to feel important, loved, and mature. Talking with your children, and really listening, can help them feel secure at home, so they don’t go looking for validation elsewhere. #SaveOurChildren isn’t going to save our children, but we can begin working toward that goal, together.
