The Futile Quest for Hard Numbers on Child Sex Trafficking
As if we needed any more problems in 2020, the last few months have made it increasingly difficult to separate fact from fiction when it comes to child sex trafficking.
It was ― or at least should have been ― obvious that the online furniture retailer Wayfair was not selling children in overpriced cabinets. But what about those “Save the Children” rallies a few weeks later? Or all those posts bouncing around social media claiming that children were disappearing by the thousands?
Child sex trafficking is a fraught, troubling topic that’s hard to talk about in any medium and even harder online. But I’m here to help. For almost a year, I’ve been talking to anti-trafficking charities, academic experts and sex workers about the real threats to children and how they differ from the sensationalized screenshots currently taking over the internet.
The biggest problem, I’ve found, is the definition of “child sex trafficking” itself. Under the law, anyone under 18 who trades sex for money, drugs, a place to stay or anything else of value is a victim of trafficking. They don’t have to be recruited by a pimp, moved across state lines or forced into prostitution. A homeless runaway having sex with some sleazeball in exchange for a warm bed is a tragedy, but it’s a less salacious one than the “Taken” myths that trafficking memes circulating on social media imply. It’s also far more common.
Sketchy statistics also make it nearly impossible to know what to think about child sex trafficking. The internet is awash in exaggerated, misleading and downright fabricated numbers about how many children are forced into the sex trade every year.
This is my attempt to debunk all the false trafficking numbers and walk you through the reliable ones. Because child sex trafficking is indeed something that deserves your moral attention. But it looks nothing like the memes you see on social media.
