'Missing, Sex Trafficked' Children Neither Missing, Nor Victims Of Sex Trafficking
from the moral-panics-are-the-worst dept
For quite some time we’ve highlighted the horrible laws being pushed by aggressively misrepresenting the size of the problem of sex trafficking — and especially sex trafficking of children. This is not to say that it never happens. Nor is it to suggest that the crime of sex trafficking, especially of minors, is not horrific and hugely problematic. But we shouldn’t overreact to false information. A year ago, we looked at some of the numbers being presented in favor of passing FOSTA, and found they were almost entirely bullshit. This included Rep. Ann Wagner’s (who is the leading pusher of bad laws around “sex trafficking”) claim child sex trafficking alone was a $9.5 billion industry. As we noted, this number came from a bizarre nonsensical extrapolation of a very misleading and confused report by ICE that covered issues of smuggling (not just sex trafficking). Other stats — such as the supposed number of kids “lured” into sex trafficking — showed even more extrapolation, while police were finding very, very few actual cases of this happening.
But, the narrative has been set and the media makes it into reality, even if… it’s not. Take this headline from the NY Post from last week, claiming “123 missing children found in Michigan during sex trafficking operation”:
Wow. That would be a pretty astoundingly successful police operation, and certainly gives weight to the idea that so many kids are lured into sex trafficking rings and then disappear and go missing. Except… details matter. And deep in the NY Post story they actually admit that out of the 123 missing kids only three were “identified as possible sex trafficking victims.” So, uh, why does the headline suggest that all 123 kids are sex trafficking victims when it’s not clear if any are, and clear that the vast majority are not?
And then there’s this: only four of the kids were actually missing.
What’s more, all but four of the “missing children” were not actually missing. In the remaining cases, minors were listed in a police database as missing but had since been found or returned home on their own. “Many were (homeschooled),” Lt. Michael Shaw told The Detroit News. “Some were runaways as well.”
Indeed, if you look at the report, it notes that all of the kids outside of those four “were found safe with their parents or guardians.”
So, remember, the headline screamed that 123 missing children were found in a sex trafficking “operation.” Now it seems that most of them were “found” at home with their parents, and only three of them might have been victims of sex trafficking. These seem like important details, especially when you have election officials like Rep. Ann Wagner pushing a vast surveillance bill on the basis of the problem of sex trafficking. Pushing bogus information like over a hundred missing kids being engaged in sex trafficking only helps build that narrative — one that appears to actually be much, much more limited than the media or lying politicians will let you know about.
Filed Under: ann wagner, exaggeration, fosta, moral panic, police, sex trafficking, surveillan
Comments on “'Missing, Sex Trafficked' Children Neither Missing, Nor Victims Of Sex Trafficking”
It sounds like newspapers have mastered the art of clickbait.
Article Title Correction:
Michigan investigation reveals that less than 3% of chidren listed a ‘Missing’ are actually sex-trafficked.
Re: Article Title Correction:
“Michigan investigation reveals that less than 3% of chidren listed a ‘Missing’ are actually sex-trafficked.”
Won’t sell many papers or get many clicks with that. Truth doesn’t sell…. but lies, well that will being in money.
Re: Article Title Correction:
Correction: change “are actually” to “might be”.
Re: Article Title Correction:
Confused law enforcement agents discover that 97% of children found were not actually missing.
In other news: law enforcement agents unable to find military equipment given to them by the DOJ.
Re: Article Title Correction:
I’m surprised they didn’t go with the equally "true" headline:
75% of Missing Children Involved in Sex-trafficking
3 out of four is much easier to understand. Not "victims," though, that would require proof. Also, it’s much more media friendly than having to bring up that ~97% of the "missing" children were just late coming home, or attempted runaways.
Only 3% of Missing Children Actually Kidnapped
No, doesn’t roll off the press quite so nicely.
Re: NOT
Near Future Article Title:
“DOJ Grant Funding Police Department’s New Sex Trafficking Task Force”
Even the USMS press release implies that all 123 kids were actually missing. Now, doing some due diligence and finding that your records are in need of update because the “missing” kids aren’t actually missing doesn’t exactly make for headlines, but even if the headline read “Four missing kids found” I’d be thinking “Hey good job guys!” so I don’t understand why they couldn’t just go with that.
So there’s an agenda here, or somebody is REALLY bad at writing press releases.
Re: Re:
They literally would have researched the data before writing the story, so they literally misrepresented reality on purpose. There’s no benefit of the doubt here.
using the information sociaty..
For mis information..
Dis information..
To hide and confuse all the issues and JUST LIE..
For a nation of “Truth, Justice, American way”..
I think we missed.
Found safe with their parents
That doesn’t mean much. Most kidnapped children will be found safe with a parent, because a parent is most often the kidnapper (IOW: a parent without legal custody takes the child, or a parent with part-time custody doesn’t return them).
123 Children Found in Michigan...
What I’d like to know, is why there were only 123 children found in the entire state during the sex trafficking operation. That seems a much larger item of concern than sex trafficking. It indicates that there’s not too much procreation going on there.
Re: 123 Children Found in Michigan...
That’s easy: the decision of whether or not to bring new life into this troubled world where we live is a difficult one; this just shows that the decision of whether or not to bring new life into Michigan has a much simpler answer.
It looks like we are in a new era. We are no longer in the information age and instead are in the disinformation age. The internet is powerful tool but garbage in, garbage out. People are mis trusting everything about everything they hear and read. Anti Vaxxers to Flat Earthers I think are a side effect of the of that disinformation campaign to religious extremes. How can you trust anything in news companies will post news that only about 2.4 of their data might have been correct.
Lies, Damn Lies and Politicans
‘Missing, Sex Trafficked’ Children Neither Missing, Nor Victims Of Sex Trafficking
Paraphrasing words attributed to one of America’s greatest wordsmiths – Mark Twain (aka Samuel Clemons):
Lies, damn lies and government spokespersons
What a disgrace that the worthless bi-partisan stooges comprising the two wings of the US’s most prominent political party – the war party – need to constantly resort to fictional narratives (ie lies) in order to justify/sway ignorant Americans into supporting their long march to tyranny.
I can counts!
OK class, of the children previously reported missing how many appeared to be victims of Sex Trafficking? Anyone?
NY Post do you have an answer?
Yes ma’am.
One, Two, no Three, Children were trafficked.
Re: I can counts!
Nice…
Emily Jacobs, the author, should hang her head in shame, but I don’t suppose she has any.
Why?
1. it sells newspapers (checkout line impulse buy)
2. it sells the idea “your tax dollars at work” (as opposed to going into someone’s pocket)–I mean, we can’t build up a decent budget deficit on just military hardware and tax cuts for the rich
Like a Portuguese Graveyard
Chopper goes down in a Portugal graveyard.
News reports the incident as “600 bodies found and counts are still going up, worst air accident ever!”
Re: Like a Portuguese Graveyard
lol. I was going to post that it’s good they didn’t drive by a school, the headline would be “957 children found in Michigan sex trafficking operation.”, but was late.
Well, anything to prove that FOSTA and SESTA worked…
There is a difference between the words "in" and "during"
Not so super man
Truth Justice and the American Way
You get one and its chosen for you if you have to deal with Americans
Yep.
Yep, just like I told you before. The Sex Trafficking hysteria is just a code word for prostitution. Keep making prostituion illegal, except now call it sex trafficking. In other words, no one would willingly have sex for money, so the only possibility is that they have been trafficked.
This is now and has always been Puritans disguised as feminists pushing anti-prostitution laws disguised as sex trafficking.
Only this time the penalties are multiplied 1000 times.Insanity multiplied.
Just remember. The fakery of sex trafficking numbers.
Just remember, that even willing prostitutes are considered sex trafficking victims when it comes to the stats.