The child trafficking panic for dummies
How worried should you be about the mommy bloggers?
Almost a year ago, I read Adrienne LaFrance's Atlantic cover story about QAnon, and quickly co-opted its premise—basically, that Q's rise represents the "birth of a new religion"—for anxiety fuel and to spice up Zoom calls with provocative and knowing comments like, "Were you aware that QAnon already has more adherents than The Seventh-day Adventists and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had in their first decades?"
A few months later, my wife, Leah Carroll, began reporting this story for Romper on mothers getting drawn into QAnon-promoted conspiracy theories about children being trafficked as sex slaves. In addition to being an author and a journalist, Leah is the person in our relationship who knows things: specifics of politicians' platforms, years-old celebrity gossip, plot points and character names on the prestige dramas we watch, etc. So when her article was finally completed and published last week, I thought I would ask her to break down the child trafficking panic, which seems bad, but isn't something I'm really inclined to fully unpack and draw conclusions about myself.
Leah answered these questions over email, as we sat in adjoining rooms of the same apartment we have both occupied for pretty much the entirety of this godforsaken pandemic. —Nick Catucci
I basically decided to quit worrying about QAnon after the insurrection failed and Biden made it into office. Why can't I just ignore it and enjoy our (temporary?) reprieve from authoritarianism and the imminent "hot vax summer"?
Well, I mean, you CAN. Or you can pretend, like the women in my story do, that you are solving a global conspiracy of child sex trafficking by sitting around with your girlfriends drinking wine and beading bracelets. But I happen to know you don't drink wine, so ...
Honestly, though, this isn't really a Q story, beyond the idea that because so many Q theories are insane—lizard people, 5G giving people Covid, Tom Hanks drinking the blood of infants to preserve his youth—the push to spread misinformation about child sex trafficking, which is more believable, was actually a brilliant marketing move by QAnon. And targeting mom bloggers and influencers with an innocuous sounding hashtag people aren't afraid to share (#savethechildren) was smart because that network is so wide and plugged-in.Â
Many of the women who bought into the idea that 300,000 children were being sex trafficked in this country don't identify as Q and some didn't even realize it was Q propaganda.Â
I'm pretty sure that—between the HBO doc [Q: Into the Storm] that outs the 8-kun guy (who btw ran a not-so-legal porn site) as Q and *waves hands wildly, spontaneously combusts* everything else—that QAnon as a national media phenomenon is on its way out.
So you're saying that QAnon and its radicalizing misinformation is on the decline, thanks to the demystification of Q, Trump leaving office, the ebbing of the pandemic, etc.?
Yes, Nick. That’s what I’m saying. Don’t worry, though, something equally terrible will fill that vacuum!
There are obvious parallels between the Satanic panic of the '80s and '90s and child sex trafficking theories of today. Would you say that one is more dangerous than the other?
This is a parallel that lots of people make and I think in many ways it's accurate. The Satanic Panic kicked off the "believe children" movement, which was quickly co-opted by Democrats and Republicans to pass some harmful legislation, like the Victims' Rights Act, that really only benefits the carceral system. In that sense the two are very alike. You can get any legislation passed today if you put the word "trafficking" in it (and these laws are almost always bipartisan). FOSTA, The EARN IT Act—these are laws that chip away at privacy and the very bedrock of a free internet. They also harm sex workers, undocumented workers, trans men and women, people who are drug addicted—the very people they are supposed to protect. They put all the power into the hands of law enforcement and, well, you know, ACAB.Â
So in terms of long-term damage, the question is basically what crowd-pleasing legislation politicians manage to ram through while voters are indulging this fantasy?
Precisely!
It's easy (and fun) for coastal elites to dismiss and ridicule Q adherents, but your piece takes a relatively sympathetic view of the moms and others who are rallying to the cause. Did your position on this phenomenon change at all over the course of your reporting?
LOL. My position did not change. Stranger kidnappings are so vanishingly rare in this country that it's farcical to devote time and money to preventing them. It's a panic that's been perpetuated because it creates a mutually beneficial feedback loop between the media (CLICKS!) and law enforcement (GRANTS! ATTENTION! HERO WORSHIP!). I did a twitter thread on this once!
That said, I don't fault these people as individuals. They really think they're doing something good. Do they have a terribly misguided white savior complex? Sure. But it's people like Tim Ballard from Operation Underground Railroad who are the ultimate bad actors here. He rode the Q coattails, now denies that and disavows them, and is making money hand over fist perpetuating lies. (VICE is doing great reporting on this.)
What's the relationship between conspiracy theories about child sex trafficking and the assumption that many adult sex workers are also being trafficked?
Operation Underground Railroad and SO MANY "anti-trafficking" organizations fundamentally disbelieve that there is such a thing as voluntary commercial sex work. They also see consensual survival sex work as a criminal act. They also think that watching pornography literally turns you into a globe-trotting pedophile.
I don't think they care at all about what happens to adult sex workers who get caught up in their raids and policies. A sex worker is seen as an imperfect victim who somehow brought violence onto themselves or are acting out of childhood trauma that has made them damaged goods forever.Â
There are so many good places to send your money if you care about the lives of sex workers and their families: Who's Corner Is It Anyway,Hacking and Hustling, Red Canary Song, SWOP Behind Bars, Survived and Punished. Donate and decriminalize.Â
I first learned the term "copaganda" during the Black Lives Matter protests last summer. Do you think there's an equivalent for child sex trafficking conspiracy theories? Like, isn't that kind of what the first season of True Detective is about?
OMG why is the twist in every prestige drama a child sex trafficking ring? Makes you almost wistful for the Dead Girl as a narrative conceit. Â
What's another good example? You always remember this stuff better than I do.
Wasn’t it a recent subplot in that show we desperation-watched, Clarice? It was a subplot on Grey’s Anatomy. Law and Order: SVU (which I LOVE, for the record) trots it out a few times a season. OK, none of these are prestige dramas.
Side note: Jacqui Shine recently followed up on her amazing oral history of the SVU animal trafficking episode in her newsletter, which everyone should subscribe to.
Finally, given what's been alleged about Jeffrey Epstein and cronies of his like Bill Clinton, and now, of course, Matt Gaetz, isn't it reasonable to worry that rich and powerful men are creating extensive hidden networks with the express purpose of raping and abusing underage girls?
Well, Matt Gaetz was allegedly paying for sex with girls on his public Venmo and powerful people in government knew what Epstein was up to for years. You don't need to create a hidden network. We are a country that doesn't care about the lives of girls or marginalized people. So in that sense it would be a pretty bad use of your time, from a doing-crimes perspective, to make it a conspiracy.