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Here’s why
Since World Day Against Human Trafficking hit a couple of weeks back, Instagram has been flooded with a plethora of people bemoaning our collective lack of care about child trafficking, specifically child sex trafficking, under hashtags like #SaveTheChildren, #ChildSexTrafficking, #EndHumanTrafficking. Many of them jumped head-long into conspiracy theories, providing zero evidence while connecting tenuous dots between child trafficking and the more fashionable right-wing conspiracies of the day:
The irony of this latest moral scare is all the more abundant since we know the factors that drive children to sell sex. In America, risk factors for child sex trafficking include:
- Homeless youth and runaways
- Those suffering poverty
- Those who have suffered physical or sexual abuse
- Those with disruptions in normal development
- Those in the foster care system
- Those who fit into the LGBT category
- Those suffering substance abuse issues
Note what’s missing: wearing a mask.
I’ll be the first to admit it’s fun, but calling out the ignorance of those who’ve embraced this latest moral crusade isn’t particularly helpful. The fact is child sex trafficking exists (even if labor trafficking is larger in scale). Whether their passion flows from a white-savior complex, a less self-indulgent desire to do good in the world, or a mixture of the two, when people are passionate about an issue of injustice, those of us also concerned can and should embrace that passion. We can also, of course, keep our critical faculties intact and call out mythology when we see and hear it. On that note, it’s worth quoting the Thai scholar of human trafficking, Siroj Sorajjakool:
Good intentions are not always beneficial if they lack clarity and understanding… It may be that in our enthusiasm to push for policies, programs, and…
