How a hashtag is harming human trafficking victims

I am not writing about conspiracy theorists.

I am not interested in delving into the topic of what people chose to believe about reality because other writers are already analyzing this phenomenon with more eloquence and analysis invested.

I am here to write about Hotline and behaviors. Particularly how the behavior of sharing the “savethechildren” hashtag is now negatively impacting human trafficking hotlines. I wanted to highlight this with an illustration because I realize there are a lot of people that are not as intimately acquainted with the nature of hotline calls or how people even access them. There are very common factors in the scenario of calling a hotline that serves victim/survivors of violence and abuse. That is the story I wish to write about today.

This week a blogger and a journalist for the New York Times, wrote pieces uncovering a distressing trend that has surfaced recently (found in the links). The use of sharing post with the hashtag #savethechildren is now being linked to increase traffic to the hotlines that service victims of human trafficking. People are believing that celebrities are forming a secret human trafficking ring, they share post with the hashtag “save the children”, and in this evocative moment decide to pick up the phone and ask advocates what is being done about it.

In ten years of doing advocacy for abuse survivors I had not heard something like this happening. What I read stated that hotlines were being flooded with calls and advocates had to spend time screening baseless claims that celebrities have secret trafficking rings. Read this again – Instead of picking up the call from a victim of abuse or a person trying to help them – Advocates are listening to people talking about suspicions of sex rings!

I have worked in a hotline and in crisis centers for survivors of intimate partner violence.

The window a person has while calling a hotline to receive support is both short and critical. The experience can be the make or break of a very dangerous situation. A person in crisis works up the courage to reach out for help either by themselves or with the help of a supportive person. In that moment when an advocate or social worker is reach, the person receives information and a service that can begin a fresh start.

As advocates in the New York Times described, it is good when people take an interest in helping survivors of human trafficking. It is always evocative to hear that a child is being abused and trafficked, and this pushes people to want to protect. But when the interest turns into a behavior that can cause more harm to victims of trafficking, this is when people must stop and think – is this post even worth placing a person in danger? Am I cutting off someone from accessing help?

So I want you to take a moment to put yourself in another person’s shoes. Think about this process clearly before you react to a post on Facebook and decide to share a hashtag. Maybe if you took the time to think who a victim is, you will make a more educated decision. Let me further pain the picture for you. (Trigger Warning / Scenario Narrative: Abuse, Trafficking)

A young person is subjected to abuse and exploitation from someone who is constantly monitoring their movements. They can hardly walk from point A to point B without having to report where they go, what they do, who they meet. They undergo any manner of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse. This person has been beaten for not following orders, for not being pleasing to the person who controls them. That person who controls them often claims to love them and have their best interest. For the longest time a way out of this painful situation seems out of reach because the gaslighting, the whiplash of emotions and circumstances make it difficult to distinguish if there is a safe way out, if there is hope, if anyone cares. They finally receive information of a hotline. They find a way, a moment to dial that phone number, perhaps with the help of a friend who gives them enough privacy in their living room for a good two hours between cooking dinner and putting the kids to sleep.

This person would dial the phone number, there is perhaps a period of waiting and then a voice appears on the other side that begins to speak to them. There is a supportive conversation that begins to explore options, steps to get out safely, information about a shelter, transportation, and counseling. Things that can be done immediately and things that can be done down the road. The person hangs up the phone, they can breathe a bit better and they have some clarity on what steps to take for the first time in a very long time.

This is the person that is trying to reach a hotline that is now not as available because people are keeping the line busy to talk about suspicions.

How helpful is it to a person being exploited to jam a hotline because you just had to share that very evocative memes or that Facebook post about “save the children”. You are not saving any children. You are not doing anything other than causing fear and making someone pick up a phone to exhaust the limited resources trafficking victims have to escape their abusers and exploiters. These traffickers are not celebrities, they are ex-boyfriends, aunts, uncles, classmates, and acquaintances they went on a trip with.

So before you feel entitled to #savethechildren by posting a Facebook update maybe take the time to think of that person who will soon make that decision. In the time of coronavirus when a hotlines may be the best and safest option left, is taking part of a trending topic worth cutting off a life line for someone who needs help?