Village Voice vs aplusk on Underage Sex Trafficking

Village Voice Calls out Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore on 'Real Men Don't Buy Girls' Ad Campaign

The Village Voice has a scathing article on the myths and realities of underage sex trafficking in the US. The article, titled "Real Men Get Their Facts Straight", basically calls bullshit on the "100,000 to 300,000 at-risk children a year" statistic that has been bandied about by many major news outlets. The Voice particularly targets Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore, whose "Real Men Don't Buy Girls" campaign rests on that inflated statistic.

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Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore's DNA, with the help of  Trevor and Maggie Nielson, targeted the demand side of child prostitution with their "Real Men" campaign, which mainly drew attention for being so bizarre. The campaign also makes a very easy target for those calling out social crusaders on false statistics.

The problem is that the number (1000,000 to 300,000 kids being trafficked per year) is beyond inflated. The real number is closer to 250 per year, and that's a generous estimate. However, which number do you think will drive donations to non-profits? 250 or 300,000?

The point being, if you have a scary number, you will raise more money. How much of that money goes towards actually helping teenage prostitutes? $0. The rest goes towards campaigns which, while fighting for a just cause, are often driven by religious belief ("underage sex is wrong, period") or moral panic ("think of the children!!!"). The truth simply gets drowned out.

It's worth pointing out that The Village Voice has a horse in this race: it runs adult-oriented classifieds in its print version, and via Backpage in its online version.

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Side note: The "Real Men Don't Buy Girls" campaign reminds me of loveLife's weird billboards in South Africa circa 2001, in that neither campaign's media seemed to have much to do with their causes. This is not to question either group's commitment, only their execution. In DNA's case, changing the statistic in the "Real Men" ads would not make them any more effective: "real men are distrustful of robots" still has nothing to do with human trafficking.