Why Do People Believe Conspiracy Theories About Human Trafficking?

The rise in myths and conspiracy theories about human trafficking have been one of the most frustrating parts of being a child abuse professional over the past few years. It has been a deadly game of whack a mole, because as soon as one myth or conspiracy theory is debunked, yet another arises.

Dr. Maureen Kenny, a professor of psychology at Florida International University, set out to explore why and how these conspiracy theories were endorsed by a diverse college population in hopes that this would give us insight into better education strategies for the wider public. If you have ever moaned and groaned your way through a media report with whackadoodle ideas about trafficking or rolled your eyes at a movie that depicted it all wrong, this episode is for you. Please take a listen.

Topics in this episode:

• Origin story (1:55)
• What is human trafficking? (3:01)
• Why the uptick in myths and conspiracy theories? (5:06)
• Why we want to believe (13:13)
• Language choices (16:42)
• What kids need to know (18:49)
• Surprising findings (22:41)
• The scale of misinformation (24:41)
• Influencing the influencers (26:15)
• Future research (31:27)
• Advice for child abuse professionals (37:40)
• One bright note (38:50)
• For more information (40:10)

Links:

Maureen C. Kenny, Ph.D., professor, associate chair Academic Personnel and Diversity, Florida International University

“Conspiracy Theories of Human Trafficking: Knowledge and Perceptions Among a Diverse College Population,” Maureen C. Kenny, Claire Helpingstine, and Tracy Borelus (2023), Journal of Human Trafficking, DOI: 10.1080/23322705.2023.2225367

The study Teresa mentions: “‘Influencing the Influencers:’ A Field Experimental Approach to Promoting Effective Mental Health Communication on TikTok,” Matt Motta, Yuning Liu, and Amanda Yarnell (2023); there are multiple news stories about the study, including a recent NPR article by Andrea Muraskin (January 5, 2024)

Dr. Kenny suggests these websites to learn more about myths and facts of human trafficking:

• Polaris Project 
• U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office on Trafficking In Persons, OUT OF THE SHADOWS: Exposing the Myths of Human Trafficking (hhs.gov) 
• National Human Trafficking Hotline: Myths & Facts

For more information about National Children’s Alliance and the work of Children’s Advocacy Centers, visit our website at NationalChildrensAlliance.org. Or visit our podcast website at OneInTenPodcast.org. And join us on Facebook at One in Ten podcast.

Transcript

Season 6, Episode 1

“Why Do People Believe Conspiracy Theories About Human Trafficking?”, with Maureen C. Kenny, Ph.D.

[Intro music begins]

[Intro]

[00:09] Teresa Huizar:
 Hi, I’m Teresa Huizar, your host of One in Ten. In today’s episode, “Why Do People Believe Conspiracy Theories About Human Trafficking?”, I speak with Dr. Maureen Kenny, professor of psychology at Florida International University. 

Now, as child abuse professionals, we know that over the last 10 or 15 years, human trafficking, including child sex trafficking, has received much-needed attention. From policy makers passing laws that have strengthened our public policy response to this, to CACs [Children’s Advocacy Centers] and MDTs [multidisciplinary teams] adding this to the array of types of child abuse and exploitation that we deal with every day, hospitals now screen for it, and the rise in media attention has yielded greater public awareness of these pernicious crimes overall.

All good, right? Well, not quite. 

One of the most frustrating parts of being a child abuse professional over the past few years has been the parallel rise in widespread myths and conspiracy theories about human trafficking. It has been a deadly game of whack a mole because as soon as one myth or conspiracy theory is debunked, yet another arises.

As you will hear, Dr. Kenny set out to explore why and how these myths were endorsed by a diverse college population in hopes that this would give us insight into better education strategies for the wider public. If you have ever moaned and groaned your way through a media report with whackadoodle ideas about trafficking or rolled your eyes at a movie that depicted it all wrong, this episode is for you. Please take a listen.

[Intro music begins to fade out]

[01:55] Teresa Huizar:
Welcome to One in Ten.

Maureen Kenny: 
Hello. It’s great to be here.

Teresa Huizar: 
So I’m wondering how you came to this work examining the myths and conspiracy theories about human trafficking?

Maureen Kenny: 
Well, that’s a great question. My lab and I have been interested in work in human trafficking, mostly working with victims or individuals who have experienced trafficking but also educating people about trafficking. 

And during the pandemic, we were, you know, quite busy working on our research and we got very interested in all the conspiracy theories that were really becoming very popularized during that time, right? During the early stages of the pandemic, people were spending a lot of time online and, you know, there was all this sort of conspiracy theory information coming out.

And we got interested in that and said, you know, “It’s amazing that people really believe some of this stuff,” you know? And that’s sort of what led to the study, you know, let’s look at this a little bit closer and see what our college population thinks.

[03:01] Teresa Huizar: 
Well, I was delighted to see it.

I mean, normally, just because of our topic, we don’t necessarily generally cover research topics in which basically an adult population is being asked something unless that something is being asked about kids. But because so many of these myths that attend to adult human trafficking also attend to kids who were trafficked, we thought it might be really helpful for our audience to hear more about your very interesting study. 

So that we’re not perpetuating any myths ourselves, I’d like you, for our audience, just to level set a little bit. When we talk about human trafficking, exactly what are we talking about? How common is it? You know, what are the facts? 

Maureen Kenny: 
Yeah, so it’s probably more common than people think, although, like with other types of, you know, victimization and crimes, reporting varies. Right? So our prevalence rates aren’t exact. But we’re talking about people that are—and there are federal definitions of this. Right? We have definitions put out by the government about this. But, you know, it’s people who, particularly when they’re youth, against their will, through coercion or fraud—or in cases of youth, that doesn’t even have to be present—are being forced to engage in either labor, right?, work, labor trafficking, or sex trafficking, you know, sexual acts. And this isn’t of their own volition, right? As I mentioned, there’s a level of force or fraud there.

[04:27] Teresa Huizar: 
Right. Some sort of manipulation, that kind of thing.

Maureen Kenny: 
Right. And I think “manipulations” is a great term in that, that feeds in a little bit to some of the myths. Because there’s an idea that, you know, to sort of fast-forward a little bit, we see a lot of ideas around imagery of somebody in chains or shackles, or, you know, behind a, you know, a fence or like, those sort of levels of constraint. And that’s not really typical of the kinds of situations with human trafficking. You know, people are being maybe emotionally manipulated or bonding with the person that is their offender, but they’re not necessarily being held physically by force. 

[05:06] Teresa Huizar: 
I appreciate you talking a little bit about some of the myths versus, you know, actuality. And I want to get into a little more about the myths and conspiracy theories in a moment. 

But I want to sort of back up to a minute to something you alluded to a minute ago, which is what contributed to this I think substantial uptick in conspiracy theories and, you know, myths, miseducation about this topic?

What, you know, beyond the pandemic—which I think is a very interesting thing you’re pointing out, which is that people spent way too much time on their phones and in front of the computer and, you know, watching TV and all of those things that we all did when we were trapped at home. But what are other things that contribute to this sort of perpetuation of myths and the development of them?

Maureen Kenny: 
Yeah, I mean, some of it—and we mentioned this in the article and we asked our participants about it—is, you know, ideas put out by by QAnon. You know, ideas that had to relate to celebrities being involved with human trafficking. You know, accusing the Clintons of a “Pizzagate,” you know, and running a trafficking ring out of a basement of a pizza parlor. Some of those myths had their origin there and then just sort of kind of grew on the internet with people saying, “Yes, you know, that that’s true. You know, I have information about that.” But, of course, none of these have been validated. Right? That’s what makes the myths. 

You know, the, the Wayfair furniture one is another myth. And we asked about this in the study that got, you know, people started to connect dots, like, “Yeah, why are these cabinets so expensive? And why does this cabinet have a name that sounds like, you know, somebody’s name?” Right? And I don’t know where the listeners are in the country, but there’s like, an Ashley furniture store, right? That’s a name, but we don’t think it’s a ring for human trafficking, you know. Companies use logarithms and other things to develop names for furniture that are appealing to people, you know. And this sort of got confabulated into these ideas of “Yes! This is what’s happening!” And again, these, like loosely connecting these sort of dots that don’t really go together. 

And I think some of it, too, is people think that they are on a sort of, you know, hunt for putting together these pieces of information, but they don’t really go together. And there’s really no evidence. 

So, as you said, I mean, people spent a lot of time on the internet. People do that anyway, right? They did it maybe more during COVID, but—and I think it also, I think they get perpetuated because trafficking is something that people are afraid of, right? There’s a real fear of trafficking, as well there should be. And so I think some of these myths play into, “Wow, this is really happening everywhere,” you know, “And this is how it’s happening,” you know, if that makes sense?

[07:57] Teresa Huizar: 
You know, it’s interesting what you’re pointing out, which is that, not unlike other things, that social media also has the ability to spread misinformation—

Maureen Kenny: 
  [Laughter]

Teresa Huizar: 
—widely—

Maureen Kenny: 
Yes.

Teresa Huizar: 
—and quickly and create almost a atmosphere of sort of mass hysteria around some of these things so that people are willing to believe things that are pretty incredulous. I mean, if you stop for a moment and really said it out loud, listen to yourself saying it out loud, you’re like, “Really? You’re ordering children off Wayfair? No, probably not. 

Maureen Kenny: 
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Teresa Huizar: 
But, you know, it’s somehow in that—somehow in that metaverse, it doesn’t seem as fantastical to to the people who are reading it or participating in those discussions. And, you know, we can talk a little bit more in a moment about, you know, the types of people who believe these things. Because I think that’s also really interesting—

Maureen Kenny: 
Right. Right.

Teresa Huizar: 
—in terms of: Not everyone does believe myths about this, and not everybody does have a foot in conspiracy theories. So what makes some people more likely to? What did you find?

Maureen Kenny: 
Yeah. I mean, what we found in our sample—and, to be clear, our sample was a sample of, you know, college students and they ranged across, you know, the four years of college and some graduate students, but roughly in their early 20s, right? You know, 22, 23 years of age that, you know, a majority, more than 50 percent, believed some of these conspiracy theories, right? They were less likely to believe some of the myths around human trafficking. And by myths, I mean, sort of misinformation. Right? So it sort of seems like they had, like, a decent level of knowledge about human trafficking. But when it got to the conspiracy theories, that’s where it sort of shifted a little bit.

We didn’t find that it varied much based on people’s religious beliefs, their political affiliation. You know, one of the individuals on the study was very interested in, you know, seeing if there is a relationship with that. We did find males were more likely to believe them—believe some of these conspiracy theories. But it was sort of, there wasn’t any one indicator, you know?

Interestingly, too, more than half of our sample had reported some training in human trafficking. You know, what do I mean by training some form of education? You know, that it was covered in high school. It was covered in a college class. You know, that they had had more, again, formal training. Not that they read something online, but it had been discussed in an arena that we hope was more academic, you know, and would be more valid information.

So that was a little shocking to us, that they had, you know, some education and yet still had these beliefs. 

[10:35] Teresa Huizar:
Well, you know what’s interesting to me? What you’re saying about the difference in beliefs of myths versus conspiracy theories? You know, the rates of that I find really interesting and especially related to what you’re just saying—that people had some information or training, which might’ve previously dispelled myths or help them, you know, prevent them from forming in the first place.

But many of the conspiracy theories I think are around the issue of, sort of not what is happening but how it happens. And for some reason it feels like people are more susceptible to sort of extravagant ideas—

[Cross-talk] 

Maureen Kenny: 
Yes! Yes.

Teresa Huizar: 
—about how things happen, you know what I mean?— 

Maureen Kenny: 
Yes.

Teresa Huizar: 
—than believing that it could be a parent trafficking a kid for drugs. Or it’s someone known to the child already. 

Maureen Kenny: 
Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Teresa Huizar: 
Or, you know, these kinds of things.

Maureen Kenny:
Right, right. I think you’re right on with that. It’s almost a glamorizing of it, right? You know, making it sort of these unusual situations, which has not really been our experience in working with individuals who have been trafficked. Right? It’s more often than not, in the majority of time, somebody known to them. Right?

Teresa Huizar: 
Mmm. Mmm.

Maureen Kenny:
And there’s a lot that’s been written about, you know, the movie Taken, and now we have the movie, you know, Sound of Freedom and those sorts of imageries of, you know, “Be careful, you’ll be snatched off the street.” You know, the white van pulls up and, you know, we talk about that in the paper. “And that’s what you have to be afraid of.”

And that’s not right. You know, it’s more likely someone known to you. And it’s also, while we do know sort of everyone’s at risk, we do know that there are certain factors that put people at greater risk. Right? People who are already vulnerable. You know, populations that are already vulnerable. So, children who are in foster care, children who have run away, children who are homeless, LGBTQ youth, you know, who have been kicked out or, again, find themselves, you know, homeless. These are the youth that are at greater risk. 

Again, everyone can be at risk, but, yeah, I think people prefer the sort of, you know—those stories of being grabbed off the street as being commonplace, as opposed to what really happens, you know? That somebody develops a relationship with somebody and then the next thing you know it’s a sexual relationship and then they’re being asked to have sex with that person’s friends. And then it becomes a commerce, you know, and there’s an exchange of money and the next thing you know that’s happening repeatedly. So that sort of scenario is much more likely than a white van pulling up in your neighborhood. 

[13:13] Teresa Huizar: 
You know, what’s so interesting is it reminds me, you know, in all of our work with child sexual abuse.

Maureen Kenny: 
Yes. 

Teresa Huizar: 
We find the same thing that, you know, adults often—more often than I would like—

Maureen Kenny: 
Yes. 

Teresa Huizar: 
—are more eager to believe in stranger danger and these other sorts of things than it’s Uncle Johnny that everybody’s been told to stay away from anyway. 

Maureen Kenny: 
Yes. 

Teresa Huizar:
You know, it’s just like, even though there is this awareness and people do know people who’ve been sexually abused, there’s this need for psychological safety that makes, I think, people want to believe that something completely outside their experience would have to happen for that to happen to their kids, kids they love, these kinds of things. 

And I feel like with human trafficking, it’s a little bit the same way. We don’t want to believe—

Maureen Kenny: 
Yes. 

Teresa Huizar: 
—that any child we know or love—or any adult, for that matter—could be at risk. And so do we really want to think about the things that place them, in a very practical way, at risk? 

Maureen Kenny: 
Yeah, I think that’s, you know, that’s a great analogy. And I think, in many ways, the field of human trafficking, particularly commercial sexual exploitation, which I’ve done work in, is similar in that way. And it’s been an outgrowth really of childhood sexual abuse, right? 

Teresa Huizar: 
Mm-hmm.

Maureen Kenny: 
It’s sort of another form of childhood sexual abuse. 

Teresa Huizar: 
Yes.

Maureen Kenny: 
And I think what you’re saying, the trajectory that’s happened with education on childhood sexual abuse is what has to happen with human trafficking. In the town I live in, a baseball coach was found to be molesting boys on the team. 

Teresa Huizar: 
Mmm.

Maureen Kenny: 
And everybody said to me, “Who could have thought this would happen?”

And I said, “I would have thought this would happen,” you know?

[Cross-talk]

Teresa Huizar: 
Oh, you’re like, “As a researcher, sadly—” 

Maureen Kenny: 
Right. Exactly. 

Teresa Huizar: 
“—this is not surprising to me.” 

Maureen Kenny: 
Right. Right. This is not—this is exactly what I’ve been trying to tell everyone, you know.

Teresa Huizar: 
Yeah. Yeah.

Maureen Kenny: 
That this person had opportunity and motive and, you know, access and—

Teresa Huizar: 
Yes.

Maureen Kenny: 
—you know, so forth. It wasn’t a van that pulled up to the baseball parking lot, you know? So I think the same level of awareness has to happen with human trafficking. Absolutely, you know.

And to go back to that idea of the imagery. These graphic images that are often shown aren’t helping, right? Because again, it’s not the person in chains. It’s not the person in bondage. And that’s what makes—as we move from research to practice—like, identification so difficult, right? Because, you know, you could be sort of hidden in plain sight, so to speak. Right? Because it could be somebody in the youth’s high school. Somebody that they’re friendly with. Somebody that they know. But the signs, you know, they’re not going to wear a scarlet A or scarlet HT, you know. And so if you’re looking in the wrong place, you’re going to miss it as well. Right? You know, if you’re not looking because.

[15:51] Teresa Huizar: 
It’s such a good point because I feel like it’s easier to think about, well, we’ve got to fly off to some island and rescue kids. 

Maureen Kenny: 
Yep!

Teresa Huizar: 
Right? Than to think about: My child could be going to school with a child who is being trafficked right now. Right? 

Maureen Kenny: 
Yeah. 

Teresa Huizar: 
Or my child could be vulnerable to that in the right set of circumstances.

So I think that it is frustrating, honestly, that, you know, it’s going to be my eternal frustration as a child abuse professional that great films are so very rarely made about this sort of banal evil of child sexual abuse as it actually occurs. 

Maureen Kenny: 
Right, right.

Teresa Huizar: 
And I think that’s probably as true of trafficking as it is any other form of it. Instead, it’s always the most sensationalistic aspect. Which is not to say there isn’t international trafficking.

Maureen Kenny: 
Of course. Right.

Teresa Huizar: 
But as you point out, it’s not the primary way these things occur. 

[16:42]
 I’m wondering—and your study didn’t address this, but I’m just curious your thought. You know, there was a period of time, even among professionals talking about trafficking, where there was a lot of use of very emotionally laden language and terminology to describe it. “Modern day slavery,” other kinds of things. I wonder if you think that we’ve in any way contributed to this sort of not viewing it for the prosaic, unfortunate tragedy that it is even by our own use of using language that is so evocative— 

Maureen Kenny: 
Yes.

Teresa Huizar: 
—and so emotionally laden to describe it?

Maureen Kenny: 
Yeah. Yeah. I would agree with that. And I think that, you know, as we learn more, right? and as we become more aware and educated about it, our language changes a lot over these things, right?

So, you know, I used the word “victim” before. That’s a word we’re moving away from. You know, given my age it’s a word that I grew up with. We still have the Office of Victims. The government still uses, you know, victim terminology. We have “victims of crime.” You know. So, it’s hard to get rid of that. But that’s an example of how language has changed. Right? 

If you read studies from years ago, they talk about prostitution— 

Teresa Huizar: 
Right.

Maureen Kenny: 
— you know, and child prostitution. 

Teresa Huizar: 
Right.

Maureen Kenny: 
It’s not prostitution. 

Teresa Huizar: 
No, right. Right. Right. Right. Right. 

Maureen Kenny: 
It’s commercial sexual exploitation. So, I think that, you know, that the usage of languages like that “modern day slavery,” we’ve become sort of more aware of changing our language to be more accurate.

Another trend in the field and something that is important is gaining the knowledge from those with lived experience, right?

Teresa Huizar: 
Mmm. Mm mm mm.

Maureen Kenny: 
You know, because when we talk about prevention and education efforts, those are the individuals that can really speak to the trajectory. You know, how this happened. How they came to be “in the life,” as I call it. Right? And that’s where I think we’re moving as a field also to incorporating their voices and learning from them as to how it occurred. Right? So that we can work on prevention. 

[18:49] Teresa Huizar: 
Makes me wonder if—I mean, I’m thinking about the information kids get in high school about this topic. You know, they—according to your study—the ones who did have some information seem to have gotten at least some of it at that point, which is good. 

Maureen Kenny: 
Right.

Teresa Huizar: 
Although, as you point out, it’d be great if it was even earlier. But I’m wondering, you know, sometimes I feel like when we’re educating about topics like that, or even sex ed, we don’t often say sometimes the thing that needs to be said, which is: “If your boyfriend asks you, or your girlfriend asks you to sleep with somebody else, you know, you’re on a slippery slope. This is not a good idea.”

[Cross-talk]

You know, just sort of like—

Maureen Kenny: 
It’s probably not a good relationship. Yeah. 

Teresa Huizar: 
Exactly. “Maybe you want to, maybe you want to pause—"

Maureen Kenny: 
Right. Right.

Teresa Huizar: 
“—before you say ‘yes’ to that.” 

Maureen Kenny: 
Yeah. 

Teresa Huizar: 
“Because here are some of the potential implications of it.”

And it’s like we sort of, sometimes, I feel like with kids and youth and adolescents, we’re somehow deluding ourselves that they don’t know about things, you know?

Maureen Kenny: 
Yes. Yes.

Teresa Huizar: 
And sexual matters in particular. And so we’re somehow going to plant an idea in their head if we talk about. It’s like—

Maureen Kenny: 
Sure.

Teresa Huizar: 
—it would be so great if we just talked really bluntly about issues around consent and all these other things that tie to this topic that could help a person—

Maureen Kenny: 
Yeah.

Teresa Huizar: 
—in the moment. You know, pause for a second. So it’s not going down that trajectory where a lot of difficult decisions have been made or manipulations have occurred and now you’re in a position that it’s extremely difficult to be extricated from or extricate yourself from, you know.

Maureen Kenny: 
Yes. Yes.

Yeah. And you make a great point about the types of education that youth need, right, from an early age. You know, learning to say “no,” right? We teach that to very young children, but we know we can’t put the onus just on them.

Teresa Huizar: 
No.

Maureen Kenny: 
So we talk about boundaries and uncomfortable feelings and, you know. But there’s a trajectory of education that should take place that changes a little bit each year, right? 

[Cross-talk]

That’s builds on the developmental— 

Teresa Huizar: 
That’s right. Developmentally appropriate. Right.

Maureen Kenny: 
Developmentally appropriate and uses a lot of, you know, “what if?” situations and “how would you respond?” And, I know from my own experience with training individuals, really role-playing is great.

Teresa Huizar: 
Mmm. Mmm.

Maureen Kenny: 
Because it’s great to talk to somebody about it, but we all know we need certain language, right? To to practice and to use. And so how do we draw on that? Maybe that’s my work as a clinical psychologist, right? You know, years of sort of, “How do I say this to a client?” “How do I say that?” But helping youth role-play, you know: “What would you say if you were in that situation? What’s the kind of wording you would use? Are you comfortable saying that? Can we build up your confidence with that?” 

You know, for me, that’s important as well. Right? Rather than, you know, putting some PowerPoint slides up, let’s really practice this. Let’s get comfortable with how we would assert ourselves in certain situations.

[21:35] Teresa Huizar: 
Well, and also as peers are talking to each other.

Maureen Kenny: 
Yeah.

Teresa Huizar: 
Because I think that’s the other thing, is that a teen is much more likely to talk to another teen if they’ve—

Maureen Kenny: 
Yes.

Teresa Huizar: 
—been asked by their boyfriend to sleep with somebody for money. They’re much more likely to tell their best friend than they are their parent—

[Cross-talk]

Teresa Huizar: 
—a teacher, the counselor, you know. 

Maureen Kenny: 
We found that in the study, too, most of them. 

Teresa Huizar: 
Yeah, exactly.

Maureen Kenny: 
Yeah. More than half said they would, if they were in a situation like that, they would probably go to a friend first. So, yeah. Like other sort of mental health issues, right?, like we’ve done with suicide and bullying, how do we increase that sort of, you know, bystander, if you will, awareness.

Teresa Huizar: 
That’s right. 

Maureen Kenny: 
Right? So now I’ve got a friend who came to me and is talking to me about this relationship, you know, with their boyfriend and girlfriend and the discomfort they have, and preparing those youth for, you know, getting a trusted adult involved or for handling it in an appropriate way. Right? But it’s a lot for youth to handle, you know? 

Teresa Huizar: 
Oh, my gosh, it’s a lot for an adult to handle, right? 

[Laughter]

Maureen Kenny: 
Right. So—

Teresa Huizar: 
Yeah.

Maureen Kenny:
—you know, we have to have people that are, are trained in schools and agencies to receive these reports and handle them and intervene in an appropriate way. Right. So, and hope that they don’t believe in the conspiracies. [Laughter]

[22:41] Teresa Huizar: 
Oh, my gosh. Yes, exactly. Exactly. Maybe you need Train the Trainers booklet—

Maureen Kenny: 
[Laughter] Right.

Teresa Huizar: 
—to dispel all the myths and conspiracy theories first. You know, when you were doing this study—

[Cross-talk]

Maureen Kenny: 
Yes.

Teresa Huizar: 
—what surprised you the most, of your findings? What were you like, “Gosh. I just was not expecting this?”

Maureen Kenny: 
We couldn’t believe the endorsement of the conspiracy theories. And—

Teresa Huizar: 
Mmm.

Maureen Kenny: 
—and as we said in the paper, we created those in a sense, right? We worked together as a team to say, “What are the ones we see most often on the internet?” You know, because there’s no measure for that. You know, we had used a measure of myths of human trafficking that had been used before, but nobody had ever done, like, conspiracy theories. 

Teresa Huizar: 
Oh, that’s so interesting.

Maureen Kenny: 
We spent some time and, you know, kept telling the internet to come up with them. And we said, “These are the most popular ones. This is what seems to be out there the most,” you know, and we were shocked when we saw the endorsement of them. I think that was really it. You know, we probably—if I were to ask my co authors—probably ran it a second time to say, “Did somebody make a mistake?” It was just shocking, you know, the percent of people that believed in those kinds of things, you know, the Pizzagate, the Wayfair. It’s like, wow. And, you know, our sample is on their way to a college education, right? So we were hoping for a little bit more information, right?

I guess the other piece is like, where people get their information from and how they’re not discerning that this isn’t the accurate information.

Teresa Huizar: 
Mmm.

Maureen Kenny: 
Right? And what we learned is that, you know, most of these youth, that’s where they’re getting their information from, as you said, social media. You know, “Well, I saw it on TikTok.” That’s an interesting source of information, you know.

Teresa Huizar: 
[Laughter] Yeah.

Maureen Kenny: 
But that’s—you know, they’ve been born in a digital age. They’ve been born with smartphones in their hands and that’s where they go for information. And it’s sort of like, the more you look for something, as we all know, right?, the more you look for something on the internet, the more the algorithm on the internet feeds you that information, right? So then you start believing. “Well, but I keep seeing it. I keep reading stories about it.” Well, because you keep searching for it. 

[24:41] Teresa Huizar: 
You know, what this brings to my mind, in terms of other sort of education and training implications is, we’ve always thought about, or at least, you know, I think originally conceived of, training and community awareness at a much smaller scale than the entire internet, right? 

[Laughter]

So some of this is, you see the scale of information—misinformation. 

Maureen Kenny: 
Yes. 

Teresa Huizar: 
But the scale of education doesn’t in any way align to the same. And until it does, and community awareness or public health campaigns or other things really align to the same scale, I can’t imagine that you’re really going to make much dent in this, honestly.

Maureen Kenny: 
Right? Well, and then how do you do it with public, you know, public service announcements or messages? I live in Fort Lauderdale and I’m at the airport quite a bit, and in every bathroom stall, there’s a—and I don’t know if this is in other airports—there’s a flyer, you know—

Teresa Huizar: 
Yeah.

Maureen Kenny: 
—taped to the back of the door that says, you know, “Human trafficking is a problem in our community. Call this number.” And, you know, is that enough? I mean, it just shows an image of a woman. She’s not in chains. She’s not in—you know, so I guess it’s raising awareness because you get it in every single stall. But how much of a delivery is that? You know, what other information do I get from that flyer? And I’m not discouraging it. I just don’t know that— 

Teresa Huizar: 
You’re saying it’s not enough. That again—

Maureen Kenny: 
I’m saying it’s not—yeah. Yeah. There’s got to be more creative ways or more, you know—and, and I know that that’s increasing in countries, right? People, when they travel will send me, “Oh, this was here.” “This was there.” But you really have to have more of a dialogue about it than that, right? That’s not enough. 

[26:15] Teresa Huizar: 
I do not remember if it was, now, an interview or a podcast. I don’t want to misspeak, but it was a very interesting project in which—and it was not on human trafficking, but this made me think of it. You know, there are all of these influencers out there who talk about mental health. Right? But it’s not all accurate, right? So—

Maureen Kenny: 
Right.

Teresa Huizar: 
—a group from Harvard wanted to test if they could influence the influencers’ message, and what it would take to do that. So they trained some of them in better messages around this. Some they sent just kind of digital toolkits that could be incorporated. 

What was so fascinating is they didn’t need any of the in-person training to do it. They’re always looking for content, and it turned out that just sending them a digital toolkit from a reliable expert was enough to get them, to a surprising degree, to incorporate actual evidence-supported messages in their little TikTok videos and other things. 

Maureen Kenny:
Mmm.

Teresa Huizar: 
And it seems to me, because I saw or heard this recently, it seems to me that that is something that those of us who were in the child abuse field need to sort of think about. Is there a way—there’s always going to be people out there talking about these things. And I have to believe that many of the people who participated in or perpetuated the QAnon— 

Maureen Kenny: 
Yes.

Teresa Huizar: 
—you know, thing are people who genuinely want to protect kids, right? Why would you spend your energy or time talking about it at all if you didn’t have at least some good intention? 

But how do we influence people who care about this but have misinformation and, frankly, some gullibility into spreading better messages? 

Maureen Kenny: 
Right.

Teresa Huizar: 
If you’re going to talk about it, you know, how do you talk about it in an evidence-supported way? And I don’t know what it would take, and I suspect it will be harder than general mental health messages about depression and anxiety, but it makes me think about the need for NCA and others to have creativity, you know, in approaching the way in which we get information to people coming from the people they already believe information from.

Maureen Kenny: 
From. Yeah.

 Teresa Huizar: 
Yeah. 

Maureen Kenny: 
Yeah. No, that’s a great thought, you know, idea, a hope.

[Cross-talk]

Teresa Huizar: 
I was going to say, until we find some funding, it’s wishful thinking. [Laughter]

Maureen Kenny: 
I was just thinking, it’s a dream. I was going to say dream. But, yeah.

But I was thinking, too, that people are often—I remember with COVID and some of the work around people getting vaccines, people that were resistant to it—

Teresa Huizar: 
Mmm. Mmm.

Maureen Kenny: 
—you know, if they knew somebody who had gotten sick, you know, they were more likely—

Teresa Huizar: 
Yeah, yeah.

Maureen Kenny: 
So I’m also wondering if there can be messaging around, I know when celebrities speak out about mental illness, it raises a lot of awareness, right?

Teresa Huizar: 
Yes. That’s right.

Maureen Kenny: 
You know, and people say, “My gosh, I didn’t know that, you know, that person was depressed or that person had been—.” We know it’s horrific what’s happened with the United States gymnastics, but it has also raised awareness of this issue, right?

Teresa Huizar: 
Right.

Maureen Kenny: 
By a trusted doctor, you know, a well-known, you know, doctor that had been with the gymnastics for years. And so it’s kind of raised awareness. 

You know, we need people, again, individuals with lived experience. Only at their own behest, you know, not through coercion or force—feel comfortable sharing that. It helps people see that this can happen to anyone, you know? And this is—again, that’s just my thought. 

[29:19] Teresa Huizar: 
No, I agree with that. And I think that, you know, if we really see this as a scourge and a public health issue, then I would like to see it treated in terms of the scale of what we’re doing, like anti-smoking campaigns or other things.

Maureen Kenny: 
[Laughter] Right!

Teresa Huizar: 
You know, if we really want to shift behavior, we’ve got good examples out there of where public behavior really shifted. You know, seatbelts—

Maureen Kenny: 
Seatbelts, right. Yeah.

Teresa Huizar: 
—car seats for kids, right? All these things. So it’s not as though we don’t know the types of things in public health messaging campaigns—

[Cross-talk]

Maureen Kenny: 
That work, yeah.

Teresa Huizar: 
—that work, right? It’s a matter of applying them, you know, to these kinds of issues and having the resources and political will, I think, to do that.

Maureen Kenny: 
Yeah. I mean, I think everybody rides in a car. So that became important, right? 

Teresa Huizar: 
Yeah. 

Maureen Kenny: 
And smoking, the clear link to how awful that, you know, is and was for your health became very clear. But I don’t know that people are, unfortunately, as concerned about this issue. Right? It’s the—

Teresa Huizar: 
Not yet! [Laughter] Not enough.

Maureen Kenny: 
Right. And again, to your point about believing, you know, “It’s not my neighborhood,” this is happening internationally. 

Teresa Huizar: 
Yeah.

Maureen Kenny: 
People are being brought across the country. You know, one of the agencies that I work with, when you walk into the treatment center, you would not know that any of these individuals had been through what they—

Teresa Huizar: 
Mmm. Mmm.

Maureen Kenny: 
—you know, there’s nothing, there’s nothing, descript about them. There’s nothing identifiable, you know, it could be a room with any number of young women. Right. 

Teresa Huizar: 
Mm-hmmm.

Maureen Kenny: 
And I think that’s important. And people, when they find out I do this work, say, “Where are they from?” And I go, “They’re from right here in Miami.”

Teresa Huizar: 
Yeah.

Maureen Kenny: 
“You know, we pick them up and we bring them here and we bring them back to their houses at night. They’re not—"

[Cross-talk]

Teresa Huizar: 
They’re probably like, “What?” Mind blown, you know..

Maureen Kenny: 
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, that—and it was for me a little bit too, you know, at the beginning. But then I realized, yeah, you know, we’re—and particularly Miami, as we mentioned in the paper, is a hub. You know, we know, it’s a—

Teresa Huizar: 
Right.

Maureen Kenny: 
—it’s a hub, for many reasons, as are several other cities. But these are individuals that are being trafficked within their communities. You know, they’re not being brought in or brought out of.

[31:27] Teresa Huizar:
What do you think are the implications for future research that this raised for you?

Maureen Kenny: 
I think it’ll be interesting to track over time. Like, again, I’m in the state of Florida. We have legislation that says youth have to receive education on childhood sexual abuse and human trafficking. Right? It’s very unclear how that takes place in the schools. But schools need to be compliant with that. And so they’re taking measures to, you know, bring in a speaker, have a program, you know. So I think over time, I guess it’ll be interesting to see if any of this shifts as more people—the youth in our study (I’d have to look when that bill passed in Florida), most of them had been in school in the U.S. You know, would there be some shifting in attitudes over time? 

You know, the other thing—I think this answers your question—is, well, you said research-wise, but assessing youths’ media literacy. 

Teresa Huizar:
Mmm. Mmm.

Maureen Kenny: 
You know, where do you get your information? What lets you know that that’s a reliable source?

Teresa Huizar:
Mm-hmm.

Maureen Kenny: 
You know, why does that individual on TikTok—is it because they have one million subscribers? Does that make somebody legitimate? You know, is it the number of subscribers or—you know, [laughter] the CDC probably doesn’t have a million subscribers, right? So, helping youth discern where they’re getting their information from.

In thinking about this talk today, I was relooking at some of the theories and, you know, people say, “I walked out of Target, and there was a pair of sunglasses on my car and that meant I was going to be trafficked.” You know, we talked about one of our myths or conspiracy theories was, you know, “Women are more likely to be trafficked at, you know, going to Target.” It’s like, there’s nothing about Target other than a great place to shop, you know, that puts you at risk.

Maybe the sunglasses were in your car because a good Samaritan saw them on the ground and thought, “Oh, this might belong to this individual. [Laughter] Let me put them on this car.” You know, that’s not an indicator. So helping, but, you know, the more people who watch that video, it becomes canon then, right? “Oh, no, I saw it! I saw it online. You know, this is what happens at Target.”

[33:32] Teresa Huizar: 
What I am hopeful is—not just in Florida but in the many states that have some version of Erin’s Law—

Maureen Kenny: 
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Teresa Huizar:
—that they’re looking at research like yours, the people who are developing the curricula, to say: How do we also take it as an opportunity to make sure that we are dispelling any myths and conspiracy theories that already exist in the population we’re talking to and are providing good solid information so they’re less likely to fall into it as they age?

And I mean, it may not solve everything, but I think if we’re just, sort of, you know, each state developing its own, each randomly doing it however they’re doing it, we need to make sure that it’s also based in science. 

Maureen Kenny: 
Yeah.

Teresa Huizar:
You know, that we’re telling people things that are likely to make a difference and that are factual.

Maureen Kenny: 
No, absolutely. And I think, unfortunately, sometimes the choice of a prevention program for a school or an agency doesn’t come down to whether it’s evidence-based but may come down to implementation—

Teresa Huizar:
Mmm. Mmm.

Maureen Kenny: 
—or cost or availability. 

You know, to circle back to childhood sexual abuse, I remember a friend of mine in Chicago saying, “This is the program they’re doing at my kid’s school for child sexual abuse. What do you think?” You know, and I said, “I think it’s garbage.” 

Teresa Huizar:
Yeah.

Maureen Kenny: 
And she sort of had recognized that too, as an attorney, but they went with the flash in the pan. This looked good. This was charismatic, but it was probably fear-inducing, you know, it had no evidence base. So the people who are making the decisions of programs, you know, need to be educated about what—and we need more awareness as a community, as there aren’t a lot of prevention and education programs, right?

We have some, we have not a number, we have a couple others, but they’re not really—you know, it’s not like there’s a proliferation of them for places to choose from. 

[35:19] Teresa Huizar: 
It’s really true. And, you know, I remember a couple of years ago some work where we pulled together experts looking at prevention research. And it was so much easier to say what didn’t work than what did.

[Laughter]

Maureen Kenny: 
Right! Sure. Sure. Yeah. Yeah.

Teresa Huizar: 
You know, we could go around for sessions about all the various things that have been tried over the last two decades that didn’t show any effect. But the ones that were actually effective, you could talk more about the methodology, actually, that was effective than really even the content in some cases. You know, multisession practice, the ability to practice—

Maureen Kenny: 
Exactly. Yeah.

Teresa Huizar: 
—you know, skill-building, all of those things. So, interesting.

Maureen Kenny: 
Well, and I think that, you know, we’ve made the connection between the work in childhood sexual abuse and the work in human trafficking. And I think those lessons can be applied, right? It can’t be a one-time, a one-off.

Teresa Huizar: 
Right.

Maureen Kenny: 
You know, we mentioned human trafficking in high school: Let’s check a box.

I know in the district my children went to school, all of those programs were put into one day. And so it was a day where they covered mental health and this and that. And I remember them saying to me, “Do we have to go to school tomorrow?” 

Teresa Huizar: 
I was going to say, those kids probably hated that day.

Maureen Kenny: 
So they all knew it was coming and they took the day off. And of course, as a prevention expert, I said, “No! You’ve got to go.” 

Teresa Huizar: 
[Laughter]

Maureen Kenny:
  “We’ll be the only ones there!” You know, and so I knew that wasn’t the way to do it either. And it’s also cramming it all into one day where you’re talking about, you know, bullying and abuse and, you know—

Teresa Huizar: 
All these difficult subjects.

Maureen Kenny: 
All these difficult subjects in one day. And then—and then that’s it. The next day is a day off. Right? You know, go to the beach and have fun. So we know that’s not the best way to do it. Right? 

So I think we can draw on that work of having, as we said before, developmentally appropriate—you know, you’re not going to talk to a child at 5 about trafficking. But you’re going to talk about, you know, safe people and feelings and—

Teresa Huizar: 
Right.

Maureen Kenny: 
We have to get parents involved, right? 

Teresa Huizar: 
That’s right. 

Maureen Kenny: 
We have to. We can’t leave that piece out of: Where’s your child? What are they doing? You know, when I was growing up, we had that public service, you know: It’s 10 PM. Where’s your, do you know where your child is? 

Teresa Huizar: 
That’s right. 

Maureen Kenny: 
Talking to them about the relationships that they’re in. You know, people don’t want to do that. And, you know, parents are fearful of having these discussions, anything that borders on sex ed or relationships, but that’s where it really needs to take place. Right? And that’s a way for you to impart your values as well, when you have those discussions with your kids. You know, what kind of relationship are you in? What’s going on in it? What, you know, how do you feel? 

[37:40] Teresa Huizar: 
You know. I think all of those are so important. I’m just wondering, are there any other sort of implications that you see for child abuse professionals, where you’re where you feel like, you know: If I could wave my magic wand—

Maureen Kenny: 
[Laughter]

Teresa Huizar: 
—this is what I’d like to see in terms of folks taking in these research findings and doin—what? Doing what with them?

Maureen Kenny: 
Yeah, I mean, taking the issue seriously, right?

Teresa Huizar: 
Mmm.

Maureen Kenny: 
And incorporating it into making it as much of a, an issue as, you know, bullying or mental health or—

Teresa Huizar: 
Mmm. Mmm.

Maureen Kenny: 
—other things that over time we’ve come to really put attention on—thankfully, right? And saying that this is a form of trauma and victimization that we need to pay attention to.

One of the things we see is the lifelong effects of this, right? The effects on mental health and physical health and—

Teresa Huizar: 
Mm-hmm.

Maureen Kenny: 
—you know, trajectory, and, you know, opportunities afterwards. So we need that early prevention and identification. We want to keep this from happening, right? 

Teresa Huizar: 
That’s right.

Maureen Kenny: 
We don’t want to intervene at the back end. So, you know, discussions about it. Raising awareness. Not being afraid to ask questions. And as you said, you know, maybe more digital media on the realities of it and not on the conspiracies.

[38:50] Teresa Huizar: 
Is there anything else I should have asked you and didn’t, or anything else you want to make sure that we talk about today?

Maureen Kenny: 
I mean, I guess one thing maybe, and I was just looking back at the paper—

Teresa Huizar: 
Yeah.

Maureen Kenny: 
—that the participants didn’t—one area that they didn’t endorse was blaming the victim, or, you know, the individual who was hurt. 

Teresa Huizar: 
Mmm.

Maureen Kenny: 
And that, you know, that’s sort of a nice shift to see, right? Because—

Teresa Huizar: 
That’s hugely positive, isn’t it? Yeah, it’s wonderful. 

Maureen Kenny: 
Right. Right.

Teresa Huizar: 
Yeah.

Maureen Kenny: 
You know, they didn’t feel like that the individual did anything to get themselves in this situation. 

Teresa Huizar: 
Mmm.

Maureen Kenny: 
I’m happy always to see a move away from victim blaming. Right? 

[Laughter]

Teresa Huizar: 
I mean, I feel like humanity had to advance beyond that at some point. So it’s good to see some evidence—

Maureen Kenny: 
Yeah.

Teresa Huizar: 
—that at least with college-age students that’s happening.

Maureen Kenny: 
Exactly. I guess that was a a bright light, you know. But we were happy that so many—you know, our study was one of many, as people who do research at universities know. We had no problem getting students to participate. So it was—

Teresa Huizar: 
Oh, I love that.

Maureen Kenny: 
I think it was a topic that was of interest to them, right? You know, I guess I’m lucky like that. The kinds of things I research, we, we usually have no problem getting people interested in it. And I guess that’s a good thing, right? Is that it’s topics that are on people’s minds and they want to know more about.

[Outro music begins]

[40:02] Teresa Huizar: 
Well, I think the same could be said for our listeners. So thank you so much for joining us today.

Maureen Kenny: 
My pleasure. Thank you for having me.

[Outro]

[40:10] Teresa Huizar:
Thanks for listening to One in Ten. If you know someone who needs to hear this episode, please share it with a friend or colleague. And do subscribe to learn more about other topics in child abuse about every two weeks. See you back here soon.

[Outro music fades out]