Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Rhetoric as Empty as a Russian Nesting Doll

Epcatusa.com has created a juvenile Russian nesting doll named Emma.

Emma is a child sex slave.

You can strip Emma nude by clicking on her.

By clicking on her, you also learn 'facts about child sexual slavery.'

Okay... I'm going to ignore the bizarre-ness of the 'Child-sex-slave-nesting-doll-strip-tease' thing EpCat has set up. And not talk about how wrong it is that you have to take Emma's clothes off to 'learn' about sex trafficking. And focus on the 'data' given:

Epcat begins by painting a global picture of the issue:
  • There are more sex slaves today than before. 
  • One million of them are children. 
  • According to Unicef, the number of trafficked children increases by 1.2 million each year.
Okay. Are all of the minors in the sex trade slaves?  

Unclear. 

 What is the average age of marriage, or entry into the workforce, for women in communities where most minors in the sex trade come from?  

Unclear.

Okay.

Are all of the children trafficked each year trafficked into pornography or prostitution??

 Unclear. [The actual answer is no ... but ... ]

Now Epcat Moves back to the U.S. ...

  • 2.8 million American children run away from home every year. -- Many of them are lured into prostitution. 
  • 200,000 American Children are at risk of sexual slavery every year. 
  • They can be as young as 11 years old.
So.

Wait.

But if 2.8 million children run away from home every year, why are only 200,000 of them at risk of sexual slavery?

Unclear

Also - what is the median age of these runaways (who are at risk of 'sexual slavery?') My guess is not eleven...but still...

and one last time, unclear