Innocence Lost?
Image by Daniela Dimitrova from Pixabay
When I was a kid, we played outside all day. There were no computers or cell phones; only radios and sparse amounts of TV, so outside with friends was where we wanted to be. We left the house after breakfast, came home long enough to grab a sandwich at lunch, went home for dinner, and were back outside until the streetlights came on. And there was no question that at the end of the day, every child would be at home, safe and sound.
Back then, child abductions really weren’t heard about.
Of course, we were told not to get into cars with strangers, but the message was delivered as if it was the last thing they ever expected, because back in the 1960s, 100 to 115 children were abducted by strangers annually, nationwide. Nowadays, up to 460,000 children are reported missing each year in the United States. Of that number, 10 to 14 percent are the result of stranger abductions. That means that every year in the United States, up to 64,400 children are abducted by strangers, and globally, it’s over 1.1 million.
What made the number jump from 115 to 64,400 annually?
It’s no coincidence that the number of child stranger abductions grew in parallel to the global explosion of child sexual abuse materials (CSAM), which happened in two waves: the first was printed CSAM (formerly referred to as pornography) in the late 1960s, and the second was digital in the late 1990s to 2000, via the Internet.
One in seven (14%) missing children are victims of child sexual exploitation, including commercial sex acts like prostitution and CSAM. The vast majority are pre-pubescent between the ages of three and thirteen. Children aged 10 and under are often exploited in severe abuse media, depicting severe sexual torture and sadism. Some are even live-streamed; The darkest hours of a child’s life, on display for the world to see. LIVE.
Go to MissingKids.org and search for missing children in your area.
I did, and within a 50-mile radius of my home, I saw the beautiful faces of 18 missing kids from 2026 alone—and the year is only half over. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) has processed over 62 million reports of suspected child exploitation. CSAM is a multi-billion-dollar global industry with the United States as a major hub, hosting 30 percent of the illicit URLs.
Abducted children are also forced into labor and criminality.
Forced labor is making them work for no money or very low wages, sometimes in domestic servitude in private homes where they are isolated and forced to work long days (and yes, this still happens in the United States). Forced criminality includes street begging and peddling, illicit scams, drug trafficking, smuggling, and theft. Abductors control them by addicting them to drugs, physical abuse, psychological manipulation, and threats to their families.
To the moms and dad’s out there…
If you are at a park, a playground, or an event with children, and someone keeps eyeing them—pay attention and keep the children close. If they take pictures, beware. Someone may be bidding on them. Don’t allow your child to accept candy or gifts from strangers, no matter how benign it seems. Children are too trusting, and predators, which can be women posing as moms or nannies, are charming con artists with wide nets. I may sound paranoid, but bear with me because every one of these scenarios happened to people that I know.
It’s our job to protect innocent children.
Bottom line: If you see something, say something. Often, the only thing a victim can do is give you a look or the universal hand signal for help—showing the palm of their hand, tucking their thumb into the palm and closing the remaining four fingers over it, forming a fist. It’s a distinct signal and a silent cry for help. Say something. It could protect a child from further harm and perhaps save a life.
Until next time,
Jean
AKA The Strategic Chicken - making life’s journey one strategic step at a time
