Is Child Sex Trafficking The Epidemic Operation Underground Railroad Says It Is?

By Doug Fabrizio

Published January 6, 2022 at 6:33 PM MST

Information tent for Operation Underground Railroad in the Provo Freedom Festival. (3 July 2018)

In her article, Atlantic staff writer Kaitlyn Tiffany calls concerns over child sex trafficking in America a moral panic. Of course, sex trafficking does happen, but, Tiffany writes, it’s not nearly the problem many OUP volunteers make it out to be. The statistics they give are inflated, the data is often misleading and the motivating language sometimes feels like it's been pulled straight from a QAnon conspiracy theory.

Tiffany joins us this Friday at 11 a.m. to talk about Operation Underground Railroad, the realities of child-sex-trafficking and how social media is helping to fan the flames of a new moral panic.

Kaitlyn Tiffany's article for The Atlantic is "The Great (Fake) Child-Sex-Trafficking Epidemic."

RadioWest

Doug Fabrizio

Doug Fabrizio has been reporting for KUER News since 1987, and became News Director in 1993. In 2001, he became host and executive producer of KUER's RadioWest, a one hour conversation/call-in show on KUER 90.1 in Salt Lake City. He has gained a reputation for his thoughtful style. He has interviewed everyone from Isabel Allende to the Dalai Lama, and from Madeleine Albright to Desmond Tutu. His interview skills landed him a spot as a guest host of the national NPR program, "Talk of the Nation." He has won numerous awards for his reporting and for his work with RadioWest and KUED's Utah NOW from such organizations as the Society of Professional Journalists, the Utah Broadcasters Association, the Public Radio News Directors Association and the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

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