Peer-reviewed article
Paved with Bad Intentions: QAnon’s Save the Children Campaign
Cody Buntain, Monique Deal Barlow, Mia Bloom, Mila A. Johns ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-sonnet-5-5The paper looks at how QAnon followers took the "Save the Children" slogan and used it in an online campaign before the 2020 US presidential election. The authors studied the images of children that were shown alongside QAnon #SaveTheChildren messages, looking at race, age, gender and graphic content. They report that the images greatly over-represent white preteen children compared with child-trafficking statistics, and that a substantial share are graphic. The authors argue the imagery does not match the realities of child trafficking or the messages of real child-advocacy groups. The paper ends by describing possible interventions to protect online audiences.
Key points
- QAnon adherents used the "Save the Children" slogan from a well-known charity for political mobilization before the 2020 US election.
- QAnon-related images massively over-represent preteen, white children compared to child-trafficking statistics.
- A substantial proportion of the images are graphic.
- The imagery uses the familiar motif of distressed children but tells a story different from child-advocacy groups and from the realities of child trafficking.
- The authors say the images are particularly impactful for conservative, white, and especially female audiences in the US, and that other movements may be at similar risk of appropriation.
Limitations
Only the abstract is available, so the sample size, image collection methods and the specific interventions proposed are not described. It also focuses on the US and cannot tell us about the effects on children themselves.
Abstract
In the lead-up to the 2020 US presidential election, adherents to QAnon conspiracy theories parlayed the “Save the Children” slogan from a well-known charity into a vector for exposure and political mobilization. This paper introduces three factors that potentially contributed space for appropriating the slogan into the QAnon-backed #SaveTheChildren campaign and, in this context, examines images of children shown alongside QAnon #SaveTheChildren messages. For these factors, we examine the use of race, age, gender, and graphic depictions in this exploitative imagery. Results show QAnon-related images massively over-represent preteen, white children compared to child-trafficking statistics and include a substantial proportion of graphic imagery. Building on studies of child-advocacy campaigns, we contend that QAnon imagery uses the familiar motif of distressed children while presenting a narrative distinct from both these child-advocacy groups and the realities of child trafficking. Embedded in broader contexts of race, gender, and emotional manipulation in online spaces, we discuss how these images are particularly impactful for conservative, white, and especially female audiences in the US and how other movements might be at similar risk of appropriation. The paper then closes by describing possible interventions to protect the safety of online audiences.