Online effort to save China's kidnapped children is flawed
Yu Jianrong's campaign to rescue children who are abducted and forced to be street beggars could be doing more harm than good, say some
Since 2009, authorities have saved more than 9,300 kidnapped children. How many more are left?
Last month, Yu Jianrong, a well-known human rights activist and professor at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, put up weibo posts on t.sina.com.cn and t.qq.com, asking people to photograph child beggars and post their pictures online. The idea being that many of these kids are kidnapped children who are sold and forced to beg on the streets.
Yu was hoping to reunite abducted children with their parents, an issue often ignored in China. (People can send photos to the campaign's email address: jiejiuqier@sina.com or use the mobile app.)
- More on CNNGo: He's found seven missing Chinese children, but not his own
As of early February Yu's blog had gathered 175,000 followers, and people had posted 2,500 photographs alongside pages of comments describing how some children are sold as beggars for a few hundred yuan. Children who are disfigured, say some posts, get higher prices since they will garner more sympathy with passers-by.
“Giving money to those beggars does not help the poor children as their greedy abusers only buy more of them, taking photos may have a better effect and it may also scare off the beggars,” was one comment translated by China Daily.
From those pictures that were viewed by over 570,000 Chinese netizen, six children have been recognized and rescued, according to Shanghai Daily.
The campaign needs to be more sustainable and more organized, which demands management and money. — Yang Peng, One Foundation which pledged money to help save China's kidnapped beggar children
Although a positive start, concerns, which were reported in the Southern Metropolis Daily, have been voiced that the aggressive campaign will in the end hurt the children they are trying to help. Some say that due to the campaign, those who kidnap children and force them to beg will react to the new attention by taking the children underground or disfiguring them.
Chinese anti-child kidnapping campaign backlash
“Global Times,” the official sister publication of People’s Daily, has recently published an article titled “Downsides unseen of child-abduction blog, online rogues.”
The article argues that those taking part in grassroots efforts to save trafficked children, are actually involving themselves in organized crime organizations, and dealings with these groups should be left to the police.
“Now a large number of ‘volunteer netizen cops’ are attempting to rescue underage beggars with digital cameras and laptops,” writes the “Global Times” editorial page. “Their goodwill should be appreciated, but it may not lead to the desired result. The problem of underage beggars is a national one, and it must be stopped at its root.”
In response to the growing national spotlight on the issue of kidnapping in China, the Ministry of Public Security released on Thursday that “more than 9,300 kidnapped children in China have been rescued since April 2009 since a nationwide campaign was launched to crack down on human trafficking.”
In the same release, the ministry officials directly commented on Yu Jianrong’s campaign saying that children kidnapped and forced to beg are really only a small percentage of children abducted annually, and, in most cases, “children were taken to beg along with their parents or relatives.”
- More on CNNGo: Giving Shanghai's migrant kids a better start
Just a few days after the Ministry’s announcement, Chinese bloggers pledged to redouble their efforts on Saturday as they announce an alliance with the One Foundation, which offered special funding to save child beggars.
"We didn't expect it would be such a big campaign when we initiated the microblog, and now we want to put it on the right track," said Yu to state media reporters.
"The campaign needs to be more sustainable and more organized, which demands management and money. That's why we are here, planning to set up a fund," said Yang Peng from the One Foundation, which was founded by film action star Jet Li.
