Claims-making, child saving, and the news media

Abstract

Drawing on a social constructionist paradigm, this article critically examines mass-mediated framing of the issue of child sexual exploitation online and via mobile communications technology. The Canadian Centre for Child Protection (C3P),1 a non-profit charity located in Winnipeg, Canada, is used as a case study of claims-making and the social construction of the social problem of child sexual exploitation online. The present study focuses on media engagement by C3P and its subsidiary CyberTip—Canada’s national internet tip line—between 2000 and 2011, just prior to CyberTip receiving legislative designation as Canada’s official reporting agency. The analysis draws on news media accounts of claims-making activities of C3P in three local and national Canadian newspapers. By focusing on the rhetoric of claims forwarded by the organization, I argue that C3P has been successful in gaining symbolic ownership of the issue and has been instrumental in defining the nature, extent, and appropriate responses to the problem of online child sexual exploitation in Canada. I conclude by considering the broader implications for criminal justice policy and practice.

“Whenever there’s trouble, just yelp for help”: Crime, conservation, and corporatization in Paw Patrol

“…Fears regarding violent and dangerous youth—“mini-monsters”—co-exist with anxieties about innocent and vulnerable children in need of protection and are (re)produced by news and entertainment media (Jewkes, 2015: 113). The threat of “stranger danger”—notably in the form of a pedophile whose targets are primarily White middle-class girls—legitimates enhanced regulation of children and compels parents to take precautions to safeguard their children (Jewkes, 2015; Kohm, 2019; Moscowitz and Duvall, 2011). This implies that violent crime is random and that potential offenders are rational.…”

“…This implies that violent crime is random and that potential offenders are rational. These rational offenders may be deterred if prospective victims and/or their parents limit opportunities for offending and harsher sentencing is implemented (Kohm, 2019). Not only does this responsibilize citizens, it disregards data pointing to greater danger in the family home (Jewkes, 2015).…”

“…Not only does this responsibilize citizens, it disregards data pointing to greater danger in the family home (Jewkes, 2015). While these two stock characters—the prepubescent predator and vulnerable innocent—might seem incompatible, they both provide a “bogey man” on which to project concerns about our children and general moral decline as well as discourage questions about the social structure (see Jewkes, 2015; Kohm, 2019: 2). Fears about innocent children in need of adult protection inform another related body of scholarship.…”

Invisibility cloaks, prisons, and a pandemic: Did COVID-19 render the prison invisibility cloak ineffective?

“…Rather than taking the existence of a social problems at face value, the social constructionist approach directs researchers to examine the way issues are constructed by claims makers through the claims making process itself (Kohm, 2020). "Claims makers are the promoters, activists, professional experts, and spokespersons involved in forwarding specific claims about a social condition" (Surette, 2007, p.36).…”

“…Linkage involves associating the putative social problem with other accepted social issues and wider cultural anxieties. Therefore, it is important to examine the larger cultural, social, and political context in which claims are made and received via news media (Kohm, 2020). By linking one concerning social condition with an accepted social issue, there is a rise in the importance of the linked issue, thus, increasing the chance of the social construction to be successful and accepted which is the ultimate goal of claims makers and moral entrepreneurs.…”