The WSJ Online today features its second installment of “the Numbers Guy,” “a new column on the way numbers and statistics are used – and abused – in the news, business and politics.” Today’s column: statistics about the dangers of the Internet for kids. An excerpt:
It’s an alarming statistic: One in five children has been sexually solicited online.
That stat is turning up on billboards and television commercials around the country, driven by an aggressive push from child-protection advocates. In the TV version, eerie music plays as a camera pans over a school playground and then shows a park. A female narrator intones: “To the list of places you might find sexual predators, add this one” — as the image changes to a girl using a computer in her bedroom. The spot ends with the one-in-five stat. It’s all part of an ad blitz that has gotten millions of dollars of free media time since its launch last year and is set to continue through 2007.
But while the motivation behind the campaign appears to be sound, the crucial statistic is misleading and could scare parents into thinking the danger is greater than it really is.
Hat tip: CrimProf.
Comments are closed.