this post was submitted on 12 Nov 2024
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A Boring Dystopia
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https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Adam_Walsh
This is what started this panic. A TV movie dramatization from 1983. At this point current parents largely weren't born yet so they don't even know how it started, they've just been raised into believing this is normal. It's not normal.
I think the real origins come from "do you know where you're children are?" PSA campaign during the Atlanta Child Murders in the 70s. My parents said they remember the whole country started locking their doors and were crazy about keeping their kids inside.
So the PSA wasn't intended for that. It actually kind of only shows up late at night after most cities curfew and is supposed to be an anti-deliquency message, lol. The Atlanta Child murders are the other high profile case that happened right around Walsh's murder though. Both popped in the national news in around '81.
What's important about the Atlanta Child murders is they were ALSO dramatized in 1985 after the success of the Walsh dramatization( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Atlanta_Child_Murders_(miniseries)). It was even more sensationalized and was specifically designed to fuel the panic. That's why I consider the Walsh precursor really the watershed point. It was, however, gradual from the '60s as the news media really found out how to exploit it.
See https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_children_panic for a more complete overview. You'll see this is also intimately linked to Reagan, the satanic panic, homophobia, and the political right.