Former spokesman for pedophile advocacy group writes Bloomberg hit piece targeting anti-child sex trafficking film 'Sound of Freedom'

A former NBC contributor who served as a spokesperson for pro-pedophile organization Prostasia has harsh words for new anti-child trafficking film "Sound of Freedom." The film, which has been praised by conservatives for bringing attention to the problem of human trafficking and child trafficking specifically, has been smeared by mainstream press and liberals as having ties to shadowy anti-pedophilia movement QAnon.

For Berlatsky, who became the spokesperson for Prostasia in 2021, "Sound of Freedom" is a "QAnon dog whistle" that does "little to help victims" who are portrayed "as innocent and sympathetic as possible." Tim Ballard, on whose work the film is based, addressed the QAnon accusations at the recent Turning Point Action conference, saying that the film was made years ago, before QAnon even came into existence, and was only relesed this year by Angel Studios.

Berlatsky has written about child-trafficking, saying that the term "trafficking" itself is misleading. He writes that it "conflates underage people trading sex, consensual sex work, immigration and all kinds of labor exploitation in industries." In his Bloomberg piece on the film, he continues to make that claim. 

"Anti-trafficking experts," he writes, "have also argued that the film's presentation of trafficking is misleading." He cites statistics that "67% of the children who are sexually trafficked are 15 to 17 years old rather than young children. In 41% of the cases, a family member was involved."

"Behind those numbers," he writes, "are often stories of addiction, disowned LGBTQ+ people and trading sex on the street to survive. That's why experts worry that Sound of Freedom's stranger danger narrative, and the way it centers on victims who are as innocent and as sympathetic as possible, may make it more difficult to organize help for less perfect victims when they are targeted by those close to them."

As for Ballard, the former federal agent on whom the film is based, Berlatsky claims that in addition to having "links to QAnon," he falls into "tropes" about child trafficking. However, Ballard is very aware of the fact that many children and teens are lured and abused by people close to them.

"There's no doubt that there's alot of child sex abuse from people you know," Ballard told The Post Millennial. "But human trafficking and child exploitation have different faces in different places, so that is not overblown. They love to say it's overblown, and the kind of metrics they use are ridiculoust to do it. So what's the agenda behind there?"

He cited groups that undertake to legitimize pedophiles by changing the terminology from "predophile" to "minor attracted persons," something Berlatasky has worked to do. Ballard said that these groups that seek to "minimize the significance of people who are simply attracted to minors." In his view, this is an effort to make children more sexually available to predators.

Ballard also believes that a progressive ideology that seeks to elevate teens' choices and their ability to consent, either to sex, abortions, puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, is also seeking to undermine the family structure. While this may sound like a conspiracy theory, Berlatsky has said that "parents are tyrants. 'Parent' is an oppressive class, like rich people or white people."

Prostasia works on "addressing the human rights impacts of child protection laws and policies," and "communicating the results of our research and engagement to policymakers, platforms, and the public." They offer their view that existing policies to protect children from sexual abuse do more harm than good. They say that they undertake to "reduce the separate harms caused to children and others by our society's predominantly reactive child protection agenda."

These are the views held by Bloomberg's reviewer of "Sound of Freedom," a man who has dedicated some of his career to lifting up and destigmatizing pedophiles, and now has said that a film intended to bring awareness about child-trafficking to the American public is overblown and "mirrors common pulp narratives" about human trafficking.

Berlatsky's concerns over child-trafficking aren't with the traffickers or the exploitation, but with the circumstances that led a child to leave home and seek a more dangerous life. He takes issue with "Hollywood narratives where vast kidnapping networks are virtually undetected, bad guys are unremittingly evil, and the good guys are sensitive and unfailingly virtuous."

Prostasia, a not-for profit, has the mission of legitimizing pedophiles and removing the stigma of pedophilia. They refer to these individuals as "minor attracted persons," and holds a "support club" described as "a peer support chat for minor attracted people who are fundamentally against child sexual abuse and committed to never harm children, and is a safe space to have peer support in times of trouble." The group is for those who are 13 and up. 

Berlatsky claims that the film, as well as the narratives about child-trafficking, "do little to help victims," but that for viewers, "Sound of Freedom" is a conduit to connect them to deeper conspiracy theories. The film, and narratives like it, he writes, "can create coalitions of feeling, disgust and righteous rage that connect conservative conspiracy theorists with the mainstream."

In his view, "its popularity is ominous." But also in his view, pedophiles should be destigmatized, and he was shocked when there was backlash agaisnt this view, calling the criticism of the view "overt bigotry." Trump is holding a screening of the film at his Bedminster golf course this summer.