Rep. Lauren Boebert tweeted a claim about missing kids that parrots a QAnon conspiracy theory and misrepresents FBI data

• Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert tweeted that 365,348 children went missing in 2020.
• The tweet misrepresents FBI data, as nearly 95% of that group was classified as runaways.

Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert's claim that hundreds of thousands of children went missing in 2020 misrepresents US government data and is "potentially quite harmful," according to John K. Roman, a senior fellow in the Economics, Justice, and Society Group at NORC at the University of Chicago.

Boebert, a Republican, tweeted on Saturday that "365,348 children went missing in 2020" and criticized "the media" for lacking coverage of that statistic. "There enlies the problem," she added, appearing to intend to use the phrase, "therein lies."

While that number is technically correct — there were 365,348 reports of missing children entered into the FBI's National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database last year — nearly 95% of those were categorized as runaways, or children who leave home without permission and stay away for at least one night, the agency said in its 2020 report.

The misrepresentation of the data reflects a belief popularized by the QAnon conspiracy theory.

In addition to the 246,310 children whom the FBI said had run away from home, 2,593 (or 1%) were abducted by a noncustodial parent, and 276 (or 0.1%) were abducted by a stranger, according to the FBI. Overall, a minor being kidnapped by a noncustodial parent was nine times more likely than being taken by a stranger, the agency said in its report.

Roman and numerous other researchers and journalists quote-tweeted Boebert's claim to contextualize and clarify those statistics over the weekend.

While runaways and abductions in custody disputes rarely make the news, stranger abductions are talked about "incessantly" in the media, Roman told Insider in an email. Putting a spotlight on runaways, who make up the vast majority of the group Boebert claimed the media does not cover, is likely to have unintended consequences for those who are already in need of emotional, behavioral, and psychological support, he said.

The tweet reflects misconceptions popularized by QAnon

Roman said that Boebert's tweet was reflective of the widespread conspiracy theory that there are huge numbers of children abducted each year.

"I don't know if this is from a well-intentioned place or a conspiracy theory, but either way, it's a myth that is potentially quite harmful," he said.

This public misunderstanding of missing children is decades-old. A September 2002 report from the Department of Justice described that hearing about a "missing child" can "call to mind tragic and frightening kidnappings reported in the national news." But, the report said, "a child can be missing for many reasons, and the problem of missing children is far more complex than the headlines suggest."

But over the last year, the idea that children are frequently abducted from the street has been popularized by believers of QAnon. The far-right conspiracy theory began with the baseless notion that then-President Donald Trump was going to save the country from an imagined sex trafficking ring run by Democrats as part of a "deep state" cabal. As the conspiracy theory became more popular, it evolved to focus on that sex trafficking concept, leading to nationwide "save the children" protests in the summer of 2020.

Insider's Kelly McLaughlin reported in September 2020 that federal sex trafficking prosecutions actually decreased under Trump's leadership and that the QAnon belief system may be doing more harm than good.

"There's already this great misconception" about what real human trafficking looks like, Rachel Lovell, a senior research associate at Case Western Reserve University's Begun Center for Violence Prevention Research and Education, previously told Insider's Rachel Greenspan.

Paranoia that's not based on real research leads to "anxiety and fear that distracts from the reality," Lovell said.

Boebert did not immediately respond to a request for comment.