Fact check: False claim that thousands of children are being held beneath the Getty Museum

Nate Trela, USA TODAY
·4 min read
11

The claim: Thousands of children are being held under the Getty Museum

The J. Paul Getty Museum in southern California is renowned for its design and art collections, but a claim circulating on social media alleges it houses something much more sinister underground.

"Underneath the Getty Museum is a network of tunnels and underground bunkers according to former CIA/NSA contractor Steven D. Kelley," reads an Oct. 18 Instagram post, which has been liked more than 100 times. "Child trafficking hub. 100,000 kids in cages.”

But local police and the Getty Museum say this claim is baseless. Kelley, who did not author the post but has made similar claims in various blogs and podcasts, also did not provide tangible evidence to support his claim when contacted by USA TODAY.

The user who shared the post on Instagram told USA TODAY the account exists to "aggregate material created by or featuring deranged individuals." The post referencing the Getty conspiracy shows a screenshot of a reddit post making the claim.

"We'd like to think our followers understand that and primarily follow for comedic reasons," the user said.

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No evidence of kids in cages

Rumors of children being held under the Getty Museum have circulated for years, although there has been no credible evidence to support this claim or even spark an investigation.

The Los Angeles Police Department has “no investigations into anything of the sort,” according to spokesman Warren Moore.

Lisa Lapin, a spokesperson for the J. Paul Getty Trust, which runs the museum, said the claims reappear “from time to time.”

"These are entirely fake and fictional,” she said in an email. “Just another in the stream of fake and false information widely circulating on social media.”

Kelley, who has served as an analyst for Russian media outlet Russia Today, has placed the Getty at the center of various conspiracies since at least 2011 in writings and online appearances. When asked for proof of his claim, Kelley provided a PDF of his 2011 e-book in which he claims to have learned details of an underground facility at the Getty through a psychic that visited it remotely using "astral projection." The book makes no reference to children under the Getty.

Kelly provided no tangible evidence to support his claim.

The claim is one of many false narratives circulating online alleging large, organized efforts to traffic children. Claims USA TODAY has previously debunked include assertions that Navy SEALs raided a cargo ship "full of smuggled children," that Russian President Vladimir Putin rescued 35,000 imprisoned Ukrainian children and that expensive products on Wayfair are coded listings for missing children.

Such claims reflect a common misconception about how human trafficking happens, according to Ayan Ahmed, a spokesperson for Polaris. The organization fights sex and labor trafficking and has operated the National Human Trafficking Hotline for 15 years. Those myths include a belief that all trafficking victims are physically restrained and violently forced into a situation.

Ahmed said unfounded rumors of child trafficking can overwhelm the hotline and also "are harmful to the overall understanding of how human trafficking actually happens."

The most common forms of trafficking are very different, Ahmed said. Most traffickers threaten, manipulate or otherwise use psychological means to coerce people they already know into doing things. Most survivors were trafficked by relatives, romantic partners or other people they know. And most people in trafficking situations stay for reasons such as fear or a lack of resources to get away, not because they are restrained.

PolitiFact also debunked the claim about the Getty Museum.

Our rating: False

Based on our research, we rate FALSE the claim that thousands of children are being held under the Getty Museum. No credible evidence has been presented to back up the claim. The museum says this claim is baseless, and police say they are not investigating any such claims.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: False claim that Getty Museum is tied to child trafficking