“Advocate” exploits sexual abuse victim

In a perfect world, we wouldn’t have to write this article. Something that should be obvious, apparantly isn’t for Francesca Amato-Banfield. Obviously, you shouldn’t exploit a sexual abuse victim as a means of pushing sales on your book. Nor should you use such a case to gain momentum for your “organization.” Francesca has done both.

A video, containing a father and a child of approx 5yo, has the Facebook community in an uproar. In the video, the father, identified as Sean Windingland, is seen speaking to his daughter. We won’t go into full detail due to the graphic content. In short, it is him asking about her previous consent to perform sexual acts together. With a topic this hot, it is not to our amazement that the scammers would jump in.

Francesca, earlier today, did a livestream in which she displays the video. As a “child advocate,” the most fundamental understanding of protecting a victim child’s identity should be a no brainer. Francesca, however, failed to understand this. Blasting the uncensored video, initially posted by the group, “Pedo-Hunters,” the child’s face is seen to all. But the video goes downhill.

Within the first five minutes, Francesca (pictured below) begins promoting her own book. What starts out as a rant regarding a pedophile father, tirns into an advertisement for “best seller.” Within the video, she later begins advertising her own organization while pushing her radical agendas.

One thing is clear from watching this video. It is obvious that she conducted no research into the child’s situation. If Francesca had spent a little more time doing research, and less time advertising, she would had learned that the victim is now with the mother, away from the father. She would had also known that the child is completely safe, at this time, thus making her entire video redundant and void.

However, she failed to do any research. For Francesca, this appears to be a habitual problem. Rather it be making accusations against those who oppose her scam, bullying victims, or simply spouting off, it seems that she does next to no research into her claims. Her other pattern seems to be broadcastimg her book. A good writer has no need to push their work as she does. The reason is simply because it’s good. The readers would spread it around naturally. The fact that she has to constantly advertise her book leads me to question its sells. Has it sold only a few copies?

Regardless of this, it is clear that Francesca screwed up here. As an advocate she should had placed the safety and dignity of this child first. She should had declined to show the video, perhaps just played the audio. However, because Francesca saw an oppurtunity to advertise, she may have done more harm than good. This young girl’s face will forever be online, her story and identity exposed to the entire world. Not only was this neglectful, this was absolutely immoral.

A simple blurring of the girl’s face would had prevented many things. It would had also se ured the child’s integrity. Because Francesca was more concerned about making a quick dollar, this child’s identity has been further exposed. What effects it will have on the girl are yet to be seen. What is crystal clear, however, is bow low Francesca is willing to go just to promote a book and organization.