What was claimed
The World Economic Forum is calling for the decriminalisation of sex with children, and its co-founder Klaus Schwab described paedophilia as “nature’s gift”.
Our verdict
A World Economic Forum spokesperson has denied these quotes.
The World Economic Forum has not called for paedophilia to be decriminalised
11 January 2023
A blog post falsely claiming that the World Economic Forum (WEF) is “calling for the decriminalisation of sex with children” is being shared on Facebook.
The blog, published by NewsPunch and titled “World Economic Forum Declares Pedophiles ‘Will Save Humanity’”, includes an image of a tweet supposedly shared by the WEF which reads: “age gap love laws violate human rights.”
Full Fact has found no evidence that the WEF said this, either on Twitter or elsewhere, and we’ve contacted NewsPunch for comment.
Many of the Facebook posts linking to the blog also feature a quote attributed to WEF co-founder Klaus Schwab, saying “Pedophilia is “nature’s gift” to humanity.”
We couldn’t find any evidence that Mr Schwab has said this.
We’ve contacted the World Economic Forum for comment and will update this piece if it responds. A spokesperson has previously told Reuters and AP News the quotes are “completely made up.”
We’ve fact checked various false claims and conspiracy theories about the WEF, including that it’s engineering the climate, that in the future no one will have pets or eat meat and that the organisation has its own paramilitary police force.
Image courtesy of World Economic Forum
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as false because a World Economic Forum spokesperson has denied these quotes.