I’m going to be honest, I’m suspicious of every single ‘pedophile hunter’. They are going after a demographic that people will not rush to defend, even if innocent.
Also, these ‘hunters’ probably have something shady going on in their own lives, and this is some form of projection that they also profit off of.
I wouldn’t even be surprised if a bunch of them are pedophiles themselves. Projection and such.
‘I sit online all day pretending to be a teen girl and getting into dirty chats with strangers, it’s OK though because I’m doing it to stop the creeps…’
In Norway last year we had a case where 5 16-19 yo set up a sextrap for a guy in his 40s.
The teens claimed he’s a pedo, beat him, filmed it and posted it online.
All of the “pedohunters” involved were found guilty on all accounts. The guy is free and getting a big pay out from the teens.
It’s really unfortunate, but these kinds of people aren’t in it to prevent child abuse. They’re in it for themselves.
but these kinds of people aren’t in it to prevent child abuse. They’re in it for themselves
you just described all republican politicians
Lots of people in the comments are failing to see the issue with this, so allow me to illustrate. Fair warning, this will not be an easy read.
So let’s imagine you really hate trans people, gay people, and liberals. Unfortunately for you, none of these are crimes (yet), so you can’t just go around assaulting and killing these people indiscriminately, as much as you’d like to. So what are you going to do?
Well, the best hate campaigns start with a shared enemy, and nobody is more hated than a child predator. Best of all, you can do pretty much whatever you want to them with no recourse. What are they going to do, call the police? Nobody is going to speak out against what you’re doing, because if they do, you can just say that if they don’t support you, then they must be defending child predators!
Now that we have a precedent for violence, it’s time to expand our scope a bit. Since hunting pedophiles is a-ok, now you just need to label anyone you don’t like a pedophile. You could say gay and trans people are pedophiles and groomers. And again, if anyone opposes you, just call them a groomer too!
But maybe that’s not enough for you. No, you want to make sure that you can target anyone who disagrees with you. Well good news, because you can just join a group of people who believe that anyone who dislikes Donald Trump is a deep state pedophile. You don’t even need evidence anymore, and there’s a good chance the cops will be on your side! Happy hunting!
Seriously though, this vigilante “justice” should not be celebrated. Yes, we need to take child predators off the streets, but there is a process for that. Denying anyone due process opens the door to denying it to everyone.
These type of discussions remind me of a case in Minnesota where a neighbor framed their neighbor by hacking their wifi and planting child pornography.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/man-gets-18-yrs-for-wifi-hack-child-porn-frame/
Vigilantes taking the law into their own hands with violence is always a sign of a healthy society. It also never leads to tragedy.
Vigilantes not fueled by lack of justice, but by views mind you.
Didn’t an entire TV show get into some serious hot water for doing this sort of thing which resulted in someone committing suicide while filming an episode? These people are potentially putting themselves in serious danger if they corner a pedo who feels like they have nowhere to run or anything left to lose.
corner a pedo
And since these are internet vigilante kids with no oversight, they will inevitably corner some non-pedos too.
Put yourself in that situation- a couple teenagers with cameras approach you on the street and start accusing you of some of the sickest crimes imaginable. Even though the accusation is false, this has the potential to ruin your career, your relationships, your entire life.
I’m not sure how anyone would respond, or should respond, but I can definitely see how people might resort to violence when falsely accused of this horrible shit on camera.
Exactly. Vigilante justice is not the solution here, it’s only going to get a lot of people hurt.
In UNRELATED NEWS in Free Republican States Trans and Gay people are Legally PEDOPHILES!
You can tell they are Free because of all the people they are hurting.
There’s one more angle to this - apart from the raise in vigilante violence and messing up with police operations which both are very valid.
Just as we stopped getting TV feeds constantly equating pedophiles to child molesters, those guys stepped in to fill the void.
Pedophiles are not inherently child molesters. This kind of equation is not only wrong, it also adds to promoting dangerous behaviors among them.
Plenty of pedophiles will never abuse a single child, knowing full well it is dangerous and harmful for minors to be engaged in such relationships. However, the more we equate pedophiles to predators, the more people, especially in the emotionally vulnerable groups like teen pedophiles, will actually accept themselves in this role. Among those who stands against this anyway, plenty will become suicidal, not seeing an option to live a non-offending life.
Current methods of therapy aimed at reducing child abuse rates go very strongly on this - pedophiles should face message of them not being inherently dangerous, not the message of them being an immediate and imminent danger. Not only this is scientifically correct, it is actually useful in making these people safer for others.
That’s an interesting and reasonable take.
I’m actually surprised you are not down voted to oblivion!Guess this is what happens when you meet real people online who are not artificially enraged - a productive conversation!
Oh. They’re just gonna call people pedo and attack them even though they’re not. It’s extremely obvious.
They’re going to attack LGBT people and say they’re pedos for being LGBT.
Oh I get it. So this stuff gets pushed on left wing spaces. Then the left wing adopts this ethos where they say “pedo hunters aren’t good” then the right goes “oh you’re all pedophiles” and then the divide is bigger
Perhaps it’s best to make the distinction that this is creating a new type of predator, Violence Predators. Because that’s what the problem is. Right now they are going after the targets no one cares about, when they run low on those targets, either because the need for “content/violence” outpaces the supply of easy targets, some of them will find new ones, while using the old label to mask what they are doing.
So make that distinction, because it’s not about the people hunting pedophiles, it’s about the people hunting for violence. If there’s an overlap that doesn’t need to be the focus of the argument, because that’s the red herring.
This is part of the reason why casual accusations of pedophilia have always disturbed me. Because it can lead even people who in most other circumstances would be considered pro-justice and pro-human rights into mini-Mengeles.
And I’ve seen people just throw out the accusation without even prompt or justification, just because they hate somebody (maybe for other good reasons) and want to see if it sticks. It’s fucked up.
Then there’s other cases like that one where that 18-year-old got jumped for being baited into going on a date with another 18-year-old, while under the impression that she was… at least 18. A couple of people posted about that already.
Yeah, I got accusations thrown at me after letting a trans lady crash at my place when she came out and her ex-wife kicked her out of the house. Everybody was an adult, but the ex-wife found a friend in the TERFs, and they think trans rights is pedo apologism.
I got molested by my babysitter when I was 5, and it was incredibly infuriating to hear people say it was the same as a fucking divorce.
Disgusting.
Sadly as a transwoman I have heard “You should have left the kids alone!” From ex-friends who were Pro-Trans until it became “Support transpeople or support Trump”, then suddenly every dirty lie they knew not to believe became truth.
I was disgusted, a former ally suddenly and without evidence starting seeing his many transfriends as paedos
Remember when Musk did it si callously
He definitely has some skeletons in his closet, he’s got to have done something
See this is that shit.
This is that shit.
Stop doing this.
There are plenty of things wrong with Elon Musk that are well documented in the public record by diverse and reputable sources that can easily be cited.
Do that, not this.
Let’s be real- we know who they’re catching. I’m fine with this. Keep on doing whatever to MAGA trash.
Well, I get you are trying to state that MAGA people are pedofiles, and I am not here to stop you from that. But you also assume they catch actual pedofiles. However, there are cases where they have contacted people with an intellectual disability, and then you cannot be really sure the person really is sexually in to children, since with enough pushing you can get such persons to agree to a meeting anyway… just because you pushed. Regardless of how awful the crime is, we cannot accept vigilantes.
The word pedophile is so weirdly used. If an older man or lady meets a 16 year old… their technically not one, but in this day of age… they would be consider one to society…but they would be consider a Sex Offender. Depending on Level 1 or 2… all depends on what they did and if their state will think they will re-offend or not. Most Level 1’s do not.
It’s not weirdly used. Society always determines what is appropriate. We’ve decided, as a society, that humans cannot consent until 18. And any sex without consent is rape.
That said, what is weird is that we conflate pedo and child rapist. You’re describing child rapists.
Get the fuck out, man.
Teenagers fuck each other all the time, consensually.
So there goes your argument about people younger than 18 being incapable of giving consent.
For the record, I’m in my 40s and I wouldn’t go out with anyone below the age of 30, before someone accuses me of anything I ain’t.
I hate predators as much as the next person, but let’s not go over to the other extreme.
Children can’t consent. Teenagers fucking is without consent. Their brains, on the average, are not capable of making that level of decision.
But that doesn’t make it illegal.
Teenagers fucking is without consent. Their brains, on the average, are not capable of making that level of decision.
What an absolute crock.
That’s the theory behind the law, OK, but the notion that someone is incapable of consent the day before their 18th birthday, but fully capable the following day, is manifestly stupid. I’ve raised three kids to adulthood. All of them had sexual relations before they were 18 and there’s nothing wrong with any of them. Don’t let religious nuts and the pathologically undersexed make your laws, it won’t work out.
That’s the theory behind the law
Exactly my point.
Consent is a legal concept, not a moral one.
There’s nothing wrong with teens fucking each other. It’s just not “with consent”. Consent is agreement between adults of sound mind. They are not adults.
What are you a fucking religious nutjob? Or worse, a fucking AI?
I’m doing pointing out how moronic and ignorant this stand is.
I didn’t say they shouldn’t fuck, feisty pants. I said they can’t consent. Consent is a legal term.
They can and should fuck as much as they want. They just can’t provide consent.
The issue here is that most countries define the age of consent differently. I think we can agree that when a 16 year old agrees to sexual contact with another 16 year old, the dynamic is different than if they agree to it with a 40 year old. Absolutely. But that does not mean that the 16 year old doesnt understand what they are doing.
Indeed. It’s based on each society. That said, I remember myself at 16. I in no way understood the risk/reward of my choices. It probably took me to 25 to be what I would consider fully conscious.
As a main communitymember on a site with chats used by a huge amount of kids, I have seen how the internet makes it very easy, compared to oldentimes, for pedos to be in areas high in children. One of the kids there often complains about pedos and asked me to help remove them. So, with kids being a defenseless flock of animals, there ARE kids who then take a Defender role and they become the ouster of pedos. Also noteworthy is, right before I emailed an official pedocatching organization, the kid I was helping got in a confrontation and spilled the antipedo plans; which alerted the pedos and spoiled the plan. So the issue with kids doing high stakes things is they are mentally still children.
overall, pedos in kid areas, thanks to the internet, feels, to me, also on the rise. And those areas SHOULD have the pedos removed in an organized acceptable fashion; and that that doesn’t happen causes some Defender kids to think they need to do it themselves.
imo get better real official pedo prevention measures up in kid spaces to reduce vigilantiism.
I always knew there was something wrong with that these people were doing but couldn’t exactly put my finger on it and never talked about it because people would’ve yelled at me and used false dillema arguments like many people who criticized them back them recieved “You support pedophiles you removed”
One of these groups that operate out of the Pacific North West employs psychologists to create profiles on people the contact online. They target non-sex related forums like grief or mental health related support groups online. They’ll spend as much time as needed to hook these men and make them dependent on their carefully crafted online personas and even drive away their outside support groups to isolate them.
Regardless of your opinion of these individuals, going out of your way to exploit a vulnerable person and turn them into something their not is incredibly fucked up.
Hell, KiwiFarms style tactics is becoming more and more common and mainstream. It’s on Lemmy too.
