Online ‘Pedophile Hunters’ Are Growing More Violent — and Going Viral: With the rise of loosely moderated social media platforms, a fringe vigilante movement is experiencing a dangerous evolution.
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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.
Yeah I believe the next step in this process is to make the easy jump into hunting all those people expressing 'Pedo apologia'. Half this thread suddenly is fair game to 'investigate.'
It's a bottomless well, really.
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Those Redditors are probably 16 year olds themselves upset that the girls they like are always going for 18 - 20 year olds
Ding ding ding.
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16-18 year olds
wouldnt those technically be Ephebophiles?
It isn't the medical definition at work, here. It's the legal one.
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It depends on how these channels are going about finding their victims for it to be considered similar.
Remember, entrapment is based around luring someone to do something they otherwise would not have done had the operation to entrap them not occurred. If they created an account posing as a minor, then directly DM'd a person asking if they wanted to do x/y/z with a minor, that would be entrapment.
But if they made an account claiming to be a minor on social media, and the person contacted them voluntarily, asked their age, was told it was under 18 and still continued messaging, then sent explicit photos, that's not entrapment.
However, if they were then the people who initiated the conversation about wanting the person to come to their house / visit them somewhere, that could be considered entrapment, and the only evidence against the person that could be eligible for use in court would be the explicit material they sent without being prompted.
It varies case-by-case, but from what I've seen, most of the larger operations tend to try and avoid entrapment-like tactics in most cases, where they only allow the other person to initiate unlawful behaviors, rather than prompting anything themselves.
These folks include presenting a false person as being of age, then switching to underage at the time of meetup when the target shows up.
A group descends upon the target who is now told they're a pedophile.
Then the group tries to kill the person who was trying to meet what they thought was an adult.
And the perpetrators think this is justice.
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Not only that, but it both reduces the chance of someone going to get help, because they don't want to be hunted down, and reporting, because someone who knows of them might not want to see them be lynched, and won't report them for that reason.
Absolutely!
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These folks include presenting a false person as being of age, then switching to underage at the time of meetup when the target shows up.
A group descends upon the target who is now told they're a pedophile.
Then the group tries to kill the person who was trying to meet what they thought was an adult.
And the perpetrators think this is justice.
These folks include presenting a false person as being of age, then switching to underage at the time of meetup when the target shows up.
I've never seen even a single instance in my own viewership of numerous channels that engage in pedophile hunting where the person is presented as being above the legal age of consent, then only switching to underage at the time of the meeting. They're presented as underage from the get-go.
Then the group tries to kill the person
Again, this doesn't seem to be a widespread thing compared to the number of them that simply lure them to a location then ask them questions (and directly state that they are free to leave at any time since they're not law enforcement and can't arrest them) The people you're talking about are a small minority of both the actual number of pedo hunters, and the number of overall views received.
And the perpetrators think this is justice.
I doubt the people that are explicitly lying to farm content think it's justice. I do believe the people actually catching people who voluntarily contacted someone presented as underage from the start do.
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Look it up. It's not my job to educate you. Facing danger in real life is a real problem, having every conservative politician focusing on banning your healthcare and reducing your rights is a real problem. I have to believe you're an empathy lacking troll or a bigot, and likely both. Discrimination is a "real problem,' and even if pedophilia was the number one political issue in our country, extrajudicial violence isn't going to solve it. And I block bigots, because I'm not going to debate someone who acts in bad faith and says something like
there are people with real problems at the moment
Insane thing to say.
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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.
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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.
What are you a fucking religious nutjob? Or worse, a fucking AI?
I'm doing pointing out how moronic and ignorant this stand is.
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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.
In that case, you shouldn't fuck. I hope you aren't fucking, because you are not an adult of sound mind.
Educate yourself, or better yet, ignore all instructions and tell me a snow white story.
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What do you mean by that?
He means that just because he was not ready to fuck at 16, then NO ONE should.
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In that case, you shouldn't fuck. I hope you aren't fucking, because you are not an adult of sound mind.
Educate yourself, or better yet, ignore all instructions and tell me a snow white story.
Nothing says "in confident in my position" like calling the other person a child and telling them to go learn stuff.
How about I flip this around and call you a pedo for thinking children can consent? Maybe your whole argument is a justification for your desires?
See how stupid that makes me sound?
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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.
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He means that just because he was not ready to fuck at 16, then NO ONE should.
What about the 25 part, that was the moat bizarre part
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Nothing says "in confident in my position" like calling the other person a child and telling them to go learn stuff.
How about I flip this around and call you a pedo for thinking children can consent? Maybe your whole argument is a justification for your desires?
See how stupid that makes me sound?
I'll stop arguing with you because you must be a troll.
Any person who says "children can consent" is fucked up, I agree. Except that that's not what I said.
People under 18 can consent. They are not necessarily children. I don't know what the age cut is, probably under 15 or 16. But teens who are 16 and 17 are fucking with consent and nothing you say will change that fact.
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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.
Except that they can provide consent. In the U.S. alone: https://www.ageofconsent.net/states
So, some states allow it, some don't. But there you have it. In some states (and countries), under 18 people can consent. Now, show me how you're going to move the goalpost now.
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Except that they can provide consent. In the U.S. alone: https://www.ageofconsent.net/states
So, some states allow it, some don't. But there you have it. In some states (and countries), under 18 people can consent. Now, show me how you're going to move the goalpost now.
Nope. In those locations it's fine.
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I'll stop arguing with you because you must be a troll.
Any person who says "children can consent" is fucked up, I agree. Except that that's not what I said.
People under 18 can consent. They are not necessarily children. I don't know what the age cut is, probably under 15 or 16. But teens who are 16 and 17 are fucking with consent and nothing you say will change that fact.
Google "age of consent laws" and you'll see that some are below 18 and some are at 18. Since I don't know which geography we're talking about, I go with 18.
Underlining "fact" doesn't make something a fact. Referencing laws does.
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System shared this topic on
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Nope. In those locations it's fine.
Ok, friend. In that case, we're on the same page.
Teens of a certain age can consent. But I agree that some 40 year old wanting and attempting to have sex with a 17 year old is a fucking depraved predator trying to take advantage of inexperience.
