“Paedophile hunters”

There's one group that does that.

They went to a station i cover at work. Sat down with cops and then handed over files, print outs, USB sticks then left the station. Cops who dealt with them were amazed & impressed with the sheer amount of work they'd done

Thats the way it should be done.

No, that wouldn’t be considered a crime in the eyes of the law. It’s a bit like how these hunters lie they’re 10/11 but really are in their thirties and forties. While it’s a lie, the intent is there. The first is a lie but intent is not shown.

The idea that sex offenders get any better with therapy or intervention is for the birds. Most of them reoffend, and therapy tends to make them worse. It’s rather like therapy for domestic abuse, it makes for a more manipulative offender (my view)

Presumably a police officer could be there at the meet instead of a bunch of bullies. Still shows the same intent.

He had no previous convictions which helped in him getting such a light sentence. It was public info.

Well obviously but if it was handled in the correct way (ie by trained professionals not fame hungry, internet morons) then by the time it reached the press the evidence would be out there and a fair verdict given. Live Facebook stings by untrained idiots who often don’t have a brain cell between them and are doing it for all the wrong reasons…it’s not fair on anyone. Including the victims.

Record the meet-up and hand footage into police. There is no need to post it online. You’re missing the point.

Might not have been sexual in nature but he still may have been breaking bail cobnfitions or similiar…. We aren’t privy to the full story

I know this isn’t what this chat is directly about but I don’t think pedophiles can change. It’s like being gay or straight. You can’t change your attraction to young children if that’s how you feel. Therapy won’t work.

No the whole thing needs to culminate in a meet to trigger police action there and then….. handing over a few transcripts of conversations isn’t enough….. the meet up with the ‘child’ has to happen for a stronger conviction, hence they go through with meeting and call police once it’s active

The hunters only tend to show the worst of the worst, as a. They get more views, and b. The less sexual ones often back out of meeting up. I believe Stinson hunter in his early days caught one who wasn’t being sexual, he still got a criminal record.

Even though I have outlined that there are positives (and negatives) to the predator hunters, I have to say that if the police did their job and dedicated more time and funding to finding, convicting and preventing and punishing genuine, active paedophiles, if the system was good and the offenders engaged in therapy and prevention methods and the padeophiles monitored and dealt with fairly and adequately, it would be so much better for everyone.
In the real world this does not happen. The police mostly do not want to comment on their lack of attentiveness for obvious reasons, but I've watched a very good (probably BBC) documentary that narrates and explores their inadequacies and flaws of the system. You can tell it is a true account because they admit failures but do demonstrate the actions they are taking simultaneously.
Offenders of these offences are not checked up on properly and sexual harm prevention orders are not applied rigorously and are often sporadic. Not fair!!!!!

I watch a group that find paedophiles and confront them at their homes. They have alerted police too so wait with the person until the police arrive. They have a log of the chat between the adult and the child. They are very successful in that those they meet are always arrested and a lot convicted. The ones I’ve seen the hunters are as polite as they can be and always make sure the person is safe and will help them if they need it. But at the end of the day most of these men have a long history of child grooming on line. I saw one where the man admitted he’d been grooming and meeting up with children for years. I guess it depends on who you watch but the hunters I see do everything by the book. There’s no violence whatsoever and despite being in front of these men manage to keep their cool. As a survivor of csa myself I welcome the time that is put into finding these men. Being ND can’t be an excuse for befriending and sexually chatting to a child knowing full well they are under age. It’s abhorrent and disgusting on all levels.

Innocent chat with a minor (if you’re over 18) can still be considered grooming, even if it’s not sexual. A lot of people forget that.

if an underage person messages you/ your son, his first message should be “sorry, you’re too young” and block them.

Do you have a link to the video @Yellowdaffodilss ? Is it on YouTube or anything?

My personal belief is that if these groups truly wanted to get convictions or expose these type of people, then they could hand the evidence over to the police to arrest the suspect. And once a trial has established guilt, then show it far and wide.

In reality they are just a bunch of bullies trying to gain social praise due to lack of purpose in their lives.

An adult asking a child to go to the cinema is still concerning for the child. I’m not sure it matters how mature the adult is, he’s still an adult.

That said there should be ways to limit SM access to those who cross boundaries for whatever reason. I’m sure there are some adults who genuinely don’t understand, but at the end of the day it’s the child that needs to be protected.

You blame the media?? Not your friends kid who behaved so very inappropriately with a minor? Someone’s child?

I haven’t seen much of it, but those I have haven’t been having innocent conversations.

Op I do understand what you mean, but I don’t think any adult should be having online conversations with children, mainly because it encourages the children to think it’s ok, it blurs boundaries. If a ND adult cannot understand this then there should be no internet access without supervision if this is an issue. In your son’s case he sounds like he’s doing the right thing.

YABU. The impact on the victim is still the same. Autism or not.

I hate them. I don’t like vigilante justice anyway but these people specifically who do this aren’t doing it to make people safer they’re doing it for attention for themselves and because they love a drama- and often have convictions themselves apparently. I have never made a habit of watching their videos but when I have seen a few seconds they do seem to have been quite a few people confronted who have obvious vulnerabilities- learning difficulties for example. They’re often easy targets. More so when you factor in this all ends up on Facebook live or similar and the internet is forever.

I don’t think pardophile hunters would bother orchestrating s sting where it was just innocent chat!! There would be a lot more to it than you were aware of op….. your sympathy sounds wasted

I hear you. I’ve had some real life experience of this with my friend and her son who is severely autistic but is now on the sex offenders register after befriending a girl who said she was older than she was on Snapchat and he behaved inappropriately. Really inappropriately. I’m not blaming the child at all, I blame the media that makes this possible. His mum blames herself and I am fearful when parents are so dismissive of SM and the dangers. I am terrified for my autistic son and have limited social media as much as possible but not so much that he’s completely isolated from “friends”. It’s a really fine line to tread. It’s a horrible situation to be in.