“Paedophile hunters”

they don’t just ‘hand it all in to police’ because they have to be caught in the act so to speak for an arrest to happen …. The meet up

otherwise it’s a lesser charge of communicating with a child…. The police turn up and the predator has at that point carried it through to the point of meeting

Was thevperson with Down syndrome autism ,sending sexuallly explicit messages, ?or trying to make friends ?
What level was his understanding?
Clearly whatever he needs more supervision

The livestreaming on facebook indicates they are very much in it for personal glory. I remember a livestreamed confrontation going viral all over my city, and I wonder that they don't worry about tipping off any associates. If he had any friends who had a shared interest in abusing children, they then had prior warning to destroy evidence of their involvement with him.

When the police arrest suspected child molesters, they do it at dawn and take all the suspect's digital devices before the internet histories can be wiped, don't they?

A learning disability is no excuse. I’ve seen people with Down’s syndrome and autism get criminal records for doing stuff like this- as they should do if it’s chat of a sexual nature.

I remember this one too.

I appreciate these groups catching pedos, but I don’t think outing them on social media is good. Risks the family of the offender (who normally don’t know anything about it) being identified and harassed. Just hand the evidence over to the police.

A hunting group near me actually all got arrested themselves for beating up the predators. Some people might say well done but it’s landed them in prison themselves.

I am autistic, and while I know there’s different levels, I know I would never message underage lads. Autism is not an excuse for doing this- I know of a lad caught in a sting who had Down’s syndrome and autism. His autism sounds like it was on a similar level to your lad. But it didn’t give him an excuse for doing what he did.

I also unfortunately personally know a guy with high functioning autism (Asperger’s) who tried to use his autism as an excuse in court. Did not work.

You say he can’t keep secrets. I’m similar, maybe due to my autism- I used to tell my mum everything. Still do. But at that age I was sexting folk online (folk my age!) and needless to say I kept it quiet from my mum. Just because he’s told you everything so far doesn’t mean he always will.

If he’s talking to young girls and you have proof (and he’s not listening to you) and won’t stop - you need to go to the police. Or you could get in trouble/investigated too when doubtless the girls parents find out and tell the police themselves. Or potentially as you say, he might find himself caught in a sting and his name outed.

I work in adults social care with people with LD or Autism. We have several young men open to our team caught by these paedophile hunters. None have been convicted so far, all it does is cause untold stress as generally these men are living in supported living homes with other vulnerable individuals who are then put at risk as their home is aired on social media for all to see and target. In most cases we have to rehouse the individual caught by the paedophile hunters and increase the support for those left in the home in case of potential attacks from members of the public. It's disgusting what they do, if they cared that much they would just share the intel with the police not all over social media.

Well the number of people (well men, let's be honest) arrested for images or communications offences has been soaring for several years now, so it clearly isn't achieving that. Everyone who commits these offences know their lives will be ruined if they get caught, publicity or not. It doesn't stop them.

Just to add, I'm very wary of oversharing, but I have some knowledge of this professionally, including seeing the impact on the innocent families of offenders.

Being autistic doesn’t give you free rein to be a paedophile. YABVU.

That is quite true, actually.

The more concious and 'considerate' hunting groups often don't allow family members in the video and/or notify the viewer that it is not the family's fault or involvement. This is variable, though.
There are less 'aggressive' and more quiet/gentle hunters that are very respectful of the background when it is in a home setting.

I just think they must all share the same braincells, what is worsos they probably have gullible partners who think they are amazing

Yes but as I said everybody including paedophile, s are entitled to a fair trial, if thousands of people have seen it being streamed the evidence might not be used thus jeopardising the the chance of a conviction.

I can easily believe that someone like your son finds it easier to communicate with people who are younger and particularly girls and not all men have bad intentions or are predators.

That said, there are predators and for the sake of the children it would be better that they would not get used to communicating with people who are much older who they otherwise have no connection to, particularly males. However, even females could pose a risk.

There was a thread today about sleepovers and a lot of posters said they would not let their kids do it while young, because of the risk of predators. It's not worth the risk to the children and it's best not to make a habit of such things.

I'm not calling you a liar, but I'd be very surprised at the hunting group being vulnerable to prosecution (harassment) and public outcry.
This sometimes reaches more than one audience on social media and the observer on the screen may be defensive of people with neurodiversities that they may have in their family etc.

Yabu if an adult is asking or sending sexual content to a child i don't care if the adult is ND. The police are underfunded if these groups get paedophiles of the street that's a good thing. We've had several in our area sent to prison thanks to these people

'If they genuinely want to help catch paedophiles why film it and stream etc'
To deter more future paedophiles from doing yhe same.
Some of it may be a power trip, admittedly but of they are actual active paedophiles and they are genuinely helping/working/handing over evidence to the police.

You sure?

what about incognito? Private browser?? You won’t be able to see any of that or anything he deleted

I’m on the fence on this one, I’ve a half brother (who I’ve been nc with for several years), he was caught by these peadophile hunters, he’s getting on for nearly 60 and this “girl” was 14. The thing he was saying and wanting this girl to do was truly awful, he went to prison and served half of his sentence and rightly so, he also had young teenage daughters.
I’ve also seen people with learning difficulties who no clue what’s happening.
so I’m not sure on this one, they do take predators off the street.

"It’s clear that the messages in the videos I have seen are between the “ culprit” and an ‘underage child’ discussing meeting up , when yes they have been clear they are underage but it is also clear that it has not been sexual talk and these people are not understanding that what they are doing is wrong."

I guess I've seen about 8 or 9 of these videos in the last few years and every single one of them has involved the person talking sexually to what they believed was a child, and arranging to meet up for sex.

One thought he was meeting an 11 year old girl and he turned up with a pair of Hello Kitty knickers for her and a tube of lubrication.

If that happened in the way you said it did, then that's very unfair and, of course unlawful.

I both agree and disagree with aspects of these hunts and catches.
All of the ones I've seen involve the police and call the police as part of the catch.
There is a considerable percentage of those caught that are disabled and/or neurodiverse, that is definitely true, and some groups are more fierce than others with how they deal with the situation and potential disabilities/vulnerablities but, at least the ones I have seen talk about the chat logs.
It has to be said that some groups literally take the piss and tease the predators: they make them wear supposedly 'loser brand' coats and once I saw them dress up a predator in, I think a clown costume or something degrading.
I do NOT agree with that because it may well stop legal proceedings/stand up in court because it is underhand. That is the other end of the spectrum and the police will take it less seriously because of degrading content even when the paedophile has done wrong.
What you have to factor in is the very unfortunate reality that the police don't do enough to catch and incarcerate active paedophiles. It is very unfair, but the provision is patchy even though their acts hurt many.
There are police led teams that work to catch these people but it is not enough (I've watch documentaries on it.
If the hunters catch the paedophiles relatively professionally, I am mostly all for it
I wish the police did their bit, but they definitely do not, either due to lack of funding or staff etc.
I have been a victim of paedophilia in my family and it cuts so deep. It effects people for the rest of their lives, it can cause psychosis and flash backs (still have them), it causes suicidal action and thought.
I am luckily having intense therapy and it's working now after years of hard grit.
No one is paying for it but me and my disability benefit because my mental health and attention span don't allow me to work.
I nearly didn't leave my family out of fear, but I got help.... what if I hadn't?
I agree with a previous poster when she said about a neurodiverse person having friendly but non sexual chat with a minor possibly being misconstrued, but I have never seen that happen in the videos I've seen and even though they are social media based, I don't think that would happen. Chat logs are read out and analysed with confrontation, and there are people with learning disabilities that are held to account, but I think these predators are aware almost totally of what they are doing.
Some predator catchers explain to the camera that they will turn off the camera and not film in some circumstances or they will lower the camera and/or only film the audio, (I think this is the best option) some treat the predators as they would the average/less vulnerable.
If the police 'had the resources' and invested better in teams better trained to do so and revisited cases that were not thoroughly enough examined and more prison sentences were given, then I would probably not advocate for the paedophile hunters that the OP has referenced.
I wish the police did their duty and did more to ensure these nonces didn't re-offend.
There is unfortunately a strong likelihood that these people do it again and that is based on facts and figures.
The offenders need intervention and therapy but you can't force that on them even if they don't want to engage with it.
I will say, if I'm honest I like to see a genuine chold sexual predator confronted and intimidated. It pleases me a bit after what I've been through with my smarmy paedophilic parents who won't admit to the acts or the suffering they have caused my baby bro and I with their gaslighting and narcissistic abuse.