Vigilantism is never the answer. In pretty much every case the vigilante has far less noble motivations than they claim to have. Just look at the constant screeching about “groomers” by US conservatives.

The question is, would these people be predators if people didn’t bait them into it? If they are doing this for “content” or some sense of moral judgement, then they have an incentive to push people into these things more than they originally would.

I can imagine the following scenario being common (to the point at which I wouldn’t be surprised if there is a tutorial for it somewhere):

• Find someone online who has serious mental health problems or cognitive impairment.
• Emotionally manipulate them into saying or doing something nasty that they wouldn’t otherwise do.
• Invite them somewhere public and humiliate then online for content.
• Congratulations! Not only have you managed to ruin someone’s life, you’ve done it in a way that you get to feel morally superior as well.

Target some marginalised group as well, and you can also justify hatred towards them and show everyone that your group is better!

This happened to someone I know.

Don’t know the full details, but apparently he ended up going to prison for it even though nothing actually happened, as obviously there wasn’t an actual child involved.

He’s kind of a fuck up, but mostly just kinda stupid and with an alcohol problem.

Is he a predator and therefore one of the most evil people on the planet? I don’t think so.

He’s a fuck up who’s never had success with women, and someone reached out and was kind and interested in him.

idk how to feel about it tbh. I know a lot of people online will just blanket say he’s a monster, but it’s different when it’s a real person you know.

It feels gross that child rape is compelling stakes for TV entertainment.

That’s why you don’t like it. Because at the end of the day, this content isn’t being produced to save kids, it’s so you have something to watch on a Tuesday.

As a child, I was preyed upon by an adult.

To me, people making content doing this kind of “hunter” shit is vile. The victims are real children, and you’re using them & their pain to fuel your ego and hero complex? For “”“entertainment”“”? And they’re monetizing it?? Disgusting.

If you’re going to be a vigilante, be quiet and anonymous about it. And be absolutely certain about everything that had occurred.

I still wish someone had gone after my abuser, even after all these years. It would have given me peace knowing that they are no longer out there.

Yes.

For two reasons.

First: Two wrongs doesn’t make a right.

Second: The police has far more resources to verify suspicions than any vigilante has. The risk of acting on false accusations or bad dats is just way too big. Also if the predator has had multiple victims a vigilante may miss that and never giving all vicitms closure or compensation.

Vigilantism is illegal for a couple of good reasons.

Vigilantism is wildly unhelpful to the proper authorities, at best, you’ve put yourself in a position of immediate escalation with someone who is clearly able to be presumed as capable of heinous crimes of the violent variety, at worst, you’ve spoiled a years long investigation by showing the hand to the target that people have started to catch on to who they really are, allowing them to book it to a no extradition country.

Depending on what part of the world these people live in, the actions of these vigilantes might screw up the chance of a successful prosecution.

I’m in the UK and I remember watching a copper interviewed on the the TV asking people not to do it as a lot of the time it results in inadmissible evidence and might even give pedos chance to delete evidence. I think he also said he was aware of multiple instances of the pedo-hunters getting the wrong person at the ‘sting’.

That said, I doubt these pedo-hunters really care about abused kids, it seems mostly about bragging rights and youtube views.

I think it’s immoral in the sense they rarely involve, or bring their cases to police. Yeah, it sucks to get caught for the predator, but he’s still out there capable of harming children.

It leads me to believe that the people setting the traps have a hero complex and they’re most likely going to get themselves hurt or another person hurt at some point or another

Yeah I don’t like it. In the same way that I don’t like people filming themselves giving money to homeless people.

Vigilantism, by definition, has no accountability. It’s an individual, who could be mistaken, doling out their own interpretation of justice. There are always exceptions to the rule. Sure, posing as a child could illicit attention from child predators, but it could also attract someone who is concerned about the welfare of the (fake) child. I can imagine someone, abused as a child, wanting to reach out and help someone they think is in danger of falling victim to the same. It’s not a huge stretch of the imagination.

However, our legal system is woefully inadequate in addressing the amount of predators out there, precisely because it hinges on evidence of an act that often has none, while going unreported for long periods of time.

I’d say, that if someone is attempting to meet up with a child for the purpose of engaging in sexual contact, and you are alerted to that, you get to beat the shit out of them, but I’d draw the line at recording and posting, just in case you were wrong. Guy gets beaten up, learns a lesson, but if he was innocent, all he did was get his ass whooped.

Look into the Snowtown Murders for a true story about vigilantes who profess to want to kill pedophiles. It doesn’t end well. Only actual idiots truly believe violence is how things should work, and you really want smart people to be the arbiters of justice to the greatest extent that is possible.

There’s an element of this that feels like it’s operating under the assumption that someone will assault a different child if not the adult posing as one that makes me a little uncomfortable. It’s a sort of Kantian outlook, but there’s a part of me that wonders if those predators would find another target if the decoy “child” wasn’t presented to them.

On the other hand, I imagine that the answer to that question is “Yes. This is an abuser actively hunting for a target.” and that assuages some of the concern.

Them doing it for views and content is also upsetting, but that’s the nature of living in a capitalist world. Everything, even justice, can and will be commodified and sold into a perversion of its original intent and goal.