Pedobear is an Internet meme that became popular through the imageboard 4chan. [1] As the name suggests ("pedo" being short for "pedophile"), it is portrayed as a pedophilic cartoon bear. [2] It is a concept used to mock child sex offenders or people who have any sexual interest in children or "jailbait". [3] [4] The bear image has been likened to bait used to lure children or as a mascot for pedophiles. [3]
The bear character originates from the popular textboard website 2channel in Japan, where it was introduced, in the form of Shift_JIS art, as クマー (Kumā), an interjection of the word 熊 (Kuma) meaning bear in Japanese. Unlike Pedobear, Kumā has no sexual connotations, pedophilic or otherwise.
Although initially appearing as a single line:
various posts modified it until reaching the final form as multi-line art:
∩＿＿＿∩ |ノ ヽ / ● ● | クマ──！！ | (_●_) ミ 彡､ |∪| ､｀＼ / ＿＿ ヽノ /´> ) (＿＿＿） / (_／ | / | ／＼ ＼ | / ) ) ∪ （ ＼ ＼＿)
Eventually, posting Kuma Shift_JIS art evolved into a response to "fishing" posts submitted as "bait" to attract people (fishing for attention), which is why the bear is depicted as literally running into the forum to get the bait.
The Kuma character was adopted by 4chan and quickly became a meme there, [1] especially on the /b/ board. On 2ch, Kuma was often depicted in images sleeping with children, and this was promptly exploited on 4chan to create the Pedobear persona. Soon it gained its representation as an image rather than text art, and started being superimposed in pictures [4] depicting children (especially if these pictures could be interpreted as sexually suggestive, such as when involving swimsuits, underwear or child beauty pageants). [3] Another common use of the character was to mock or otherwise signal the posting of borderline child erotica content, [3] [4] sometimes with references to the FBI or Chris Hansen, the host of the TV show To Catch a Predator .
Pedobear eventually became known outside 4chan as it was referenced by newspapers and prominent websites. In the media it was frequently claimed to be a mascot of child sex offenders, which is contested by meme catalogs who note that its intent is actually to mock pedophiles. [5] [6]
Pedobear was used in a CollegeHumor video parodying the film Doubt . [7]
On 3 July 2009, Canadian artist Michael R. Barrick created two composite images [8] depicting Pedobear grouped together with the mascots of 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games. One is based on the official art, and the other is based on fanart created by Angela Melick. [9] This image was then mistakenly used by other media, [10] most notably the Polish newspaper Gazeta Olsztyńska for a 4 February 2010 front-page story about the Olympics in Vancouver. [4] [11]
On 24 July 2009, a column in the far-right Taki's Magazine by conservative commentator Pat Buchanan about the early months of Barack Obama's presidency included an image of Pedobear, which generated considerable reaction from non-political commentators. [10]
Other uses of Pedobear include an iStockphoto wallpaper, [10] a cover of the auto magazine Import Tuner, [10] and a flyer of a costume store in Portland, Oregon which accidentally featured a Pedobear-like figure. The incident in Portland was covered by a local news station, which provided a detailed history of Pedobear, and even interviewed Cheezburger Network's CEO Ben Huh about Pedobear's cultural significance. [10]
In September 2010 cosplay participants dressed as the character were accused of being potential child sex offenders, [12] after the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Department issued a warning that Pedobear was a sign of the presence of pedophiles and other people with inappropriate sexual behavior, and suggested that Pedobear was a kind of mascot among pedophiles. [3] [13] Law enforcement officials in San Diego later sent a warning to local media, warning parents that the image can indicate the presence of predators. It also issued a bulletin:
Since the Comic Con, law enforcement in San Diego... has come across PedoBear's image in situations during which they were contacting those that exploit and/or abuse children. (...)
The intention of this bulletin is (...) [to] alert citizens that [PedoBear's] presence may be an indicator of the presence of individuals who have a predilection to sexually inappropriate, or even, assaultive behaviour. While not an absolute, the image of PedoBear should be a sign that you should use caution with whatever situation you are in or the individuals involved.— Public Safety Bulletin. A Seemingly Innocent Menace. An introduction to "PEDO BEAR"(Page 2) [3]
Gawker later reported that it had spoken to the San Luis Obispo Sheriff's Department, and that the department knew it was an "Internet joke", [3] despite the fact that they had referred to pedophiles adopting it as a mascot. Two local television stations, KSBY and KCOY-TV, passed on the warning to their viewers. [12] In Tulsa, Oklahoma, Sgt. John Adams of the Tulsa Police Department Child Exploitation Unit falsely told local television stations KOKI-TV and KOTV that the person wearing the costume was a registered sex offender, a claim which was later retracted. [14] [15] [16]
On March 22, 2011, the blog Urlesque posted a photograph of a coupon book advertisement for "CP Distributor", a computer repair business in Polk County, Florida, that prominently featured the Pedobear image. "CP" when paired with the Pedobear meme normally stands for child porn. [17]
In July 2011, a Pedobear iPhone application, released a few weeks earlier on June 25, was removed from Apple's App Store. It contained a series of dance moves and background music, with the mascot branded as "Cuddle Bear". [18]
On December 15, 2011, a citywide alert was issued by the Pierre Police Department after images of Pedobear had been sighted in certain parts of the city. [19]
In March 2012, a primary school in Christchurch, New Zealand, was notified by the public of the meaning of a student-created poster portraying Pedobear in a classroom window. The poster was left displayed to the public for some time. [20]
On July 19, 2012, the Nestlé food company took down the inaugural Instagram photo from its Kit Kat chocolate bar's Facebook page because it featured a person dressed as a bear that some Internet users quickly pointed out resembled the Pedobear cartoon. Nestlé itself had produced the image, and officials claimed they were completely unaware of the Pedobear meme. [21]
Child sex tourism (CST) is tourism for the purpose of engaging in the prostitution of children, which is commercially facilitated child sexual abuse. The definition of child in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child is "every human being below the age of 18 years". Child sex tourism results in both mental and physical consequences for the exploited children, which may include sexually transmitted infections, "drug addiction, pregnancy, malnutrition, social ostracism, and death", according to the State Department of the United States. Child sex tourism, part of the multibillion-dollar global sex tourism industry, is a form of child prostitution within the wider issue of commercial sexual exploitation of children. Child sex tourism victimizes approximately 2 million children around the world. The children who perform as prostitutes in the child sex tourism trade often have been lured or abducted into sexual slavery.
Perverted Justice Foundation, Inc., more commonly known as Perverted-Justice, is an American organization based in California and Oregon which has investigated, identified, and publicized the conduct of adults who have used chat rooms and other social media in order to solicit online sexual conversations and in-person meetings with minors. Their website serves as an archive of collected data on these investigations, which they make available in order to assist law enforcement and the public in understanding the behavior and child grooming techniques of online hebephiles.
The word root ped- in English and various other Western languages has multiple Latin and Ancient Greek roots, and multiple meanings. Ped- is a root in English and many other Western languages, often with divergent spellings, such as pet-, pie-, pei-, etc.
Pedophilia is a psychiatric disorder in which an adult or older adolescent experiences a primary or exclusive sexual attraction to prepubescent children. Although girls typically begin the process of puberty at age 10 or 11, and boys at age 11 or 12, psychiatric diagnostic criteria for pedophilia extend the cut-off point for prepubescence to age 13.
Anti-pedophile activism encompasses opposition to pedophiles, pedophile advocacy groups, child pornography, and child sexual abuse.
4chan is an anonymous English-language imageboard website. Launched by Christopher "moot" Poole in October 2003, the site hosts boards dedicated to a wide variety of topics, from anime and manga to video games, cooking, weapons, television, music, literature, history, fitness, politics, and sports, among others. Registration is not available and users typically post anonymously. As of 2022, 4chan receives more than 22 million unique monthly visitors, of which approximately half are from the United States.
Jon Savarino Schillaci is an American rapist, sex offender and a former fugitive who was added to the FBI's Top Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list on September 7, 2007. Schillaci is the 488th fugitive to be placed on the list. He was captured on June 5, 2008, in San José de Gracia, Michoacán, Mexico after almost nine years on the run. On December 22, 2009, Schillaci was sentenced to 20 to 50 years in prison. He is incarcerated in Northern New Hampshire Correctional Facility and will be eligible for parole in December 2039.
Christopher Paul Neil, also known as Mr. Swirl, Swirl Face, or Vico, is a Canadian child molester. He was the subject of a highly publicized Interpol investigation of the sexual abuse of at least 12 young boys in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand, primarily owing to the Internet release of pornographic images depicting the abuse. He was arrested by Thai police in October 2007.
Miga and Quatchi are the official mascots of the 2010 Winter Olympics, Sumi is the official mascot of the 2010 Winter Paralympics, and Mukmuk is their designated "sidekick" for both games, held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The four mascots were introduced on November 27, 2007. They were designed by the Canadian and American design studio, Meomi Design. It was the first time that the Olympic and Paralympic mascots were introduced at the same time.
Child sexual abuse (CSA), also called child molestation, is a form of child abuse in which an adult or older adolescent uses a child for sexual stimulation. Forms of child sexual abuse include engaging in sexual activities with a child, indecent exposure, child grooming, and child sexual exploitation, such as using a child to produce child pornography.
Encyclopedia Dramatica is a satirical online community centered around a wiki that acts as a "troll archive". The site hosts racist material and shock content; as a result it was filtered from Google Search in 2010. An administrator of the website was the perpetrator of the 2017 Aztec High School shooting, and users of the site frequently participate in harassment campaigns.
Simulated child pornography is child pornography depicting what appear to be minors but which is produced without the direct involvement of children.
Child pornography is unlawful pornography in most jurisdictions that exploits minors for sexual stimulation. It may be produced with the direct involvement or sexual assault of a child or it may be simulated child pornography. Abuse of the child occurs during the sexual acts or lascivious exhibitions of genitals or pubic areas which are recorded in the production of child pornography. Child pornography may use a variety of mediums, including writings, magazines, photos, sculpture, drawing, painting, animation, sound recording, video, virtual reality and video games. Child pornography may be created for profit or other reasons.
James M. Cantor is an American-Canadian clinical psychologist and sexologist specializing in hypersexuality and paraphilias.
The Prevention Project Dunkelfeld (PPD) is an effort founded in Germany to provide clinical and support services to individuals who are sexually attracted to children and want help controlling their sexual urges, but are otherwise unknown to the legal authorities. The term "Dunkelfeld" is German for dark figure of crime. It was named that way because its goal is to reduce the amount of unknown cases of child sexual abuse. The project began in Berlin in June 2005 with a large media campaign to contact pedophiles and hebephiles who wanted help from clinicians to manage their paraphilia. The campaign pledged medically confidential treatment free-of-charge. It was initially funded by the Volkswagen Foundation, and has been financially supported by the German government since 2008. The project's slogan is "You are not guilty because of your sexual desire, but you are responsible for your sexual behavior. There is help! Don't become an offender!"
Anna Salter is an American psychologist, an internationally recognized expert on sexual predators, and a mystery novelist. Dr. Salter earned her MA from Tufts University and PhD from Harvard University. She has been a teaching fellow at both Tufts University and Harvard University. She is the author of several non-fiction books including Predators: Pedophiles, Rapists, and Other Sex Offenders: Who They Are, How They Operate, and How We Can Protect Our Children (2003), and Treating Child Sex Offenders and Victims (1988)
Hurtcore, a portmanteau of the words "hardcore" and "hurt", is a name given to a particularly extreme form of child pornography, usually involving degrading violence, bodily harm and murder relating to child sexual abuse. The material is usually so extreme, even most pedophiles have been said to be repulsed by this genre of pornography and condemn its topic in most discussions. Eileen Ormsby, Australian writer and author of The Darkest Web, described hurtcore as "a fetish for people who get aroused by the infliction of pain, or even torture, on another person who is not a willing participant". An additional motivation for the perpetrator, next to their position of power over their victims, can be the reaction of their victims to the physical abuse, like crying or screaming of pain. This reaction can stimulate the arousal of the perpetrator even more.
The Jessi Slaughter cyberbullying case was an American criminal case that revolved around an 11-year-old named Jessica Leonhardt, whose profanity-laden videos went viral on Stickam and YouTube in 2010. The videos were made in response to accusations that a friend had raped Leonhardt, and that Leonhardt had a sexual relationship with the lead singer of the electropop band Blood on the Dance Floor, a man named Dahvie Vanity while Leonhardt was a minor. This resulted in a campaign of telephone and internet harassment against Leonhardt and their family, chiefly attributed to 4chan users and members of the internet-based group Anonymous. It began a debate about the dangers of anonymity on the Internet, and whether or not the Internet is a safe environment for minors, and all people in general.
Jason Christian Vukovich is an Alaskan who targeted three pedophiles from the National Sex Offender List in June 2016 to beat and rob them. He is known as the "Alaskan Avenger" for targeting sex offenders by becoming a pedophile hunter.
Pedobear was also starred as a 3 second character on Cartoon Network's MAD on a short called "Grey's in Anime". But pedobear is seen as green, but can still be recognized.
Media related to Pedobear at Wikimedia Commons
