Anti-pedophile activism encompasses opposition to pedophiles, pedophile advocacy groups, child sexual abuse, and child sexual abuse material.
Anti-pedophile activism encompasses opposition to pedophiles, pedophile advocacy groups, child sexual abuse, and child sexual abuse material.
Organized social activism against child sexual molesters occurred in the 18th century, by the Society for the Reformation of Manners. [1]
The National Vigilance Association was a British society established in August 1885 for the enforcement and improvement of the laws for the repression of criminal vice and public immorality, in response to articles exposing child prostitution published by W. T. Stead in the Pall Mall Gazette .
In the Netherlands, the pro-pedophile activist group Vereniging Martijn has been protested against by the far right Nationale Alliantie. [2] In the UK, the far right National Front party was protesting in front of Paedophile Information Exchange conferences in the 1970s [3] and against the Rotherham child sexual exploitation scandal in 2014, [4] alongside EDL and BNP. [5]
A French group [6] who successfully sued Gabriel Matzneff in 2020. [7]
Perverted-Justice was an anti-pedophilia, anti-hebephilia, and anti-statutory rape organization with the stated mission to expose and convict adults who solicit and groom minors on the Internet. Perverted Justice had multiple issues with being able to supply chat log evidence in a manner that passes legal scrutiny. [8] [9] [10] Perverted Justice collaborated with the NBC television program Dateline in their segment To Catch A Predator, hosted by Chris Hansen, to lure alleged sexual predators to a sting house by interacting with them online and posing as minors.
Jewish Community Watch, a global New York City-based organization with an office in Israel, focusing on prevention of child sexual abuse in the Orthodox Jewish community, received mixed support over their posting the names of suspected pedophiles on their main website. The column titled the "Wall of Shame" listed the names of individuals suspected of abuse, their photos and testimonies from alleged victims. [11]
Letzgo Hunting is an Internet-based anti-paedophilia vigilante group based in Barwell, Leicestershire, England. A man died by suicide days after being accused and "named and shamed" of being a paedophile by the group. [12]
Another initiative, Predator Hunter, headed by Wendell Kreuth, aims to track down and expose the pornography-related activities of alleged 'sexual predators', as disclosed in his interview with Minnesota Public Radio. [13] [14] The activities of Predator Hunter in the previous years garnered more attention, particularly the actions of Bradley Willman, whose anti-pedophile activism is described below:
Between 1997 and 2001, Brad Willman was known as Omni-Potent, an Internet vigilante who would track pedophiles by spending 16-plus hours a day hacking into people's computers from his parents’ house in Langley, a suburban community just outside Vancouver. Ultimately, he was responsible for the arrests of about 40 pedophiles across Canada and the U.S. Willman's successful, albeit unpaid and short-lived venture as "Citizen Tipster," as he was known by police, is now over. But his activities have sparked intense debate over the legality of his tactics. [15] [16]
He would verify where suspects were from, and send the information on to Predator-Hunter, an online pedophile watchdog group that would, in turn, send it to other sources to be verified before passing it on to police. "Parents in a number of countries, I think, owe OmniPotent a debt of gratitude for what he did," says Wendell Krueth, president of Predator-Hunter. The end justifying the means is a concept Predator-Hunter supports. "We don't tell people to go hack, but we consider whatever information we get worthy in taking down pedophiles," Krueth says. [17]
Silentlambs and LambsRoar are both web-based anti-pedophile groups that seek to protect children through education, to provide legal assistance, and to provide assistance to victims [survivors] who have been molested as children and silenced from speaking out or seeking proper assistance as directed by religious authorities. To date, most emphasis has been on abuse within the Jehovah's Witness community. [18]
In several instances, members of 4chan and Anonymous have been involved in drawing attention to or gathering evidence regarding suspected pedophiles on the Internet. Members of Anonymous were identified as responsible for the arrest of suspected pedophile Chris Forcand. They contacted the police after some members were "propositioned" by Forcand with "disgusting photos of himself". [19] Anonymous were described as "cyber-vigilantes who seek to out anyone who presents with a sexual interest in children". [20] [21]
Anonymous, a hacktivist group, claimed to intrude on the various servers hosting child sexual abuse material resources and pull a various sensitive information—emails, forums' personal messages, credit card details, webserver logs etc. -- on the users of such websites. [22]
Many of these activist groups were inspired either directly or indirectly by the segment To Catch A Predator that was a part of Dateline on NBC with host Chris Hansen.
Creep Catchers refers to non-affiliated individuals and groups which operate in 15 cities across Canada, posing as children in chat rooms to sting, record and shame adults who try to meet them for sex. [23] POP Squad ("POP" standing for "Prey on Predators"), a Connecticut-based group, is one of several similar online groups operating in the United States. [24] [25]
Wanted Pedo is the main French association struggling against paedophile networks. Their website have been suspended by justice [26] for exposing paedophile websites.
Predator Poachers, a Houston-based vigilante group, claimed that as of 2022 its activity had led to arrests in 27 U.S. states. [27] The group was responsible for exposing comedian and content creator Bryant Moreland, more commonly known by his online alias EDP445, [28] for allegedly talking to one of their decoys in 2021. The group was permanently banned from YouTube after the event due to policy violations. [28]
One group, Dads Against Predators [also known as DAP Inc or D.A.P] was founded in Ohio and appears to be active in a number of states, utilizing similar tactics to other groups in running 'sting operations' on online dating and social networking sites or applications. They have been criticized by law enforcement on several occasions [29] for the tactics used in their sting operations. DAP tends to be more aggressive when confronting alleged predators, berating them in public, causing a scene, and at times even fighting with or physically restraining the individuals they confront, though usually any physical contact is started first by the alleged predator. They have been widely criticized as utilizing unethical or even dangerous methods, and do not always involve law enforcement in their stings, as is usually done by other groups. In one particularly chaotic confrontation, one of the members of Dads Against Predators was shot inside a Target store located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. [30] According to the man alleged to have fired a round, three men confronted him inside of the store and he claims they began to assault him, during this fight he fired a single shot which struck Jay C. Carnicom of Fremont, Ohio before being disarmed by another member of the group. The bullet struck Carnicom in the leg, though apparently the wound was not fatal or particularly serious as Carnicom did not seek medical care until a day later. The three men who carried out this confrontation have had arrest warrants issued for them in North Carolina in connection to the fight. [31] Dads Against Predators have been trespassed from several retail chains as a result of their disruptive, boisterous and frequently violent confrontations. Dads Against Predators has also been accused of playing a role in at least three suicide deaths carried out by alleged predators who were confronted by D.A.P shortly before their deaths. [32] They have also been banned from YouTube, and upload their confrontations on alternative streaming platforms such as Rumble or BitChute.
A Michigan man from Pontiac named Robert Wayne Lee, 40, known under the alias 'Boopac Shakur' online, was shot and killed inside of a restaurant in Oakland County during a confrontation which started as the result of an online predator 'sting' operation. [33] Allegedly, when Lee confronted two men [17 and 18 years old] inside the restaurant, one of the men produced a knife and the other pulled a handgun after Lee struck one of the men. After the confrontation became physical, Lee was shot several times by the younger man and was transported to the hospital where he later succumbed to his injuries. Lee left behind two daughters and a son, whom he claimed inspired him to participate in his vigilante activities. Lee was well-known online for his aggressive vigilantism, frequently physically assaulting alleged predators, vandalizing their property or slashing tires on their vehicles so they could not leave the area. Funds were raised via GoFundMe to pay for his funeral costs. [34] The two men involved in the fatal fight and shooting were later tracked down and arrested. [35]
A representative of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's Exploited Child Unit has stated that the NCMEC does not condone investigations by citizens because according to the NCMEC, those actions do not deter predators and can push the predators to move to other locations and become more effective at hiding their identities. [36] The Internet safety organization CyberAngels, an offshoot of the Guardian Angels echoes similar concerns. [36] Police officials in the past have been opposed to working with such groups, or have done so only reluctantly. [37]
A paper from the University of East Anglia states that pedophile hunters might "have the effect of unduly diverting criminal justice resources from sex offenders who pose a considerable risk to the public towards low-risk offenders, the so-called ‘low-hanging fruit'", and that "Paedophile-hunting groups can circumvent procedural safeguards and regulations that exist to moderate state power and protect the human rights of those subject to a criminal process." [38]
Many of these activist groups have been accused by the media, law enforcement and the general public of resembling vigilante groups more so than activist groups or advocates. They have also been criticized for their tactics, some of which are viewed by many to be entrapment and many are criticized for providing improper or poor evidence, and some have been criticized for using violent behavior or coercion in their sting operations.
One of the most controversial moments for anti-pedophile activism came when To Catch A Predator, a segment on Dateline was alleged to have caused a suicide death in the course of a sting operation. [39] Bill Conradt, who lived in a suburb of Dallas, Texas was reportedly contacted by a decoy on behalf of the program Dateline and allegedly interacted with a person he believed to be an underaged boy, including telephone contact and the sending of explicit images. Mr. Conradt eventually was reported to have ceased contact with the decoy, and did not appear at the sting house, but regardless the staff of To Catch A Predator began to stake out Mr. Conradt's home. Reportedly, when officers and the Dateline crew arrived at his home, Mr. Conradt refused to answer the door. Police eventually gained entry and encountered Mr. Conradt in a hallway in possession of a handgun and told the gathered television crew and police that he did not intend to hurt anyone. Mr. Conradt then proceeded to die by suicide with a single gunshot to his temple. Mr. Conradt, being a former district attorney and involved in local politics, was well known in the area and as such, media attention and scrutiny was particularly heavy. Dateline, the staff of To Catch a Predator and the police who carried out the raid were criticized as a result of the suicide and the program ceased production shortly after. Particularly, Dateline was criticized for making a spectacle of a man who was only alleged to have done something illegal, and the police were criticized for not utilizing more interagency communication as some believed this may have prevented Mr. Conradt's suicide. Likewise, police were criticized for allowing the television crew and other civilians to enter the home also, which may have made the situation more dangerous for everyone present if Mr. Conradt had intended to harm others. Mr. Conradt's sister in July 2007 filed a wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of her brother against NBC Universal which was later settled for an undisclosed amount in June 2008. [40]
Perverted Justice Foundation, Inc., more commonly known as Perverted-Justice, was an American organization based in California and Oregon which 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.
Operation Cathedral was a police operation that broke up a major international child pornography ring called The Wonderland Club operating over the Internet. It was led by the British National Crime Squad in cooperation with 1,500 officers from 13 other police forces around the world, who simultaneously arrested 104 suspects in 13 countries on 2 September 1998. The case received widespread international attention due to the highly organised nature of the ring, leading to public concerns of online child sexual abuse and legislative changes in the UK.
Christopher Edward Hansen is an American television presenter, journalist, and YouTube personality. He rose to mainstream recognition as a correspondent for Dateline NBC and the host for its segment To Catch a Predator (2004–2007), which revolved around catching potential Internet predators using a sting operation. Despite its cancellation, Hansen saw continued praise for his predator investigations and interviews, which led him to host similarly-formatted shows on other networks.
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. People with the disorder are often referred to as pedophiles.
Christopher Paul Neil, also known as Mr. Swirl, Swirl Face, or Vico, is a Canadian convicted 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.
Task Force Argos is a branch of the Queensland Police Service, responsible for the investigation of online child exploitation and abuse. Founded in 1997, the unit's original charter was to investigate institutional child abuse allegations arising from the Forde Inquiry.
To Catch a Predator is an American reality television series in the television news magazine program Dateline NBC featuring confrontations of host Chris Hansen, partly filmed with a hidden camera, with adult men arriving at a sting house to have sex with a minor and typically being arrested as a result. The minors are adults impersonating underage persons in online chats.
Dennis Raymond Ferguson was an Australian sex offender convicted of child sexual abuse. In 1988, he kidnapped and sexually abused three children, and was sentenced to 14 years imprisonment. Ferguson was forced by public hostility and news media attention to relocate his residence on numerous occasions, from various locations in New South Wales and Queensland.
The Elm Guest House was a hotel in Rocks Lane, near Barnes Common in southwest London. In a list produced by convicted fraudster Chris Fay, several prominent British men were alleged to have engaged in sexual abuse and child grooming at the Guest House in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Labour MP Tom Watson, having heard testimony from Carl Beech, suggested in an October 2012 statement to the House of Commons that a paedophile network which had existed at this time may have brought children to parties at the private residence.
Sweetie was a computer animated child that was created by children's rights organization Terre des hommes as a sting operation. It was used to lure online sexual predators into providing personally-identifiable information, so that this information could then be reported to law enforcement agencies.
Negobot also referred to as Lolita or Lolita chatbot is a chatterbot that was introduced to the public in 2013, designed by researchers from the University of Deusto and Optenet to catch online pedophiles. It is a conversational agent that utilizes natural language processing (NLP), information retrieval (IR) and Automatic Learning. Because the bot poses as a young female in order to entice and track potential predators, it became known in media as the "virtual Lolita", in reference to Vladimir Nabokov's novel.
Stinson Hunter is a British vigilante who is best known for his role in the documentary The Paedophile Hunter. The film investigating child sexual exploitation was named "Best Documentary on a Contemporary Theme" in the 42nd British Documentary Awards, which "celebrates documentaries from Britain and abroad that "have made a significant contribution to the genre."
Dark Justice were a vigilante group set up to catch paedophiles based in Newcastle upon Tyne operated by two men using the pseudonyms Scott and Callum (1994–2021). Neither were police officers, although their tactics were similar to those sometimes used by police. The duo posed online as children, normally between the ages of 11 and 15, in order to catch online child groomers. When they met a child groomer in real life, the members of Dark Justice wore bulletproof vests. Their evidence was used in court, resulting in convictions against over 115 online groomers including Roger Lee, and Barry Scott. In May 2018, the Evening Chronicle reported that Dark Justice have secured over 150 arrests with over 40 of those being jailed.
Peter Gerard Scully is an Australian child sex offender, rapist and murderer who is imprisoned for life in the Philippines after being convicted of one count of human trafficking and five counts of rape by sexual assault of children. Scully was sentenced to life imprisonment in June 2018. In November 2022, he received a second conviction and was sentenced to an additional 129 years in prison.
Creep Catchers are non-affiliated individuals and groups who attempt to prevent child sexual abuse by posing as minors, using chat rooms and dating sites to lure adults willing to meet the minor for sex, and then exposing the adult by publicly posting videos of the ensuing confrontation. Creep Catchers offer the opportunity to make a public statement before posting the video and chat logs to a central website and various social media. Cooperative suspects are typically lectured to in relative privacy, while belligerents or those with particularly explicit conversations are loudly shamed and profanely ridiculed. Public and official reactions to groups of Creep Catchers have been mixed, with some supporting the intent of preventing abuse and others noting dangers of vigilantism by untrained public. In 2017, Vice.com produced Age of Consent, a full-length documentary film following Toronto resident Justin Payne, an independent Creep Catcher unaffiliated with other groups of the movement.
North West Hebephile Hunters are a group based in the north of England who attempt to prevent child grooming or child sexual abuse by confronting those they suspect of doing so. Their main method is luring adults they have previously communicated with online whilst posing as minors. In the aftermath they make a live broadcast of their interaction with alleged culprits whilst airing transcripts of previous sexually explicit communications and / or involve law enforcement.
Bill Conradt, a local assistant district attorney in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, killed himself on November 5, 2006, when Texas police served him with search and arrest warrants stemming from a Dateline NBC – Perverted-Justice online sting of men soliciting sex with children.
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.
Alex Rosen is the founder of Houston-based vigilante organization Predator Poachers, which conducts sting operations on adults who seek sexual activities with minors. By 2023, the organization has claimed responsibility for arrests in 44 U.S. states and convictions in 33, though this statistic has not been fully verified.
A sex sting is a type of sting operation where a person, usually a law enforcement officer, purports to be a child or teenager on the internet in order to engage in sexually explicit activities with an adult. The evidence of the interactions between the two parties is then collected by the undercover agent and used in criminal prosecutions.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)| Human sexuality | |
|---|---|
| Child sexuality | |
| Sexual abuse | |
| Age of consent (reform) | |
