Does vigilantism and baiting child predators seem immoral to you? (lemmy.world)

submitted 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) by NineMileTower@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

60 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I keep seeing videos lately of grown men posing as children online and baiting individuals to public spaces and either assaulting them or recording/exposing them for content. While I don't mind the idea of a predator being outed, the idea of grown adults posing as children online seems unsavory to me. Especially if their end goal isn't to protect children, and is to provide content for views.

Obviously, being a child predator is wildly immoral and illegal and their actions are not what's being debated.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] leraje@lemmy.blahaj.zone 14 points 4 months ago

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.

[-] MegaUltraChicken@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago

Hell, isn't that what happened to a shitload of those Perverted Justice/To Catch a Predator stings? Most of it got tossed in court and guys walked.

this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2024

76 points (94.2% liked)

Ask Lemmy

27089 readers

255 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions

Please don't post about US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world

Rules: (interactive)

1) Be nice and; have fun

Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them

2) All posts must end with a '?'

This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?

3) No spam

Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.

4) NSFW is okay, within reason

Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].

5) This is not a support community.

It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.

Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.