To Catch a Predator

OK, who else is totally fascinated by this show? These men are so sick that even though they know these stings are constantly happening, they come there anyway.

I'm so shocked at what they'll say online to a 13-year-old girl. They really think they're anonymous. I watch court TV and know they can look up "anonymous" google searches you made by retracing your IP. These guys are waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay stoooooopid!

Did anybody else see the guy who walked in and stripped naked and Chris Hanson greeted him?

Do you love how many men say they came there to counsel the poor wayward girl and then Chris starts reading him their little chat about how they wanted the little girl to give them oral sex and sent a picture of their penis?

I really cannot bear to watch The Bachelor. It makes my old feminist heart ache to see the bullshit the women are required to portray, and just the overall sliminess they go through while pretending this is something real (that some of these things lead to long term relationships does not make a dent in how I experience it).

BUT, To Catch a Predator energizes me. This is NOT material edited to follow a script. These assholes really are assholes. That it turned out to be so widespread was a real eye-opener for me. I really am learning something here.

When is this show on?

I never even heard of this show Don't think I would watch it anyway. It would just get me all upset

It's usually on "Dateline NBC" and it's the most popular show there. Lately I've been watching it on MSNBC. I agree with Frazz. This being such a huge problem was a totaly eye-opener. To see these guys' reactions when they're caught is just amazing.

It won't make you aggravated. It will make you stand up and cheer, because the minute they leave the house police swarm them and take them down and arrest them. Instant gratification.

You'll also see how pathetic they are once they're face-to-face with someone confronting them. They're total cowards. Some leave and truly believe there will be no consequences. Others say THEY'VE SEEN the Dateline things and know what's coming. You see how truly sick these individuals are.

MEN: Doctors, a Rabbi, Servicemen.

Any mom should definitely see this. It should be required viewing, especially if they have MYSPACE pages.

It does blow my mind when they say they just came there to make a friend. A 34 year old man coming to make friends with 13-year-olds. What's sadder still is many of them have children that are the age of the girl they're coming to have sex with. Of course they immediately lose their right to be with their own children unsupervised.

I'm just watching the raw footage of this show on MSNBC.
This is what typically happens.

Chris Hanson comes out.

Chris: What are you doing here?
Predator: I'm here to meet a friend
Chris: How old are they?
Predator: 15
Chris: Do you think there's anything wrong with a man in his thirties coming to meet a 15 year old girl?

Predator has a few different responses:

I just wanted to talk and hang out.
I wasn't going to do anything.
I wanted to warn them against what they were doing.
I wanted to be a mentor

Chris: Have you ever done this before?
Predator: No

They always say no. Always. My favorite part is when they try to say they're just coming there to talk and Chris starts reading from the transcript of their online chat. These guys are weeping like children and begging for forgiveness and swearing they'll never do this again. You feel bad for them until he reads the transcript. Lord have mercy. It's some graphic stuff.

Almost all of them bring condoms. Sometimes alcohol. Some bring overnight bags like they're going to sleep there. One guy actually brought a rose. He looked scared to death. He was married and apparently his wife's father had like 10 brothers. I think he felt safer in jail.

One guy was a volunteer at his church helping young teens.

One guy had rope and duct tape after he talked about tying the girl up (he was a contractor, so who knows).

Many think they can just leave and go home.

It is awesome when the police are right outside the door and tell them to hit the pavement.

These are not creepy looking guys. Most are normal everyday people doing normal jobs. Chris Hanson says he does feel some of them would not be there if it wasn't for the internet and the addiction and the easy access.

It's quite enlightening.

Is this a new article? Got a link?

I have always found it interesting that there are close to ZERO female online perpetrators.

WHat the fuck is wrong with men!

It is SCARY. They're doing this all-day marathon on msnbc with the raw footage.

I just saw one with a 38 year old man who went to meet a 13 year old girl and he was like "my intention was not to have sex with her. I mean, if something happened, OK, but I wasn't going to have sex with her"

On his way to her house he went and got some condoms.

Another 20 year old guy said it would be sweet and clean to have sex with a 13 year old. He was later arrested for exposing himself to an 8 year old at a swimming pool.

Many of these guys actually watch the show.

They've shown ministers, rabbis, cops and military men.

I just don't think women do this like men. Go hunting for little kids. I think these men have vivid fantasies and the internet just makes it so easy.

I think women aren't as much at the mercy of their fantasies like that. They're also smarter.

You're right about women online predators. Probably women have done this stuff, but they do it in person. Like the teachers. I think they can kind of feel like they're seduced by the guy, rather than the other way around. Guys like to do the seducing.

Most of the women who've been caught have said that the guy pursued them and they felt flattered. They never really had a normal childhood and they kind of relive it through the boy. They're women, but when they talk, they sound like little girls.

I know it's a double-standard, but I just can't help but feel it's creepier with the men. I mean, they send pictures of their penis!!! One guy came into the house naked! What they say to these little girls about what they're going to do to them is really scary. Some of them have little girls at home the same age as the girl they're going to see.

I really believe that it's the easy access and the anonymity. They're emboldened by having the screen name. That they go the extra step and make the drive is what blows my mind. I can kind of understand if it feeds the fantasy by just saying it, but when they show up at the house, that means they're really serious about it.

BTW, even if they never show up at the house, just soliciting the kid to have sex is illegal and they get arrested. Also, many mistakenly believe they're being arrested for being a pedophile, so they make it a point to say how willing the kid was to have sex with them and how they would have never forced it. They've entirely missed the point.

I watched a few episodes of this show last winter. I found it startling to watch. I agree that watching them get caught and their reactions was pathetic. Some of the stories they make up are nuts.

I saw one guy say he was coming to look at the house for a friend who wanted to buy it.

I saw another where the guy said he was coming for a job interview. Then he said somebody else used his screen name. Didn't seem to make the logical jump that HE was there and not someone else.

They had one guy who was sitting naked in the kitchen. He said he'd never done that before, just like all the others, then the next day he used the SAME screen name to pick up a 13 year old boy and meet him at McDonalds. When Chris Hanson confronts him he's like "I was just coming to get something to eat!"

After this show was on a few times, you would think that these guys would have seen it and recognized the setup. But I guess they are so desperate that they don't think things through.

Get this:

One guy kept passing by the house and SAW A GUY BEING ARRESTED!!! He called up the "girl" who told him it was something going on next door, SO HE CAME OVER!

Women would never be this stupid.

The thing that really gets me is how MANY of them there are...If catch a predator gets this many, think how many there are out there that they don't come in contact with. These are huge numbers.

That's true. They even went to an extremely rural farm community to see if they would have the same amount of men. They did.

The internet has opened up worlds for many people, and that's good and bad.

The anonymity of it all really emboldens a lot of people and gives them access to millions of young boys and girls. It's no longer the nice older man down the street who seems to have a lot of kids at his house. These guys are able to have conversations with these kids for hours, days and weeks, gaining their trust.

I mean, these are men who are expecting to go to a house where a young pre-pubescent girl or boy has said they are alone. When Chris Hanson comes out, most barely bat an eyelash. The lies they come up with are amazing. Almost everyone swears they were just coming to talk to the kid. Like it's even OK for a grown man to go to a house to "hang out" with a little girl.

Most of them do not look like perverts. They just look like ordinary guys. You do almost feel sorry for them until you hear just how graphic they were in their chat with a girl they thought was anywhere from 12 - 15 years old. Add that to the fact some bring alcohol and condoms. It's hard to separate that from the guy on his knees crying to Chris Hanson that they've never done this before and they don't know why they came there, even though many had a two hour drive over to think about it.