Shit, and at 23, with a sparkly new engagement ring on my finger, I was offered a child’s meal at Valentino’s!
Great. ANOTHER thing I’m going to Hell for laughing about… 
Of course, in my version, at the end Shannon and her parents get together and conclude that if God is not protecting young girls from such things, then he’s not much to count on and Shannon had better start lessons in gunmanship and hand-to-hand combat, and in the end she grows to be a masked crimefighter…
BTW, about intent v. action, what hajario said. Most states have by now codified a specific statute outlawing making sexual come-ons to a person who is,** or claims or you believe to be,** under the AoC; a crime in itself distinct from actual sexual assault. A law-abiding pedophile 
can download pornographic parodies of the Penny Gadget cartoon on the web (yes, there’s pornographic cartoon parodies of Penny Gadget, get with the program :p; NO I’m not giving you links… ); just as long as he does not try to reach out and cyber-touch someone.
DrDeth, roleplaying, properly understood, involves everyone knowing that it IS roleplaying. If two adults enter a “roleplaying room” and roleplay “Uncle Jack and little Suzie” online, that’s no problem. Nor if they do so in their living room (but for goodness’ sake, close the shades!). But it must be patently in roleplay; in the case of online straners, at SOME point both parties must ID one another as being, um, “lawful combatants”.
The PJ sting logs are quite, um, illustrative. On the one hand, yes, the “bait” very often come across as some lame afterschool-special standard-handbook characterization of a teenager. OTOH the losers on the other end probably ARE looking for the standard afterschool-special lame teenager; and let me tell you, some of the come-ons from the guys… whoa, baby! They are asking some questions I’d be very apologetic about asking veteran pornstars and whores while interviewing them for an article in Hustler, and making some suggestions that I would not bring to said professionals without $5 thou in my hand… So it is hard to not smirk, specially at the ones who know the damn show is going on!! It’s an insult to bonafide predatory animals to use the same term to describe these incompetents…
(And speaking of sins of thought, it just crossed my mind that the mythical fantasy of the teenie who’s hot for some older-gentleman action, usually has had her seeking out and coming on to some business partner of dad’s, or a neighborhood friend’s father, or a teacher, or the manager at Burger Tyrant, or the pool/roof/landscape guy once he’s done with mom ; not just hooking up with John Q. Random… )
Probably! *
In fact, likely almost always. It’s that maybe rare exception that bothers me.
I agree, 99% of these dudes are sicko perverts. But there’s that 1%. And, I think a few even of the sicko perverts would get cold feet at the last moment and not “do the deed”.
To answer the OP, some of the most egregious seem to be classic pedophiles, if you read the chat logs. One of the most comon questions is " do you shave? Or do you have much hair anyway?" When the decoy says “oh I don’t have much” then they move in. One predator asked the decoy did she have breasts yet. When the decoy answered in the negative ("I’m only 12) the predator said “GOOD”. Not only girls are targeted, but boys too.
One of the logs I read was so sad on many different levels. The predator was trying to coax what he thougt was a lonely girl of 12 or 13 to run away from home to be his sex slave. Ugh.
To the person who doesn’t think lonely kids are out there: Yes. Yes they are. And they are looking for someone who they think will love them. Go read PJ’s website about the Captain (predator) who thought he was taking control of a lonely little girl. The decoy related a story about being abused by her father. She even played sick one time when they were supposed to meet. The predator told her to suck it up and come to the meeting anyway. 
I too get a bit uneasy about some ‘targets’ who seem not to be classic predators … some 20 somethings who think they are hitting on a 16 yr old … not to much age division…
BUT. The law says what the law says. If I’m running late and I run a stop sign, I should get a ticket. If you are over 18 and you troll for a younger person under 18, sorry, you get busted. The best advice I can give is “dont be there”.
I personally don’t mind it being publicized. For too long it’s been winked at or swept under the rug. Out, out, damned spot.
I know someone who volunteers for PJ, direct stalking is not an option beyond arranging a meet to try and ID them by their vehicle/lic plate number from a discreet distance. Even then that is only done under specific circumstances, not just anyone who says “wanna fuck” once in chat. As far as mail campaigns and such, still on, don’t forget neighbors, nearby schools and teen hangouts.
I skimmed through a couple chat logs on perverted-justice.com. In one of the chats, the “decoy” begs the “mark” to meet up with him. The mark repeatedly tells the decoy to go away, but the decoy doesn’t listen and eventually convinces the mark to call him. He tells the mark sick shit like “I promise I’ll be a good boi” and “I like to hit dogs” until the mark gives in. What the hell? If you bribe and coerce someone into a robbing a bank and they end up doing it, aren’t you partly responsible? The “decoy” seems just as fucking sick as the pedo. Looks to me like he enjoys engaging in sick online fantasy then busts them while claiming moral superiority.
Why is the adult engaging in sexual chat with a “13 year old” to begin with?
Fucking Christ, how do you think these idiots even get hooked up online with kids? They troll chatrooms looking for this shit.
It’s not like you can go on MySpace or Yahoo and see “Room 31, 13 year old babes wanting to fuck 40 year old perverts, click here”
They initiate the contact, the decoy just tells them what they want to hear.
Damn, dude, you can’t justify it. You can take issue with laws about intent or enticement if you want, but you can’t justify an adult being in a teen chatroom looking for a young boy or girl to have sick IM shit with, leading up to going to a location to see a kid. Period.
If two grown adults want to dress up and play daddy and little girl in their fucking bedroom, go to fucking town, but not this shit.
Ever actually join their site and take part in one of their busts? I have.
They got the guy into an AOL chat and started telling him that if he didn’t confess everything to them and promise to go get counseling they would find out where he worked and call his boss, call his family and tell them, paper the windshields of his neighborhood, and make sure he lost his job and had to move. They did this after one online chat where no meeting was arranged, and without any real confirmation of who they were after beyond some online phone book searches. Their intent was never to contact law enforcement, only to harass and stalk the guy. During the time they were participating in the chat with him, a separate chat was going on with the same people, which I was also in, where they cheered each other on and gloated about how the guy seemed ready to break down. One of them said that the guy might be getting suicidal, and they cheered about it.
I have no problem with using the proper legal channels to try to catch the people who actually want to meet and have sex with children, but I don’t see how actions like the one I saw first hand are doing that. What I saw was a lynch mob, and nothing more.
Their behavior bothered me, while I’ve never had even a bit of a twinge from what Julie Posey does.
Vigilantism is not the answer.
Just out of curiosity cat (heh), but when was this that you were involved? Was it recently or sometime shortly after they first started? Thanks in advance for any answers.
catsix, I’ll give you that, and I have read similar shit. It’s just the fact that a lot of these people show up at these houses that makes me say “well, they fucking deserve it”
PJ does have some goofy people there though, and it’s funny to go to the anti site, CJ, where both sites all seem to know each other, and to read their boards. Crazy shit.
Why don’t we just beat them all to a bloody pulp, after all, they deserve it.
It all reeks of mob “justice”, which is often just an excuse to murder and terrorize any group feared or hated by the mob.
You seem to be almost suspiciously sympathetic towards these tools of Satan. Are you quite certain you’re not a witch yourself? summons brooding, black-hooded man from shadows. Perhaps this ought to be… investigated… further.
Look, plenty of police forces do this same shit all the time, unrelated to Dateline and PJ, and they were doing it long before PJ went online. Just tell me, why do you think these dudes drive to a house after sick IM bullshit about screwing a 13 year old. Sending naked pics. Let’s assume Dateline or the cops weren’t around.
Do you think they are going to have ice cream and cookies?
Why do these assholes drive to a 13 year olds house? Why the fuck do you think they go there? Sweet fucking Og.
Incorrect! I got a MySpace account to keep track of my niece and nephew after my sister told me that she didn’t check on their MySpace accounts. My profile says clearly that I’m 49. I got an invite to join a Sexy Singles group on MySpace from two strangers. Their profiles stated that both were girls, one was listed as 16, the other as 13. Now I sincerely doubt that either were truthful, but both were reported and deleted.
So you see, even though neither were probably really the ages listed in their profile and both could easily be men (or even the same man), you do see “…13 year old babes wanting to fuck 40 year old perverts, click here”… they’re just written by other 40 year old perverts (I hope??).
To commit an offence that would be 99% * less common if it weren’t for cops posing as underaged kids on the internet? :dubious:
- Made-up figure, but I for one would be interested in knowing what the stats are for actual offences involving actual kids versus police/PJ stings.
Well, by golly Who_me I stand corrected. I am 48 myself, perhaps I should open an account.
You know, I was thinking about that as I wrote that post, and knew I would be called on it, and called myself on it.
“How come we don’t hear about all these sickos hurting these kids all the time” You raise a good point, and I am wondering if I should rethink this. But shit, it amazes me how these dudes just show up, and I know they have convicted some truly evil people. I am conflicted now.
Thanks for a level-headed “bring us back to Earth” post. I love the flaming vitriol in the Pit, but I can consider real issues in a rational way, and am open to being swayed by a different pov.