Re the “To Catch Predator” Show there seems to be a virtually endless supply of adult men eager to hook up with adolescent girls. The working assumption here is that for many of these men this is not the first time they have done something like this, and this leads to the further assumption that in the total population there are lots of adolescent girls trolling online and hooking up sexually with adult men considerably older than they are, that are going undetected.
In this market place of opportunity for online sexual chat and potential for hook ups there has to some assumption that it’s a two way street. If this is so why are adolescent girls even entertaining the possiblity of having sex with an adult strangers as being something they would ever consider doing? What’s in it for them?
Adolescent girls feel the same forces during puberty that adolescent boys. Women are sexual beings, too. Puberty can hit girls with some very intense and confusing sexual feelings. Girls hit puberty significantly earlier than boys, so their feelings probably won’t be directer towards their peers, who are probably still acting like children. I remember spending the ages between 12-14 awash on a hormonal sea, nearly bursting with unfocused desire. I only had a vague understanding of what I was feeling or how to channel it. And yeah, I became aware very quickly there were plenty of men around who were not seeing me as a child, but seeing me as a sexual being.
This was the early days of the Internet, back when parents didn’t even know they had anything to worry about. I think most of my peers ended up talking dirty on the net at some point. It was a fairly safe way for them to explore their sexual feelings and let off some steam. A few girls I knew did venture into meeting people. I don’t really know how any of that turned out. But yeah, it happens.
I never met anyone from the Internet, but when I was a 12-13 year old girl, yeah I definitely cybered, talked about sex, read about sex. I first learned about bondage when I was about 12 from the Straight Dope column on it. Yup, those desires/curiosities are out there for the “fairer” sex, too.
astro, basic evolutionary principles! Young women want older men who are financially stable. Older men want beautiful younger women. (Older women want younger men as well)
Tons of research backing this up, try Google Scholar.
I’ve always had the impression that it’s not the girls who go looking for the men. Rather the men go to online areas that are popular with girls and “befriend” them as a prelude to meeting them.
I can tell you it’s not just girls. I have a friend who is 41 and she just divorced and is trying online dating. She is very pretty and she gets slammed by young kids. All 21 and under. All these boys just LOVE her and they want to date her.
I told her they probably don’t want to date her but “do her.” I think there is an allure for young man, older woman thing, as in “Mrs Robinson.”
A lot of young kids also just don’t care. They have already lost their virginity and see it as “Well I have to date someone, I might as well be getting something out of it.”
Yeah, this is what happened to me when I was a young teen (12-15) on BBSes back in the day. I had no idea at the time the older guys I talked to wanted to hook up and have sex, but if my mom hadn’t put a stop to it I’m sure that’s where it would have led.
Right. From what I understand, a lot of these sexual predators don’t explicitly come on to the girl at first. At the beginning, he befriends her and empathizes with her. You know how angsty teens can be, right? Well, imagine the angst-ridden-just-hit-puberty school girl who suddenly finds this person who understands her. Not only that, but he’s so much more mature than the boys in the schoolyard. He’s smart, he’s funny, he has real opinions and tastes. What 14 year old boy is going to compete, eh?
Uh, certainly happens.
In my pre-married days (think 21-23 or so) I was chatting on MSN chat, and had at least one underaged (13)-year-old who IMed me, then lost interest in the discussion when I indicated that I was glad to talk politics but uninterested in meeting her for at least the next 6 years.
Well, I didn’t do it online (way back when) but I flirted a lot with boys and men who were way too old for me when I was a teen. I was awfully flattered by the attention from older men ( age 20 to 40 or so.) I thought I was just having fun but now, to my great shame, I recognize that I was an awful cocktease. I am grateful that none of the men ever went any further than asking me out and gracefully accepted my “no” for an answer.
Good point, but remember that we’re going to see fairly mild behavior from the detectives.
If you check out websites on this topic, you’ll note that the folks running the sting take steps to avoid claims of entrapment, or even simple enticement that doesn’t rise to the level of entrapment.
You’ll never see the imaginary sting-girl asking a subject if he can meet her this weekend, for instance…
Granted, although the logs I’ve seen posted on that one vigilante site also seemed to exhibit the same cautious behavior.
Man, those logs really, really sickened me. Probably the most disturbing thing I’d ever seen online, actually. For some reason watching “To Catch a Predator” wasn’t half as disturbing…