Dateline NBC's "Online Predator"
 

I've been watching a few of Dateline NBC's online predator episodes, and I'm kind of concerned about the whole aspect of of their defining an "online predator".

Dateline is purposely going online into chatrooms and posing as sexually active 13-yr old girls. While Dateline has no problems with posing as underage nymphs who want to have sex with older men, they seem to have a problem with adults who want to have sex with them.

I would think Dateline should also be looking at the problem in our society with underage teens who are looking for sex with adults as well as those adults who are wanting to have sex with minors.

I don't particulary define these adult males as "predators" because they are not the ones initiating the chats in the chatrooms. It's Dateline NBC themselves who are purposely posing as underage sex maniacs and wanting a reaction. This is far from a "sexual predator" in my opinion. I realize some of these guys have previous sexual related convictions, and maybe those are predator significant, but the Dateline series certainly is not giving a proper light of sexual predators.

What do you think?

I think Dateline makes it very clear in every case that the person on the other end is (supposedly) 13-14 years old. Which means that the adult on the other end should know better. Which means that they must want to have sex with a 13 year old boy or girl, which makes them (in my book) a potential child molester.

And honestly, no adult naively goes into a chatroom filled with teens looking for some quality conversation. I don't think "predator" is too strong a term.

I was watching this with my wife today and I was wonder why they get to show these people on camera. Is it because they were arrested that they lose there rights not to have there faces shown on tv?

There has been a thread running on this over in TV Talk since the first part of this series aired.

Those men should clearly know better regardless if the teens are willing or not. Each one of those bastards they arrested are scum in my book.

The fact that they're targeting underage girls in chatrooms makes them predators. And good for Dateline for exposing these jackasses on national television. Having lurid thoughts about underage girls in one thing...buying a six-pack of beer and a box of condoms and driving to one's house is something altogether different and vile. Any man willing to go to those lengths deserves to be embarrassed on Dateline, lose their jobs and, hopefully, end up in jail.

Dateline, and the Riverside sheriff's dept., should be commended for this.

They made it clear that the predators were the first to initiate any sexual discussion.

You're out of your freaking mind if you have a problem with what the Dateline people did.

If "dateline" initiated the sexual content of the conversation, it's entrapment. Horny guys lose all sense when they think there is a chance of getting laid.

I wouldn't be surprised if the guys signed a release to be on TV. They may have thought it might get them a chanve to get laid.

At the beginning of the report they showed what appeared to be Yahoo! chatrooms. Most of them with explicit sexual topics (user created). Now there is where I have a problem with this. Initiating a sexual discussion in Movies: Harry Potter is clearly different than initiating one in Horny Teens Home Alone.

I don't know when they did their sting but Yahoo! has since removed ALL user created chats from their service.

Here's the transcript:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11152602/

Note that MSNBC has an article entitled "Why it's not entrapment":

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11131562/#060201a

They do point out that they entice the people, but not entrap.

This is, what, the third Dateline NBC report within 6 months? Why don't they just make this a regular show since Dateline is obviously scraping the bottle of the barrel doing this over and over.
They should use this to the Police!

I don't think it's Dateline that's doing the underage chatting, I believe it a group called http://www.pervertedjustice.com

I wonder if there are any REAL underage sexpots in chatrooms?

Why don't you log on to Yahoo and find out, and let us know? (the question is, how will you find out for sure? visit their house maybe?)

I have don't have a problem per se with publicizing underage predators. It's the environment and methods that are kind of tame and timid.

It's not like Dateline had an underage girl walk the street and a guy pulled up in his car and said, "Hey baby, need a ride?" And then started to request sexual acts in the car as he's driving the kid to a location. Now THAT would be a hell of an episode. And the guy would be charged with a much more SERIOUS crime. What do you think will happen to the guys who got caught by Dateline? You think they will get years in prison? Far from. They will get probation for most of them. Some of them will get a year or so because of former related offenses.

No, what we're watching, is a very large segment of the male population who want to fulfill their fantasies and just plain got caught. There is just no way to stop an adult from talking to a teen on the net and arranging a meeting. It's a fact. So, while Dateline's message is interesting, we have thousands of men meeting willing minors who want sex, and are probably having a great time as I type this.

The more important "predators" are the ones who are actively seeking out children. Mass transit stops. Before and after school activities. I would have liked Dateline to target these much more dangerous predators. Why? Because we're talking about UNWILLING MINORS who are forced into a situation--not minors online who like to fuck older men. Big difference to me, but maybe some people don't see a difference.

And as a footnote, several men who were caught even admitted having sex with minors on several occasions. So, it's not like this is a true "predator" situation. At least not to me.

In any case, parents really do need to educate their children about saavy online friends who may want to meet them for sex. Parents shouldn't be filtering their children's access to the net because kids will just do it somewhere else. Parents need to be very open and let their children be normal, but with a lot of caution and education about what online messaging can bring.

I think most of these people just had a lapse of good judgement, why would they give up everything just to have sex with a 13 year old? They are creepy but they should have known better. Now two of the guys were making a B-line straight for the for the girl saying she was going to brush her teeth, clearly they new what they were doing and intended to have their way with her.

So does anybody else think the girl "Del" is hot?!?

The Cops standard was that once a person was charged with a crime, they could show them whether they signed a release or not. But Cops is an entertainment program.

Dateline NBC is a news program and approaches privacy issues by balancing the public's right to know and the newsworthiness of the story they're covering against the private person's privacy rights. Privacy rights almost never win in that equation.

Not counting the internet and being pervs, did anyone notice what all these pervos had/have in common?

What?

They are all men?

I almost had soda going through the nose when I saw the guy who stripped naked and walked into the kitchen...expecting his underage fantasy to be waiting for him. :lol:

Same characteristic shared by most seriel killers....all WHITE men. This came up as the topic of conversation at work today. During the show they made note of the fact that all were male. Just that.

[QUOTE=MartinBlank]Same characteristic shared by most seriel killers....all WHITE men.

Yeah, what's with you people? Just kidding. I really don't understand this type of sickness - exactly what appeal could a teenager have that's worth risking your family, livelihood, etc? Most teenagers - strike that - nearly all teenagers bug the hell out of me. Sex is the last thing I think of when I think of teenagers.

"When I see a 16 year old, all I see is a 16 year old." -
Theo Huxtable

Yeah...except for the hispanic guys and the Indian guy with the turban and beard.

Really?? Must've missed those. I first caught wind of this show a few weeks back when they did a spot on it on The Today Show. I guess they only showed white males. Sidenote...after that initial airing on The Today Show, The Perky One (Couric) stated that she felt bad for these guys. Apparently felt bad for their humilitation. :lol: