Comment on Online ‘Pedophile Hunters’ Are Growing More Violent — and Going Viral: With the rise of loosely moderated social media platforms, a fringe vigilante movement is experiencing a dangerous evolution.

• Mongostein@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

  It’s usually done by posing as a teenager in chats, then they get confronted at the meet-up.

  Pretty solid way to identify the right person.

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  • futatorius@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

    Pretty solid way to identify the right person.

    And that’s why entrapment is a legally sanctioned investigation strategy for law enforcement.

    Oh, wait, it isn’t, because of all the abuses that resulted from its use.

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    • ArchRecord@lemm.ee ⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      It depends on how these channels are going about finding their victims for it to be considered similar.

      Remember, entrapment is based around luring someone to do something they otherwise would not have done had the operation to entrap them not occurred. If they created an account posing as a minor, then directly DM’d a person asking if they wanted to do x/y/z with a minor, that would be entrapment.

      But if they made an account claiming to be a minor on social media, and the person contacted them voluntarily, asked their age, was told it was under 18 and still continued messaging, then sent explicit photos, that’s not entrapment.

      However, if they were then the people who initiated the conversation about wanting the person to come to their house / visit them somewhere, that could be considered entrapment, and the only evidence against the person that could be eligible for use in court would be the explicit material they sent without being prompted.

      It varies case-by-case, but from what I’ve seen, most of the larger operations tend to try and avoid entrapment-like tactics in most cases, where they only allow the other person to initiate unlawful behaviors, rather than prompting anything themselves.

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      • ZombiFrancis@sh.itjust.works ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

        These folks include presenting a false person as being of age, then switching to underage at the time of meetup when the target shows up.

        A group descends upon the target who is now told they’re a pedophile.

        Then the group tries to kill the person who was trying to meet what they thought was an adult.

        And the perpetrators think this is justice.

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  • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

    Ah, catch a predator style. Gotcha.

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    • Mongostein@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

      I mean, I don’t know that ALL of them work that way, but the ones I’ve seen do. I have mixed feelings about the whole scenario.

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      • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

        I’m not a fan of vigilantism or mob justice save for the removal of objectively destructive and tyrannical leadership. Too many ways to get it wrong.

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