The Pedophile Hunter// Keeping your children safe online

Last night, I surprised myself by staying up late to watch a distressing documentary. It was about pedophilia which is a very sensitive issue for me. The program was called 'The Pedophile Hunter' and it is available on 4OD. This post is going to be a mixture of a rant and a review on this program.

 Stinson Hunter is a young undercover journalist based in Nuneaton, Staffordshire. His job started as a social experiment to see the mentality behind grown men who like young girls but it grew into a habit as he began to grow so much anger for these disgusting pedophiles. His job consists of posing as girls and boys under the age of eighteen on social networking and dating websites, waiting for somebody to message him and continuing the messaging process for a couple of weeks. If there are suspicions that the male could be a pedophile, depending of course on the manner of the messages being recieved, then a meet up with the individual is staged and they are sent to certain places, expecting to meet a minor for sexual favors but in fact meeting Stinson and his camera crew with a one way ticket to prison. Stinson and his crew interview the perpetrator and document this then post it online so these dirty men can be seen for what they really are.A copy of this footage is then sent to the police with a summary for evidence.

  Personally, I think this is a brilliant idea. Pedophiles are evil people trying to ensure young and vulnerable children that they can be trusted in a virtual world so they can they persuade them to meet in person and take advantage of them in the real world. They need to be exposed for who they really are and personally I believe they deserve the horrible reputation they get. I recommend that you watch this program just so you can understand the anger that is welling up inside me. Any average human being would despise of a pedophile but I can promise you this program will increase the amount of anger and aggression you will feel towards them.

  So this program is a mixture of how Hunter does his job, his back story and what inspired him to catch pedophiles. After being asked if he was sexually abused as a child himself, he immediatley snapped and said 'no comment'. Although, he did admit that when he was in care he saw a large amount of girls coming in who had been drugged up and groomed by older men for their 'enjoyment'.

 So during the program, Hunter gives us a preview of the fake profiles he has made and the messages that have been recieved. Shockingly, when Hunter's faux girls were asked how old they were and they stated that they were a minor, only two men said they felt uncomfortable with the age difference and that they weren't interested. I felt physically sick when I found this out. But there were two cases that also increased my anger towards these vile men:

Case 1: Hunter plays a 13 year old girl who has been left home alone

Hunter has been chatting through a fake account of a 13 year old to a 38 year old male. He has sent inappropriate photos exposing his..man parts shall we say. He has also attempted to have a sexually mannered conversation with this girl asking her if she would like to meet up and have a 'night in together'. Hunter jumps at the oppurtunity to catch this filthy pervert and gives him the address to his house. The male arrives at the house, the door has been left open and as soon as he enters the house, Hunter's camera crew surround him and instruct him to sit down as they begin to question him on camera. As he is being questioned, he begins to roll a cigarette, not acting ashamed of his actions in the slightest. He also answers most of the questions with 'no comment'. This shows he obviously thinks it is acceptable to young, naive children in this tone. He soon begins sick of the interrogation process and storms out of the house while being chased by the camera crew. He says 'If this was the real girl I thought it was going to be we would have just had a Chinese take-away and watched a few scary films". Stinton Hunter then asks 'But your primary purpose for meeting her was sexual purposes, I have the messages right in front of me'. The man then responds with 'Well if she wanted it she could have had it'. I could feel myself shaking with anger. I was speechless and had no words for this man's disgusting and shameless responses. But it only gets worse...

Case 2: Hunter plays an 11 year old girl with Autism

In this case, Hunter employs a female decoy to talk down the phone to the pedophile when the meeting is being arranged and they are all waiting for the pedophile to arrive to Hunter's house to be framed. The decoy profile reveals the disability and age to this man and trusts in him to make the right decision. Does he take the wise option to keep himself out of trouble? No. Again, nudes are sent and messages with a sexual nature are distributed to the decoy minor.
  When the meeting has been arranged and they are waiting for the pedophile to arrive, the decoy voice of the girl phones up and asks where her expected visitor is. He promises he will be with her soon and asks what she is up to (oh did I not tell you, the perpetrator in this case is 55 years old!). She says she is about to get into the bath and says he is more than welcome to let himself into the house when he arrives. Want to know his reply? Get your vom back at the ready! "Mmmmmm" he says, seductively (not that it would seduce a completley sane person, let alone a poor 11 year old child).
 Again, as soon as the perpetrator, also revealed to be a Tory counsellor, walks into the house he is caught red handed by the camera crew, sat down and questioned by Mr. Hunter. He tries to lie and weasel his way out of the mess he has got himself into. As the audience, we have had a preview of some of the exchanged messages. We have seen these messages in black and white and he is trying to deny he is in the wrong and constantly makes an effort to play the innocent card. This REALLY got my blood boiling. A fifty five year old trying to look innocent despite attempting to use a vulnerable and disabled child for sexual favors.


 Stinson Hunter's videos are released on YouTube for the world to see. To make parents aware of the dangers their children may face on the internet. Children can be naive and gullible which is where these disgusting men take their age and power to their advantage and use it negatively rather than being a responsible adult. A lot of controversy has been raised though when it comes to Hunter exposing these men. One man that Stinton Hunter exposed was caught, had an ex wife and a child of his own. He committed suicide after knowing he was going to be exposed to the world and that he had been caught on camera trying to enter a house and receive sexual favors from a fourteen year old girl. That child now has no father. It's sad. But it is still debatable whether this was the best option. The act of the perpetrator was absolutely vile. But he should have thought of the implications before he carried out these actions. So, as horrible and insensitive as it sounds, my sympathy is with the child and mother of that child as she now has to raise the him single handedly and live with the fact that the baby's father was a pedophile and, in my opinion, commited suicide so he didn't have to live with the fact he was a pedophile and he knew it. It was an easy get out. And I am normally extremley sympathetic towards suicide victims as it is normally a result of being swallowed up by a mental illness. This, however, was just an escape from the horrifying actions this man inflicted on a young child.

 This program has made me very cautious about the internet. It's all very well people are saying parents don't give their children enough freedom. This, however, is an entirely different ball game. There has not been an increase in rapists and pedophiles, we have just began to pay more attention to them due to the mass media and the internet. Having work experience in a primary school, this program has made me extremely aggravated as to what evil b*stards are out there to hurt our children intentionally and take advantage of their vulnerability. Knowing one of the kids I helped with their English work could have been the victim of one of these cyber attacks makes me feel physically sick. And what's even worse? The amount of parents that are using computers, iPad's and other gadgets with internet access as an alternative method to parenting now-a-days scares me as it is leaving these children wide open to this kind of abuse. I wasn't allowed internet access until I was 15. I still follow my mothers rules and I am now nearly a legal adult. I never accept friend requests from anyone I haven't met personally or add random people myself. You never know who is actually on the other side of that computer screen talking to your child.

 So parents..next time the internet offers you a set up option blocking certain websites on the internet, you jump at the option so your child doesn't have to face any of this. Keep your child safe and don't let them gain internet access until they are at least 14 and monitor their friend/followers lists like a hawk. Make sure they have high privacy settings. You never know who is inspecting their profile...

'The Pedophile Hunter' is still available on 4oD. Watch it now and comment your thoughts below. 

Link to Stinson Hunter's YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/user/mrstinsonhunter