While I'm At It
How low have we sunk as a culture when we have to watch "To Catch a Predator" to feel OK about our own goodness?
Disclaimer: I know what I'm about write, many of you will strongly react to, but please read it carefully and think about the arguments I'm making.
Another thing that bugs me is that the people at Dateline are the same people that defend "reproductive rights" for thirteen year-old-girls. The fact is dirty old men go on the Internet to find teenage girls because it works; They wouldn't do it otherwise. In my very Unhumble opinion if you tell a teenage girl it is OK to have sex with teenage boys...well what do you expect?
Thanks Dateline for contributing to a problem and then pretending to fix it. As if putting five guys in jail a month is really keeping our kids safe.
Disclaimer: I know what I'm about write, many of you will strongly react to, but please read it carefully and think about the arguments I'm making.
Another thing that bugs me is that the people at Dateline are the same people that defend "reproductive rights" for thirteen year-old-girls. The fact is dirty old men go on the Internet to find teenage girls because it works; They wouldn't do it otherwise. In my very Unhumble opinion if you tell a teenage girl it is OK to have sex with teenage boys...well what do you expect?
Thanks Dateline for contributing to a problem and then pretending to fix it. As if putting five guys in jail a month is really keeping our kids safe.
posted by Geoff at 10:43 PM
5 Comments:
I had never thought of it that way, but I agree with you, Fancy. ABC's moral indignation is a little disingenuous.
I was raised in the era of Chick Tracts, especially "This Was Your Life." What makes me cringe as I watch the Dateline program is the sense of a man's dirtiest secret exposed for all to see. I've certainly never tried to solicit sex online, but I share that sense of dread that everyone might someday see how ugly I am in the deepest parts.
You would think that such an expose would be a deterrent, but I'm amazed at how many of the guys they nab have actually seen the show themselves.
Exactly...
I think the reason it doesn't act as a deterrent shows how inneffectual it really is. It like when you see one cacaraoch there's a hundred more you don't see for everyone you do. Most of these guys get away with it, and they know they probably will.
But you also have to ask, in real life, just how many 13-yr old girls actually make themselves available to older strangers for sex? As jaded as I am, I still think the plausibility of such a scenario still ranks in a very low percentile.
I guess I'm more cynical than you, but I hope you are right.
It isn't really Dateline that is doing the work behind To Catch a Predator. It's an organization called Perverted Justice (www.perverted-justice.com). Dateline decided to cover it because it brings ratings.
You have a point about the media creating the problem. No arguments there!
But I still thing that TCAP is a good thing. For one, it shows parents that it is dangerous to let your kids chat online with random strangers. Second, it does let the "predators" know that they can be caught. I don't know how much this helps, but it's better than doing nothing about it. Third, with a sex crime conviction, people will at least be alerted about the men that have been caught... so they can't re-offend. It may not make a huge difference overall, but at least it matters to the kids who would have been molested if these particular guys hadn't been caught.
I've been reading the Perverted Justice website for a while. Many of the guys that they catch are repeat offenders and many many of them are just plain creepy. Go to their website and read more about it.
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