Anti-pedophile activism
Encyclopedia
Anti-pedophile activism encompasses opposition against pedophiles
, against pedophile advocacy groups, and against other phenomena that are seen as related to pedophilia, such as child pornography
and child sexual abuse
. Much of the direct action classified as "anti-pedophile" involves demonstrations against sex offenders, groups advocating legalization of sexual activity between adults and children, and internet users who solicit sex from underage
teenagers.
, the paedophile activist group Vereniging MARTIJN
has been protested against by the far right
Nationale Alliante
. There have been incidents in which vigilantism intended to be against paedophiles has been mistakenly directed against the wrong person, including one concerning a man with the same surname
as a locally known paedophile , the persecution of a pediatrician, due to ignorant misinterpretation of his job title and an incident where a man was identified as a paedophile because he was wearing a neck brace
similar to the one a sex offender was wearing when pictured in a newspaper.
organization with the stated mission to expose and convict adults who solicit and groom
pubescent or post-pubescent minors on the Internet
. While the organization typically goes after adults seeking teenage individuals under the age of consent
, they also consist of volunteers who carry out sting operations by posing as 10-12-year-olds. After obtaining identifying information from these men, who may offer their telephone numbers and other details so that meetings can be arranged, the organization passes the information on to law-enforcement. Some administrators of Perverted-Justice.com launched CorporateSexOffenders.com, and its associated wiki project "Wikisposure," in June 2007, which aim "to target corporations and the pedophiles they allow to use their services." The Wikisposure project later moved to its own domain, Wikisposure.com.
, whose anti-pedophile activism is described below:
Silentlambs
and LambsRoar are both web-based anti-pedophile groups that seek to protect children through education, to provide legal assistance, and to provide assistance to victims [survivors] who have been molested as children and silenced from speaking out or seeking proper assistance as directed by religious authorities. To date, most emphasis has been on abuse within the Jehovah's Witness community.
Members of Anonymous
were identified as responsible for the arrest of suspected pedophile Chris Forcand. They contacted the police after some members were "propositioned" by Forcand with "disgusting photos of himself". Anonymous were described as "cyber-vigilantes who seek to out anyone who presents with a sexual interest in children".
's Exploited Child Unit has stated that the NCMEC does not condone investigations by citizens because according to the NCMEC, those actions do not deter predators and can push the predators to move to other locations and become more effective at hiding their identities. The internet safety organization CyberAngels, an offshoot of the Guardian Angels
echoes similar concerns. Police officials in the past have been opposed to working with such groups, or have done so only reluctantly.
Pedophilia
As a medical diagnosis, pedophilia is defined as a psychiatric disorder in adults or late adolescents typically characterized by a primary or exclusive sexual interest in prepubescent children...
, against pedophile advocacy groups, and against other phenomena that are seen as related to pedophilia, such as child pornography
Child pornography
Child pornography refers to images or films and, in some cases, writings depicting sexually explicit activities involving a child...
and child sexual abuse
Child sexual abuse
Child sexual abuse is a form of child abuse in which an adult or older adolescent uses a child for sexual stimulation. Forms of child sexual abuse include asking or pressuring a child to engage in sexual activities , indecent exposure with intent to gratify their own sexual desires or to...
. Much of the direct action classified as "anti-pedophile" involves demonstrations against sex offenders, groups advocating legalization of sexual activity between adults and children, and internet users who solicit sex from underage
Age of consent
While the phrase age of consent typically does not appear in legal statutes, when used in relation to sexual activity, the age of consent is the minimum age at which a person is considered to be legally competent to consent to sexual acts. The European Union calls it the legal age for sexual...
teenagers.
Local incidents
Some local groups have taken to marching in opposition to the locations of various child sex offenders. In the NetherlandsNetherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, the paedophile activist group Vereniging MARTIJN
Vereniging MARTIJN
Vereniging MARTIJN is a Dutch association that advocates the acceptance of pedophilia and legalization of sexual relationships between adults and children. The group is widely reviled but not outlawed...
has been protested against by the far right
Far right
Far-right, extreme right, hard right, radical right, and ultra-right are terms used to discuss the qualitative or quantitative position a group or person occupies within right-wing politics. Far-right politics may involve anti-immigration and anti-integration stances towards groups that are...
Nationale Alliante
National Alliance (Netherlands)
The National Alliance was a Dutch nationalist political party. The party was disbanded in 2007.The party was formed on 12 November 2003, by Jan Teijn and Virginia Kapić. Teijn kicked off his political career in the Centrum Democraten in Rotterdam, before going over to the CP'86, where he was one...
. There have been incidents in which vigilantism intended to be against paedophiles has been mistakenly directed against the wrong person, including one concerning a man with the same surname
Surname
A surname is a name added to a given name and is part of a personal name. In many cases, a surname is a family name. Many dictionaries define "surname" as a synonym of "family name"...
as a locally known paedophile , the persecution of a pediatrician, due to ignorant misinterpretation of his job title and an incident where a man was identified as a paedophile because he was wearing a neck brace
Cervical collar
A cervical collar is an orthopedic medical device used to support a patient's neck and head. It is also used by emergency personnel for victims of traumatic head or neck injuries, and can be used to treat chronic medical conditions....
similar to the one a sex offender was wearing when pictured in a newspaper.
Perverted-Justice
Perverted-Justice is generally an anti-hebephiliaHebephilia
Hebephilia refers to the sexual preference for individuals in the early years of puberty . Girls typically begin the process of puberty at age 10 or 11; boys at age 11 or 12...
organization with the stated mission to expose and convict adults who solicit and groom
Child grooming
Child grooming refers to actions deliberately undertaken with the aim of befriending and establishing an emotional connection with a child, in order to lower the child's inhibitions in preparation for sexual activity with the child, or exploitation .Child grooming may be used to lure minors into...
pubescent or post-pubescent minors on the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
. While the organization typically goes after adults seeking teenage individuals under the age of consent
Age of consent
While the phrase age of consent typically does not appear in legal statutes, when used in relation to sexual activity, the age of consent is the minimum age at which a person is considered to be legally competent to consent to sexual acts. The European Union calls it the legal age for sexual...
, they also consist of volunteers who carry out sting operations by posing as 10-12-year-olds. After obtaining identifying information from these men, who may offer their telephone numbers and other details so that meetings can be arranged, the organization passes the information on to law-enforcement. Some administrators of Perverted-Justice.com launched CorporateSexOffenders.com, and its associated wiki project "Wikisposure," in June 2007, which aim "to target corporations and the pedophiles they allow to use their services." The Wikisposure project later moved to its own domain, Wikisposure.com.
Other anti-pedophile activist groups
Another initiative, Predator Hunter, headed by Wendell Kreuth, aims to track down and expose the pornography-related activities of alleged 'sexual predators'. Although, in 2002, Kreuth disclosed details of his activities in an interview with Minnesota Public Radio (Note: the websites featured in the article are, in fact, legal), the activities of Predator Hunter in the years prior have garnered more attention, particularly in relation to Bradley WillmanBradley Willman
Bradley Willman is an anti-pedophile activist from Canada who engages in private investigations using the Internet to expose pedophiles. At one time, he had unfettered access to between 2,000 and 3,000 computers that had been used to visit websites of interest to pedophiles as the result of his...
, whose anti-pedophile activism is described below:
Between 1997 and 2001, Brad Willman was known as Omni-Potent, an Internet vigilante who would track pedophiles by spending 16-plus hours a day hacking into people's computers from his parent's house in Langley, a suburban community just outside Vancouver. Ultimately, he was responsible for the arrests of about 40 pedophiles across Canada and the U.S. Willman's successful, albeit unpaid and short-lived venture as "Citizen Tipster," as he was known by police, is now over. But his activities have sparked intense debate over the legality of his tactics.
He would verify where suspects were from, and send the information on to Predator-Hunter, an online pedophile watchdog group that would, in turn, send it to other sources to be verified before passing it on to police. "Parents in a number of countries, I think, owe OmniPotent a debt of gratitude for what he did," says Wendell Krueth, president of Predator-Hunter. The end justifying the means is a concept Predator-Hunter supports. "We don't tell people to go hack, but we consider whatever information we get worthy in taking down pedophiles," Krueth says.
Silentlambs
Silentlambs
Silentlambs is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping survivors of abuse. It is based in the United States and gives assistance to victims of child sexual abuse experienced while in the religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses...
and LambsRoar are both web-based anti-pedophile groups that seek to protect children through education, to provide legal assistance, and to provide assistance to victims [survivors] who have been molested as children and silenced from speaking out or seeking proper assistance as directed by religious authorities. To date, most emphasis has been on abuse within the Jehovah's Witness community.
Members of Anonymous
Anonymous (group)
Anonymous is an international hacking group, spread through the Internet, initiating active civil disobedience, while attempting to maintain anonymity. Originating in 2003 on the imageboard 4chan, the term refers to the concept of many online community users simultaneously existing as an anarchic,...
were identified as responsible for the arrest of suspected pedophile Chris Forcand. They contacted the police after some members were "propositioned" by Forcand with "disgusting photos of himself". Anonymous were described as "cyber-vigilantes who seek to out anyone who presents with a sexual interest in children".
Criticism of tactics
A representative of the National Center for Missing and Exploited ChildrenNational Center for Missing and Exploited Children
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children is a private, non-profit organization established in 1984 by the United States Congress.-Establishment and overview:...
's Exploited Child Unit has stated that the NCMEC does not condone investigations by citizens because according to the NCMEC, those actions do not deter predators and can push the predators to move to other locations and become more effective at hiding their identities. The internet safety organization CyberAngels, an offshoot of the Guardian Angels
Guardian Angels
The Guardian Angels is a non-profit international volunteer organization of unarmed citizen crime patrollers. The Guardian Angels organization was founded February 13, 1979 in New York City by Curtis Sliwa and has chapters in 15 countries and 144 cities around the world.Sliwa originally created the...
echoes similar concerns. Police officials in the past have been opposed to working with such groups, or have done so only reluctantly.
See also
- Anti-pornography movementAnti-pornography movementThe term anti-pornography movement is used to describe those who argue that pornography has a variety of harmful effects, such as encouragement of human trafficking, desensitization, pedophilia, dehumanization, sexual exploitation, sexual dysfunction, and inability to maintain healthy sexual...
- Chris Forcand
- EphebophiliaEphebophiliaEphebophilia is the sexual preference of adults for mid-to-late adolescents, generally ages 15 to 19. The term was originally used in the late 19th to mid 20th century, and has been more recently revisited by Ray Blanchard. It is one of a number of sexual preferences across age groups subsumed...
- HebephiliaHebephiliaHebephilia refers to the sexual preference for individuals in the early years of puberty . Girls typically begin the process of puberty at age 10 or 11; boys at age 11 or 12...
- To Catch a PredatorTo Catch a PredatorTo Catch a Predator is an American reality television series that features hidden camera investigations by the television newsmagazine program Dateline NBC. It is devoted to impersonating underage youth and detaining adults who contact them over the Internet for sexual liaisons...
- An NBC Dateline series that collaborated with Perverted-Justice - John WojnowskiJohn WojnowskiJohn Wojnowski is an anti-pedophile activist who has maintained a one-man protest outside the Apostolic Nunciature in Washington DC since 1998...