I opened my advance copy of To Catch A Predator: Protecting Your Kids From Online Enemies Already In Your Home with the giddy anticipation of Chris Hansen rounding the corner to confront a 29-year-old computer programmer with the screenname a_latino_man559.
But after reading (i.e. skimming) a few chapters, it's become abundantly clear that reading about catching possible online predators isn't nearly as entertaining as watching possible online predators get caught in the act Candid Camera-style by a smug TV news reporter who's fond of quips:
"What part of the Bible tells you to say the things in this chat? Is that the Old Testament? The New Testament?" Oh, snap! Chris Hansen totally zinged you, "Predator"! You've been journalist-ized!
Still, I did learn a lot about the origins of the "To Catch A Predator" series from reading Chris Hansen's introduction in the book. The good news is that, despite what you may have heard about Perverted Justice, the dubious "online watchdog group" that is Dateline's predator-hating partner, everything is, like, totally legit:
Perverted Justice was started by a 20-something computer enthusiast named Xavier Von Erck. Von Erck got tired of hearing stories of adults harassing children online in his hometown of Portland, Oregon, and decided to do something about it. He went online posing as a teenager. If he was solicited by an adult who then set up a meeting, Von Erck would post the man's identity on the Perverted Justice Web site. Perverted Justice caught the attention of another Web site called Cruel.com. Cruel.com would feature a link to a Web site that embarrassed or "punked" someone every day. On August 7, 2003, a 38-year-old California man named Dennis Kerr, whom we'd come to know as Frag, was perusing the site and was captivated by the Perverted Justice mission…Frag contacted Xavier and they instantly became collaborators.
Right, so this "computer enthusiast" guy Xavier hooks up with Cruel.com, and then this dude Frag teams up with Xavier to punk even more predators. Sounds completely on the up-and-up. But why did Chris Hansen decide to use these guys, as opposed to, you know, the police for his pervert sting operation needs?
The reason why we chose to work with Perverted Justice in the beginning instead of with law enforcement is because it allowed us to do real reporting on the subject of computer predators. If we had simply watched an officer chat with a predator and videotaped him being arrested when he showed up at a park to meet a child, that would only be telling part of the story and would not have given us much insight into the mind of a predator
Really deep, probing insight like: "This was a mistake." "I don't know why I did this." "Please, sir, let me go." And "I was just going to hang out with her."
Working with PJ and renting our own home for the hidden camera operations enabled us to be in control of the environment…We could watch potential predators checking out our house. We could watch them come in the door…And I would be able to talk to these men face-to-face. I would hear their excuses and sometimes their confessions…These confrontations are a critical part of both exposing and understanding the problem.
Also, those confrontations make really awesome, awesome television, right, Chris? Not to mention the stilted voice-over re-enactments of the predator/decoy chats. Or when you come around the corner, and you're like, "Ha! Gotcha, predator! You're on TV! Sucker!"
Some have questioned our extensive use of hidden cameras, saying that using them smacks of "gotcha" journalism. Often hidden cameras are the only way to capture a crime. It's really no different than when we used them in Cambodia to expose the child sex tourism industry and the men from Europe and the US travelling to sexually exploit young children, or in India to uncover child slave labor in the silk trade.
Exactly. I don't think it's gotcha journalism. It's more like "Zing!" journalism:
"Sounds like you were 'fishing' for sex with a 12-year-old girl." Zing!