Dateline NBC- To Catch a Predator Series

Have you seen these shows? Dateline has an undercover person posing as a child in order to catch men who are targeting young kids on line. It's not just girls these men are after. They are also targeting young boys as well. Any child is free game to these men. This shows how easy it is for a predator to go after any of our children.

It starts with the undercover investigator posing on line as a young person. They talk to these men on line and pretty soon the talk starts moving to conversations of sex. Some men just talk, some send pictures, some show actions, to the "child". These "scripts" are saved and analyzed. With some investigation their screen names turn into their real names. The local cops then know who they are watching for. What is surprising is that some of these men end up being in positions that you would never hope to see on a show like this. They have caught fathers, cops, firemen, a homeland security man, and even a rabbi.

After the on line chat has commenced, the next stage is the actual meeting. These men plan to meet the "child" at his/her house at some point in time. Some of these men travel hours to meet up with this child, who they think is 12 or 14 according to the chats. Sometimes these men come empty handed. Most of the time these men come with alcohol, condoms, or other things. When the men get to the house, they are told to "come on in" by the "child". The men usually are in the kitchen when they walk in where they sit and wait for the person they have planned to meet. Who they don't expect to meet is the host of Dateline NBC, Chris Hansen.

Once he comes out, most men know him. Some don't. Once Chris starts talking to them, he begins to ask them questions as to why they are there. The usual excuse is that they were told that the person was older. Another common comment is that they are just there to meet the "child" but they weren't going to do anything with them. Even those that brought condoms with them, deny that they were ever going to engage in sexual relations with the child. And a lot of these men say that they have never done anything like this before.

Chris continues to interview them, with cameras in full view. After the interview and Chris has gotten what he could, which mounts to a lot of lame excuses, he tells the men that they can leave. These men walk out the door thinking that they are home free. What they don't know is that the local cops are sitting outside waiting to arrest them.

My question is what is wrong with these men? One man was even busted by Chris on two different occasions. He didn't learn his lesson the first time, so he had to come back for seconds. It's scary to think that it is so easy for these men to gain access to these kids and just walk into their front doors.

This show has shown that child predators have many faces. It shows that these men range in ages from 19 to up in the 60's. These men are fathers, grandfathers, and brothers. This show has proven that you just don't know about anyone anymore. This show has put a face on the crime. That face looks like anyone walking up the street. There is no common "look" for these predators. Which makes it extremely important for us to keep a close watch what our kids are doing on line, and off.