To Catch a Predator

I watched another episode of this last night on Dateline NBC and I'm just shocked everytime I see this. In case you don't know the premise, an online site called Perverted Justice basically goes online posing as underage boys and girls and chats with older men who then engage in conversations with these fake kids. The conversations are pretty dirty and explicit, and in the end, they make arrangements, get an address, and go off to have sex with minors. When they arrive at what they think is the child's house, a Dateline reporter comes out, shocks the hell out of them, and asks why they've come here to solicit sex from a minor. Most don't know right away they're on camera and are more than happy to sit down and chat. When they learn they're on camera, few try and stick around. Oh yea, and most importantly, when they leave, they're arrested.

This show is amazing on so many levels. To begin with, it's absolutly AMAZING how many men show up. Last night's episode was in some small town in Ohio and men were just filing in. One after the other, men were coming from all over the place in the hopes of having sex with a minor. One guy drove 2.5 hours to get there, and he's married with two kids. The volume is so great that Dateline could probably do this every week and have enough material to be on air for the next three years. It's quite scary when you start thinking about how many of these creepy men are out there. I'd say that I hope that I never have a daughter, but some of these men were coming to have sex with underage boys, so that really doesn't help.

The other amazing thing is that a bunch of these guys admit to having seen prior versions of To Catch a Predator on Dateline! If watching this show doesn't deter themto not do something like this, I really don't know what will. Watching this show is one of the most uncomfortable things to do. Part of you almost feels bad for these men because you know that as of that second, their lives are over...completely done. Then you snap back to it and realize...good...these men don't deserve to have lives. But at the same time, it's never easy watching someone's life fall apart in front of you.

When confronted by the reporter, each man says the same thing: "I wasn't going to actually go through with it." One man said that and even showed up with condoms, and then admitted that he doesn't use condoms when having sex with his wife. They come up with all sorts of excuses. On the last episode, some guy said that he was worried because the little girl said that she was home by herself. Another said that he wanted to teach the girl a lesson, that she shouldn't be soliciting sex from older men because it was dangerous. Most show up with beer and wine coolers in hand and still just try to claim that they all they were going to do was watch a movie and hang out. What 40 year old comes with alcohol in hand just to watch a movie with a 13 year old...is that normal?

I always feel a little dirty after watching this show. It's never easy watching someone's life unravel before your eys, wondering what that call to their wife, father, mother, kids must sound like. It's disturbing. You sit and wonder what's happening in our society.....is it falling apart?.....maybe, but I guess watching it happen makes for good TV.