A vigilante phenomenon has been playing out on the open web for almost a decade: Content creators in the U.S. pose as minors on dating apps and websites, then target the people who message them. Many of these vigilantes, commonly known as pedophile hunters, were inspired by “To Catch a Predator,” a popular television series that ran until 2007. The “hunters” have copied the show’s format, exposing their targets on social media.
But in the past two years, a growing number have gone a step further and violently attacked the targets in their videos, a New York Times analysis has found.
In one of the most brutal cases, a masked man who referred to himself online as “realjuujika” allegedly broke into the home of a 73-year-old man in Pennsylvania last year, then tied him up and beat him with a hammer.
Realjuujika, at one point, turns to the man and says, “You will probably die tonight.” When the footage was streamed online weeks later, viewers cheered the violence.
The man was hospitalized, according to police reports, and needed surgery to stop the bleeding in his brain. The attack was part of a small, but disturbing trend that has spread on social media and attracted millions of viewers.
This content is popular in online circles that feature crude and hypermasculine material intended to cater to young men. Some hunters have hundreds of thousands of followers, and claim to make a living from their videos. They offer exclusive footage to paying viewers and sell merchandise with their slogans and logos. At least one has a paid sponsorship deal.
With the growth of internet platforms that claim to embrace free speech, the hunters have been buoyed by the ability to publish their videos with few restrictions.
Websites like the crowdfunding network Locals and the livestreaming site Kick have amplified the hunters’ content, unlike many larger social media platforms, which have restricted it.
Child predators are some of the most universally reviled people in the country. That has helped pedophile hunters shield themselves from public scrutiny of their actions. Often, the hunters post chat logs that they allege show their targets soliciting sex from people posing as minors, and in some cases law enforcement has worked with them to arrest and prosecute their targets.
In October, students at Assumption University in Massachusetts allegedly lured a 22-year-old man to campus, called him a predator and chased and attacked him when he tried to escape, according to a police report. After reviewing the man’s Tinder messages, officers said the man had thought he was meeting an 18-year-old student, not a 17-year-old, as the students had alleged.
Two weeks later, fraternity members and pledges at Salisbury University in Maryland allegedly posed as a 16-year-old on Grindr, a dating app used primarily by gay men. They invited a man to an off-campus apartment, where they restrained him, called him slurs and broke one of his ribs. The age of consent in Maryland is 16.
Pedophile hunters once had a restrained presence online, navigating the rules and regulations of mainstream websites to avoid being banned. Many lost their accounts in August 2022, when YouTube updated its policies to remove their videos unless law enforcement was involved in their operations.
Within months, however, the content found a new home on social media platforms known for their loose moderation like Rumble, Locals and Kick. They also grew an audience on X after Elon Musk bought it, and promised “maximum free speech under the law.”