Masked teens troll for predators—again
Men in Canada beware: To Troll a Predator is active again.
Fruzsina Eördögh— 2011-12-05 07:07 pm | Last updated 2019-02-26 04:48 am
The Canadian teenagers who made recent headlines for pranking pedophiles are back to their masked, vigilante ways.
The group of teens, who dub themselves "To Troll a Predator," would dress up as Batman or The Flash, and then publicly humiliate and film lured pedophiles. Their activities were halted a few weeks ago by law enforcement officials. (Canadian police also requested the group remove their videos and they complied.)
Canadian law enforcement officials asked the group to stop, because they wanted to make sure the teens "knew the ramifications" of shaming adult men in public, and were concerned for their "personal safety."
The personal safety issue appears to have been resolved, according to an update on their Facebook page just a couple hours ago, as the group is back in action.
The update states the group was in the process of making another video, this time featuring a 24-year-old man who thought he was meeting a 15-year-old girl for a sexual encounter, when the man was apprehended by law enforcement.
"A police officer happened to be in the parking lot caught us before we were able to get any video footage, but the predator did get taken away in the squad car and was detained until further investigation could be completed" read the status update.
It's not clear from the Facebook post why the police arrested the man, but given the massive amount of publicity the group has gotten, it's safe to assume local law enforcement are aware of the costumed group's intent when they appear in public with a video camera.
"To Troll a Predator" fans immediately took to congratulating the group, with many encouraging them to stay safe.
"The video isn't the important part…what you accomplish is. Thank you for all you do for our children!" wrote Heather Blair on their Facebook wall.
In a recent IAmA, a question and answer session on the social news site Reddit, the group admitted they didn't really have anything in the way of protection, and were "lucky" nothing had happened to them yet.
The group wrote in the IAmA thread three days ago if they could work out the safety issues, they'd get back to their trolling hobby, which they call a form of art.
How those issues were worked out, the group hasn't said. And frankly, we're not so sure we want to know.
Fruzsina Eördögh
Fruzsina Eördögh was the Daily Dot's first YouTube reporter. In addition to working as a producer for the now-defunct digital channel TouchVision TV, Eördögh has been published by Vice, the Christian Science Monitor, the Guardian, Variety, and Slate.
Canadian Pedophilia Trolls