The latest thing I’ve fallen into on the universal rabbit hole that is YouTube is the series “Predator Poachers.” For those unfamiliar with it, the concept is as follows: a Houston-based independent journalist “Gordon Flowers,” a.k.a. Alex Rosen poses as a child, usually aged 11-13 to catfish online predators.
When Flowers meets up with the predators he has snared online, he gets them to admit to their crimes, on camera, in a stunning show of interrogation, with each segment utilizing some of the best reverse psychology and bro-down tactics you’ll likely ever see, and typically, it always ends in an arrest.
The series has become a cult hit online, somewhat due to some of the gimmicks Flowers employs (e.g. consistent, friendly phrases to build the confidence of those whom he is interrogating and the use of his own slang, such as “fried pickles” to indicate when law enforcement is needed to be called upon). It’s kind of a low-rent, online-only version of the long-running “To Catch a Predator” television series, and there’s quite a few others out there, like Flowers, who also bait these fiends, yet “Predator Poachers” appears to be the most popular of this type of show online.
It is a mixed bag of rewarding and cringe to see these monsters apprehended. A lot of the cringe factor comes from hearing them describe the sorts of things they are into, but in watching several of the segments, a disturbing trend took hold in my mind. While it is a great thing that law enforcement takes these incidents seriously, and Flowers’ efforts are appreciated, something really stuck out to me.
I’d say a good 90% of the predators that Flowers interrogates claim they have been a victim of an online scam, initially, and once they warm up to him, they cop to downloading and possessing voluminous amounts of child pornography. Many times, these creeps even cop to possessing videos and/or photographs of infants. Unreal.
I thought to myself after several flimsy excuses given by Flowers’s prey, that, alright, I’ve been online in some form or fashion since 1996, when I first ventured onto the old world wide waste of time (as we used to call it, before internet connectivity took over our lives) to research something for a school project. Since then, I have always had an email address and used the internet for a variety of things. Never once, in nearly 30 years, however, has anyone ever offered me child pornography, nor have I ever accidentally stumbled upon it.
This really got me to thinking, because I have seen all manner of odd things online: someone, somewhere is obviously creating these images and videos, and it really is one of the most grievous crimes that our society can confront, but, I asked myself, where are the efforts of law enforcement, especially at the federal level, in combatting this?
Those who have a predilection for children and acquire such images need to be taken off the streets, to be sure, and citizens devoted to that cause such as Gordon Flowers, are able to catch them in the act, but what about the creators of such evil? A basic Google search to inquire what law enforcement agencies are focused on taking down child porn creators, as well as another inquiry to see what kind of funding was allocated to that particular task, essentially produced nothing but result after result chronicling the take downs of those who possessed child porn. It was about 65 results down the list that a page on the Department of Justice’s website had any information germane to my thought process.
Child pornography permanently harms the most vulnerable among us, and for that alone, there needs to be more law enforcement focus on identifying, investigating and prosecuting the monsters who create this material.
From what I imagine, and this is backed up by what little I could find on the topic, those who produce child porn usually operate within complex networks that utilize top-tier technology to evade detection. I get it that encryption, anonymous platforms and international distribution can make these crimes difficult for investigators, but with so much money going into law enforcement at the federal level, one would think that this sort of thing would be more of a priority.
If child porn producers are caught and prosecuted effectively, it would send a clear-cut message that such crimes will be pursued, and reduce the likeliness of copycats, or “competition” in that evil underworld, with such monsters thinking they can act with impunity behind the shadows of the internet.
Budgets reflect values and moral priorities and investing in efforts to utilize technology and the long arm of the law to take down producers of child porn, would show society that a difference is being made, and actual criminals are being pursued. Also, the victims of these horrible crimes, as well as their families, need to know that the system is working on their behalf.
Protecting children, dismantling abusive networks and preventing irreversible harm should be among the top priorities of our law enforcers – from the federal levels to state prosecutors all the way down to the local beat cops.
