Feeding will of angry online mob an accident waiting to happen
LIKE Pandora’s box, Facebook continues to spew out trouble and chaos. Over the past ten days at least two controversies have been sparked by a group which uses the social media network as a de facto paedophile/child groomers alert forum. The upshot has been a national debate, as played out on Liveline on Monday, about whether or not paedophile hunter groups should be allowed to take the law into their own hands by setting up sting operations and running investigations in the absence of any proactive measures being taken by an admittedly powerless, hamstrung garda force led by commissioner Drew Harris.
On Sunday a man was beaten by an angry mob in west Dublin shortly after being confronted by a vigilante group who made serious accusations against him. The confrontation was filmed live on Facebook and the man ended up being attacked by men not affiliated with the group: Child Protection Awareness (CPA), which has a dedicated following online, with 120,000 Facebook likes to their name. One of the group’s leaders told Joe Duffy she has no intention of stopping. When the broadcaster suggested that somebody could be killed during one of the confrontations, she blithely suggested that such things can happen and do happen in life.
The man in question was attacked by up to 20 people who turned up at the scene during the broadcast, which followers of the CPA group page were alerted to. CPA said they received many worrying messages from parents about someone of a very similar name as the man attacked, who allegedly messaged their children, sending them a pinned location and asking them to meet for sex. ‘The very same was done to our decoy! This area was the very same area that a predator was caught not long ago by CPA and absolutely nothing was done with that predator.’
As a parent I am always horrified when I hear about child sexual abuse in whatever vile form it takes. With online grooming prevalent there is a latent terror untapped in me (and all parents I hazard to guess). The law is not robust in such cases and as with all police work nothing can happen unless a crime is reported.
The grey area here is children are far less likely to report a crime and sexual crime has always been susceptible to guarded secrecy and attacker victim manipulation.
Following the attack gardai issued a statement saying they could not comment on the specific case but expressed their concern at how vigilante groups have been operating in general.
‘The actions by such groups are a cause of concern for An Garda Síochána and for other police services. The activity engaged in and the manner of confrontation between such groups and their targets has the potential for violence and could result in harm to persons present.’
In the south east a man suspected of chatting online with a young girl was confronted at a relation’s house. In that instance he was not attacked, but Facebook can be a lightning rod for hostile, angry people. That is not to say CPA attracts only hate-filled, violent people. The group may well get the legislation it wants: namely one allowing gardaí to proceed to prosecution when an intent to commit a crime can be proven in a court of law, but in the meantime the risk is clear and present that someone could be seriously injured or even killed for a crime they have not been held to account for.