The Paedophile Hunter Review
Watching this documentary we have to remember that it was originally released in 2014 and while police tactics and social media have changed since then, you have to think that this issue is probably much more prevalent today because of children’s access to social media being so much more prolific.
In this documentary we follow a British man who is dubbed the paedophile hunter, he entraps adult gentleman in conversations with young girls who are under the age of consent – and in his conversations he always starts them with telling the men the girl’s age so there is never any miscommunication over that – and more often than not these men continue these very sexual conversations with children knowing exactly what they are doing and they only seem to be remorseful when they are caught.
In the documentary we get to see from the paedophile hunter’s viewpoint as well as the viewpoint of the police and what they think of the situation, as well as speaking to one of the ex-partners of one of the men that was trapped by the paedophile hunter who unfortunately committed suicide after being blasted on Facebook, as is the paedophile hunter’s way of going about things. In a court of law of course most of the time people are sworn to not speculate on an ongoing trial in case it causes bias within the jury, however before these clips are even sent to the police the paedophile hunter uploads the content onto Facebook in short snippets to let the public know who these paedophiles are even if they never get tried in court.
I found it really interesting how they added in the ex partner’s story because while cancel culture is not something that I agree with, when it is something that is unlawful and disgusting in the 21st-century why shouldn’t people be held accountable? Yes, unfortunately this man did commit suicide through his actions but he was going to do harm to a child that would’ve had to live with that for the rest of their life. So while it does put a grey area in the show and remind you that not everything is black and white and there is no just good or just evil humans, you have to put things in perspective and think yes it’s a terrible tragedy that this man is no longer with us, but how much more harm could he have done if he was and was never caught?
A big thing I took away from this documentary is the fact that the police are not happy with what the paedophile hunter does however it is obvious that they are underfunded to be able to do the same tactics themselves. Last year Channel 4 bought out a three part series looking at police employees who do exactly that, they talk to paedophiles online to interact with them and gain evidence to use against them in a court of law, and the only difference is they are under the police umbrella so they are allowed to do this while the paedophile hunter is just a normal person. I feel the police worry glamourising what the paedophile hunter is doing may cause more people into taking justice into their own hands in even worse ways, however the fact that the police are so underfunded you have to wonder is it really that bad of a thing that he is doing and could this really be helping the police?
In the end we see that 10 men have been convicted for trying to meet an underage child and I see that as nothing but good. Of course in my opinion I believe that the paedophile hunter should hold his evidence off of social media until after the men have been convicted or tried or been let go to let the public know who they are, but if it could affect their court summons and sway the jury I think that it would be better to send them down and get that sorted rather than get the clout from social media immediately. Even if these men get away with their crimes they should be known as what they have tried to do by their employers, by their friends and family because they should not get away with this as this is such a despicable act to try to do to a child.
It’s a fascinating documentary and it really shows how underfunded the police are in the UK and how if they were able to do their jobs to the extent that they need to, to be able to capture these criminals, then these every day vigilantes wouldn’t be needed. I think all the paedophile hunter does is incredibly brave and clearly is helping to catch these predators, but I don’t think normal people should have to put themselves in the line of fire of being targeted, harassed or threatened when that is the police’s job. That is what they’re being paid for and at the end of the day it all comes down to where the government is putting their funds and clearly the police need more because this is a prolific, horrific issue that is still rampant and needs to be stopped so that more children aren’t harmed by people they should be able to trust.
What do you think of The Paedophile Hunter?
Until next time.
Moving Picture Review 