National

These parents are determined to 'expose' online child sexual predators on Facebook Live

LANSING, Mich. — Citizens are taking justice into their own hands in a new Facebook group designed to lure out child predators.

517 Child Predator Exposures is run by a group of parents who have been garnering quite a bit of attention in past weeks with live feeds as they confront people who arrived to meet a teenager for sex.

“Our hope is that predators will think twice before attempting to accost and entice a child because we may be on the other side of that conversation,” the group said in a statement to the State Journal. “Our goal is to raise awareness of this very serious and ongoing issue, and expose predators in our local communities.”

Better community awareness of such predators is an admirable goal, but such citizen action is risky, according to an Eaton County police chief and an MSU law professor.

Among the potential problems: evidence civilians collect may not be able to be used in court to prosecute the offenders they expose and a mistake could expose group members to to lawsuits or even criminal charges.

Michigan has more than 40,000 registered sex offenders; 873 of those live in Lansing. Although law enforcement works to combat predators, the internet gives a multitude of options for predators to reach children, the group said.

Citing safety concerns, the parents in the group declined to release their names. Group members sent a statement responding to written questions from the State Journal.

A local 'To Catch a Predator'

This group is far from the first of its kind.

The most familiar version is probably the TV show “To Catch a Predator,” where Chris Hansen lures sexual predators in, then hands them over to the police.

The parents in 517 Child Predator Exposures create profiles on social media sites, online teen support groups and chatting applications, pretending to be underage. They don’t actively seek out predators, the group stressed in its statement.

They keep followers updated with a Facebook group and page. The page has more than 7,000 followers, and the group has 3,300 members.

“Some of the predators we come in contact with initiate sexual conversation almost immediately,” the group said in its statement. “Others gradually introduce sexual conversation. Many send sexual photos, often of themselves.”

Often, the people they’re chatting with will ask the fake teenager for sex and try to lure them from home. One screenshot posted on the Facebook group of messages with “KD” showed him offering a babysitting job so he could spend more time with the girl he thought he was texting. Just before he offered the job, the fake teenager had told him she was 16, which is the age of consent in Michigan.

Eventually, the parents set up a time to meet in a public place. Several team members go to each meeting and confront the accused predator on a video live on Facebook.

In the videos, the team members let the accused predator know who they are and that they are recording for the safety of both parties. They try to keep the conversation calm.

“Our intention is not to engage in any type of physical confrontation, but rather have a genuine conversation with these predators to receive an explanation of why they believe it is appropriate for them to accost and entice children,” the group said.

Most are willing to talk, the group said, even if it’s just to attempt to convince them that they made a mistake and have never done this before. Some accuse team members of trying to ruin their lives.

“What makes you think this is OK?” the team members asked the men they met in each of the five videos posted online.

“It doesn’t make it OK,” one man said in a video.

The team members asked why he was trying to solicit children, and the man said he didn't know.

The man sat and talked with the representative from the Facebook group outside a McDonald’s. Just before he got up and left, he said he was sorry. “I don’t know what to tell you anymore. I’d really like to go. I’m embarrassed.”

The group has expressed willingness to give the information they collect to police, but no charges or arrests have come from their exposures.

‘We can’t force them to stop’

The first video the group posted of a 48-year-old man meeting a nonexistent 16-year-old girl at a McDonald’s drew the attention of the Potterville Police Department.

Multiple people sent them the video, and police took to Facebook for information on the person behind the camera to determine if a crime had occurred. Police then met with members of the group to talk about their mission and the videos.

On its face, an older man meeting a 16-year-old girl socially is legal, said Potterville Police Chief Shane Bartlett.

But when other factors come into play, it’s more of a grey area. Someone on probation or the sex offender registry could be violating the terms of his or her release. If sexually explicit photos are shared and one party is under age 18, it counts as child pornography.

In theory, the group could be exposing a person who legally has done nothing wrong, Bartlett said. The person in the video could be a different person than the one group members have been chatting with, and they run the risk of misidentifying predators or condemning an innocent person.

“If they want to continue, they can,” Bartlett said. “We can’t force them to stop.”

Even so, he encouraged people to call the police if they observe suspicious activity. After all, it’s what the officers are there for.

Michigan State Police have a division dedicated to fishing out online predators, Bartlett said. These officers go through extensive training and have rules concerning what they can and can’t say so they can protect the investigation and make sure the evidence can be used in court.

The parents' group has the right idea, "but the way they’re going about it doesn’t hold the person being accused accountable,” Bartlett said. “Their hearts are in the right place.”

If any harm comes to the accused predator — if that person is stalked, threatened or physically harmed — the group could be sued, Bartlett said. They also possibly could face criminal charges if a post causes conduct that would make the accused predator feel “terrorized, frightened, intimidated, threatened, harassed or molested."

This is an area where the law is still evolving, said Michigan State University law professor Mark Totten. On a practical level, doing this is dangerous and unwise, he said. However, it likely would be difficult to hold the group members liable for anything.

He could see the accused predators claiming fraud, defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, invasion of privacy or entrapment.

“The bottom line is, I think this is a highly risky action being taken by this group, but it’s hard to see that they have any legal risk,” Totten said.

Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette, who has put a heavy focus on children’s safety during his term, did not comment directly on the page when asked.

“Parents should establish ground rules with their children regarding online safety and internet usage and monitor their behavior,” Schuette’s office said in an emailed statement. “They should keep a current record of the child’s login information, including all email addresses, login names, display names, and passwords.”

He pointed out the OK2SAY program and the Michigan Cyber Safety Initiative, which both focus on improving student and child safety.

If parents believe their child is talking to a sexual predator online, contact local law enforcement, Schuette's office said.

Follow Kara Berg on Twitter: @karaberg95.