As an avid viewer of YouTube, I would be strongly opposed to the vigilante concept. I very much agree that "it takes one to know one." In fact I used this special "insight" into the pedophile mind to warn a YF many years ago. I became aware of a man who started "grooming" him, although I don't think that term was in use at the time. I probably wouldn't have recognized the motives for his actions if I had not been a BLer myself. I won't get into the whole long story, but basically I warned my YF about what this man may be after and to be careful. After this man figured out he wasn't going to get this boy into bed, he eventually lost interest in him.

But this is totally different from being an online vigilante. I knew this boy and was aquainted with the man. Online, I don't see any way "outing" someone will help, and I see a whole bunch of ways it can hurt. I agree with Blackstone that even if we identify a predator, he can just open another account And there is the real danger of accusing someone who is not a predator and causing a lot of hurt to an innocent man.

When I watch videos made by boys, I often see inappropriate comments probably made by pedophiles. Men will tell them they are hot, or ask them to take off their shirt in their next video, or show their feet. Although these comments are totally inappropriate and also quite rude, it doesn't mean the man who posted them is a predator. The vast majority of pedophiles who watch boys on YouTube (even the rude ones) have absolutely no intention of ever going after any of these boys. They just want to watch their videos. So even the ones that post those crude comments aren't really doing any harm. They may even be a help in a weird way by alerting the boys that their are these kinds of people watching their videos, not just their classmates.

I also agree with Blackstone that the kids today are much more savvy than many adults give them credit for. They talk about pedophiles in their videos, sometimes even joking about it. Galipoka (a popular YT boy) made a video where he was singing a little made up song. One of the verses said "I bet all you pedophiles want to sleep over." I thought it was hilarious. It showed me that this was one kid who knew the dangers out there but wasn't going to let it ruin his outlook on life. It's like he was saying that he knew there were pedophiles watching and he didn't really care. I wish all boys had the attitude that they were going to be careful, but they weren't going to let the dangers control them.

There are already a bunch of self styled vigilantes on YouTube. Some think it's their mission to purify YT and cleanse it of all the pedophiles. They think it's just absolutely terrible that pedophiles even WATCH boys' videos. And they have taken it upon themselves to try to "out" any man who shows the slightest interest in videos made by kids. They make videos themselves saying how it is inappropriate and suspicious for any adult man to actually enjoy watching kids' videos. Recently, YT has been suspending the accounts of a lot of kids with no explanation beyond the catch all "terms of service violation" excuse. This has brought out a lot of adult support for the kids who worked so hard on making videos and gaining thousands of subscribers only to have all their work uncerimoniously deleted. This, in turn, has brought out a bunch of vigilantes who are asking why would adults care so much unless they were really pedophiles. It's actually quite disgusting when they strongly imply that the only reason a nonparent would have concern about a child is if they wanted to bed them. Some of these vigilates are just run of the mill "haters" who want to stir up trouble for its own sake. But many are well meaning individuals who just have a narrow view of life. Interestingly, its the kids who generally have the better view on life. Not because they are naive, but because they haven't had their minds polluted yet by the mass hysteria that is so prevalent in our society today.

I guess I got to rambling a bit. But my main point is that kids are already well aware of the dangers and we are not really in a position to be much help in that area. As an adult viewer, I have occasionally posted a comment on boys' videos relating to staying safe. But I don't see any way posting a warning "as a pedophile" would help. It would just mean I would have to open a new account, lol.

Dakota