I just watched that dateline show "To Catch a Predator" and it sparked the idea for this post. If you are unfamiliar with this show, please follow this http://www.bookrags.com/wiki/To_Catch_a_Predator link and read up before going on.
As you should have read, to catch a predator is a TV show on NBC devoted to catching sexual predators. Which is a good thing right? I mean, the less predators out there the better. But wait. You have to remember, this is a TV show. Should people really be making money off of peoples perversions? Where do the producers motives lie? Do they sit in their office and say "lets do this because it gets predators off the street" or do the say "Wow the ratings for this show are great, lets do it again.
My brother says "these guys are sickos, this is funny". I agree, I think these men have some serious problems, but are we who sit in our living rooms and derive enjoyment from watching their embarrassing captures any better. Is it right to sit there and not only humiliate but have fun humiliating these guys? In Chris Hansen's blog http://insidedateline.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/07/18/276777.aspx, he says that in the new episodes there is much more interaction between the decoy (a very young woman) and the men. Why? Is there really any point in having more interaction other than to entertain us? Remember the producers sitting in the office?
Finally, I would like to make one more point. I have absolutely no sympathy for the sickos, that is just wrong. But they are not the only ones in the wrong here. The girls who lure these guys over are just as much at fault. If a young girl is going to go online and have a sexually explicit conversation with a man then they are asking for it. These girls have the power to end the conversation right where it is. They don't have to have the conversation and they don't have to give these men their information. Why should the man receive all the blame when the girl basically says come on over and knock me up? That is not right.
I want to stress that what these men are doing is wrong. These are grown men, they should be able to control themselves. But there should be some sort of law concerning the girls role as well, they should not go unpunished. Also, we should not be using this sort of thing as entertainment. This is where it starts. Maybe later we start building coliseums and having death row criminals fight lions. Why not?
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2 comments:
Some might argue that the TV show acts as a deterrent to sexual predation. If it does, shouldn't the network be excused for profiting and the viewers for being entertained?
I don't believe it does act as a deterent. I think that sexual predators have a disease and I don't think that the slight risk of being exposed on tv is going to slow down that mental disorder. In fact some of the people who have been caught on tv actually seemed happy about it. Anyway, I havn't seen any shows like this on NBC recently so maybe the public finally had enough.
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