Students Charged in ‘To Catch a Predator’ TikTok Scheme

[Jim Burton]

https://web.archive.org/web/20250106020 ... iktok.html

Five college students in Massachusetts are accused of luring a man to the Assumption University campus in a plot that the police said was inspired by the television show “To Catch a Predator” and a fad on TikTok.

The students were part of a larger group that chased the man from a campus building after he was invited there by a student on the dating app Tinder, expecting to meet an adult, according to a criminal complaint issued in Worcester District Court on Dec. 4.

[...]

Two students assaulted the man, the police said.

There was no indication that the man was trying to meet underage girls and the woman who invited him to the campus, Kelsy Brainard, 18, said on her Tinder profile that she was 18 years old, the police said. The police did not provide the man’s age.

Videos of the episode, which happened on Oct. 1, were shared among students and seen by the police, who said that minutes after the man arrived on campus, he was watching a baseball game on a couch in a student lounge with Ms. Brainard and there was “ample personal space between them.”

Suddenly, a large group of students appeared from hidden locations, the complaint said. The students berated the man “as a sexual offender,” grabbed him and blocked him from leaving the room, the police said.

This is what happens when fandom age-gap discourse graduates high-school ffs.

[Artaxerxes II]

It turns into real-life violence. Only time will tell when will such vigilante actions will stop. We are kind of witnessing that with an increasing part of the online leftist community turning away from Tik Tok vigilantes given the latter's unpalatable "wignat"-adjacent political views.

[G@yWad69]

Innocent teliophiles are being hatecrimed now too for trying to follow the law. Things will only change when its their father or their husband getting hatecrimed, but even then, ive seen people completely disowning and joining the mob on their family and partners if they find out they even like young legal adults or fictional cartoon characters, so yes, only time will tell

[Bookshelf]

Innocent teliophiles are being hatecrimed now too for trying to follow the law. Things will only change when its their father or their husband getting hatecrimed, but even then, ive seen people completely disowning and joining the mob on their family and partners if they find out they even like young legal adults or fictional cartoon characters, so yes, only time will tell

As ridiculous as age gap nonsense is, I believe as it gets worse, it'll bring us closer to a turning point. When 30 year old men are assaulted or worse because they find 21 year old women attractive, it's bound to reach a stage where people challenge the criticisms of age gap relationships— opening up a chance to reintroduce critical thinking around youth sexuality.