It is a very long article, so I won't report it in full here. The full article can be accessed at:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/03/26/us/pedophile-hunting-violence.html
Online ‘Pedophile Hunters’ Are Growing More Violent — and Going Viral
With the rise of loosely moderated social media platforms, a fringe vigilante movement is experiencing a dangerous evolution.
By Aric Toler and Neil Bedi
Produced by Aliza Aufrichtig, Joyce Ho, Natalie Reneau and Rumsey Taylor
March 26, 2025
A vigilante phenomenon has been playing out on the open web for almost a decade: Content creators in the U.S. pose as minors on dating apps and websites, then target the people who message them. Many of these vigilantes, commonly known as pedophile hunters, were inspired by “To Catch a Predator,” a popular television series that ran until 2007. The “hunters” have copied the show’s format, exposing their targets on social media.
But in the past two years, a growing number have gone a step further and violently attacked the targets in their videos, a New York Times analysis has found.
In one of the most brutal cases, a masked man who referred to himself online as “realjuujika” (real name:Ahmad Al-Azzam)allegedly broke into the home of a 73-year-old man in Pennsylvania last year, then tied him up and beat him with a hammer.
In a video, realjuujika stands over the bloodied man and claims he caught him trying to solicit sex from a 15-year-old boy. He robs the man and films his credit cards, sharing the information with his thousands of followers.
Realjuujika, at one point, turns to the man and says, “You will probably die tonight.” When the footage was streamed online weeks later, viewers cheered the violence.
The man was hospitalized, according to police reports, and needed surgery to stop the bleeding in his brain. The attack was part of a small, but disturbing trend that has spread on social media and attracted millions of viewers.
There have been more than 170 violent vigilante attacks by pedophile hunters since 2023, according to a Times analysis of hundreds of videos and social media posts. The footage shows hunters chasing their targets through retail stores, beating people bloody on public streets and shaving the heads of their targets. In the most extreme cases, people have been hospitalized with serious injuries.
The Times analysis found that at least 22 individuals and groups have inflicted violence in the name of pedophile hunting in the last two years, compared with roughly 40 others who made similar videos without violence. Most of the violent activity started in the past year.
“There has been a notable increase in overt physical violence within these groups,” said Emma Hussey, an Australian criminologist who studied U.S. pedophile hunters at Queensland University of Technology...
Some longtime groups have built larger audiences after turning to violence. Dads Against Predators, the most prolific group analyzed by The Times, was not violent in the majority of its videos when it started in 2020. But after it began posting on Locals three years later, videos showed the group routinely brutalizing its targets, attacking at least 100 people, The Times found.
The group now claims to have hundreds of paying subscribers, and clips from their videos frequently go viral.
“To see early videos, unedited videos, fights, and stuff that will get me banned on social media head to locals!” wrote Joshua Mundy, one of the group's founders, in a Facebook post...
Child predators are some of the most universally reviled people in the country. That has helped pedophile hunters shield themselves from public scrutiny of their actions. Often, the hunters post chat logs that they allege show their targets soliciting sex from people posing as minors, and in some cases law enforcement has worked with them to arrest and prosecute their targets.
But the violent groups are often less interested in working with the criminal justice system. “We don’t count arrests and catches,” Mr. Mundy said in an Instagram post claiming that Dads Against Predators had caused more suicides among its targets than any other group. “We count bodies.”
Law enforcement experts said those groups put bystanders in danger by attacking people in public places and jeopardize criminal cases.
“Attacking someone so you can make money on social media is a crime,” said District Attorney Christopher L. de Barrena-Sarobe of Chester County, Pa., where the realjuujika attack took place...
In October, students at Assumption University in Massachusetts allegedly lured a 22-year-old man to campus, called him a predator and chased and attacked him when he tried to escape, according to a police report. After reviewing the man’s Tinder messages, officers said the man had thought he was meeting an 18-year-old student, not a 17-year-old, as the students had alleged.
Two weeks later, fraternity members and pledges at Salisbury University in Maryland allegedly posed as a 16-year-old on Grindr, a dating app used primarily by gay men. They invited a man to an off-campus apartment, where they restrained him, called him slurs and broke one of his ribs. The age of consent in Maryland is 16...
In one of the final realjuujika videos, Mr. Al-Azzam, holding a hammer and wearing the same disguise he used during his attacks, recited a list of his motivations that echoed conspiracy theories popular in right-wing circles. He said the government was protecting “sick-minded people” and that presidents had sexually assaulted children. He asked for support from Mr. Ross and Andrew Tate, an online influencer known for his misogynistic views, who is facing criminal charges for sexual misconduct.
To his viewers, he called for action: “You guys need to stand up and get shit done.”...
These platforms gained prominence in recent years, after sustained right-wing outrage over claims of online censorship. Locals was founded after a right-wing personality was banned by its mainstream competitor Patreon for using a racial slur. Rumble, which acquired Locals in 2021, has been backed by prominent conservative figures. Before Vice President JD Vance became a senator in 2023, his venture capital fund was a major investor in the company. His office did not respond when asked if he still had an investment in Rumble...
In some cases, local officials did not charge them because the people who were attacked declined to press charges or never alerted law enforcement. In others, authorities themselves chose not to pursue charges.
Of the 22 violent groups and individuals identified by The Times, only seven appear to have been criminally charged for their actions, according to a review of police and court records.
Students who allegedly helped orchestrate the pedophile hunting at Assumption University are facing felony kidnapping and conspiracy charges. One of those students was also charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. Students at Salisbury University were originally arrested on felony assault and hate crime charges, but most had their charges dropped or reduced to misdemeanor assault and false imprisonment.
Mr. Al-Azzam is facing more than 20 charges across multiple states and is being held on $1 million bail in Pennsylvania. His trial is pending.
But the criminal justice system has not deterred some of the largest groups.
Mr. Carnicom of Dads Against Predators and four other men were charged with a felony offense in Texas for chasing a man in a parking lot and beating him while he was on the ground in September. The attack was livestreamed on Kick. Mr. Carnicom left Texas before charges were filed and has continued to post videos on Locals...
