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You can worry about these people and worry about the more dangerous sexual predators, too--doesn't have to be one or the other. One good reason to worry about

You can worry about these people and worry about the more dangerous sexual predators, too--doesn't have to be one or the other. One good reason to worry about these ones: they're already comfortable publicly using children for sexual gratification, who knows what else they're asking the children to do in private. The article notes that some of the comments left on the videos solicit one-to-one contact information, for example.

coldtea 10y ago
>You can worry about these people and worry about the more dangerous sexual predators, too--doesn't have to be one or the other. Everything is "one or the other" -- opportunity cost. Besides, even if you could worry about these people too, you probably shouldn't. That's kind of the message from the parent comment, and I agree. Where does it stop?
- cldellow 10y ago
  Hmm, yes, at some point, opportunity cost is a thing. I think there's a risk that that line of thinking can be very reductio ad absurdum where only the most gruesome of offences deserve investigative resources and all others are dismissed out of hand. OK, I'll take a new tack and try to quantify it better. People who are grooming hundreds of children for sexual exploitation (in the open, no less) merit real concern. That the children don't know it's happening now is not, in my opinion, the standard we should use to decide how bad it is. Rather, we can ask: what will happen if no intervention is done? The evidence suggests that they are being exploited; the network of children being exploited is growing; their exploitation leaves breadcrumbs for others to follow and potentially expand upon; and in the future, it is likely that some of the hundreds of children involved in this will realize that they were used as a sexual plaything. Where does it stop? I dunno--I'll agree that this it's hard to find the right balance. As long as the bad guys are self-curating playlists with hundreds of victim videos whose comments include easily searched terms, I think the effort/reward here is likely pretty good.

coldtea 10y ago

>You can worry about these people and worry about the more dangerous sexual predators, too--doesn't have to be one or the other. Everything is "one or the other" -- opportunity cost. Besides, even if you could worry about these people too, you probably shouldn't. That's kind of the message from the parent comment, and I agree. Where does it stop?

cldellow 10y ago
Hmm, yes, at some point, opportunity cost is a thing. I think there's a risk that that line of thinking can be very reductio ad absurdum where only the most gruesome of offences deserve investigative resources and all others are dismissed out of hand. OK, I'll take a new tack and try to quantify it better. People who are grooming hundreds of children for sexual exploitation (in the open, no less) merit real concern. That the children don't know it's happening now is not, in my opinion, the standard we should use to decide how bad it is. Rather, we can ask: what will happen if no intervention is done? The evidence suggests that they are being exploited; the network of children being exploited is growing; their exploitation leaves breadcrumbs for others to follow and potentially expand upon; and in the future, it is likely that some of the hundreds of children involved in this will realize that they were used as a sexual plaything. Where does it stop? I dunno--I'll agree that this it's hard to find the right balance. As long as the bad guys are self-curating playlists with hundreds of victim videos whose comments include easily searched terms, I think the effort/reward here is likely pretty good.