I was browsing youtube the other day and came across the word paedophile (used as a term of abuse) and from there found links to clips from an American tv series where men have been enticed through chatrooms to visit young people after having sexy conversations with them online. Once they get to the house, a young person is there to offer them a drink and then disappears to be replaced by a tv presenter and a busload of cops.
I had the same feeling watching these clips as I do when I watch clips of aeroplanes crashing: an ill-defined sense that what I am doing is wrong.
That was a few days ago. Since then I have found myself several times going back mentally over one of the stings that I watched: a middle-aged doctor who is mixing himself a drink offered by his young host and somehow twigs what is happening and makes a run for it. He gets as far as the garage and is then confronted by a battery of armed policemen who force him to the ground and handcuff him.
I'm not sure how the chatroom conversation goes: how long they chat for and how much luring actually goes on at that level but I can guess it will have to be fairly specific to coax intelligent men into such meetings.
This morning,the line 'Lead us not into temptation' came into my mind as the direct opposite of what is happening at these stings.
It strikes me that it is comparable to someone placing a pile of money in the street and then arresting anyone who has the temerity to help themselves for theft. It lures people into being the very worst of themselves.
To my mind, it is barbaric even without the addition of television cameras and gloating interviewer.
Just one other point, at one other sting the interviewer almost jokes over the fact that the same man has been caught in a sting twice over. This will probably be because the guy has a particularly low iq but the presenter simply uses this as an opportunity for adding humiliation.