17 upvotes, 0 direct replies (showing 0)
View submission: Tuesday Check In: How's Everybody's Mental Health?
I’m processing that a good friend of mine very likely was grooming a 15 year old.
It’s easy to be on the outside of the situation and objectively judge it. When you know and like the person being accused, especially if you don’t know the victim, it’s hard to push past the emotional baggage and respond to your logical brain.
Update: found out more details, **which still aren’t good**.
My friend fell for a ruse from a predator hunter group that’s been operating across the state since 2018 and has supposedly led to the arrest of over 500 people.
He received a message on the app, Daddy Hunt, from an “18 year old” (abbreviating further as 18yo).They chatted for a while and had phone sex with the 18yo. They at some point exchanged phone numbers and remained in contact. At some point, the 18yo admitted that he wasn’t actually 18 and was 15, soon to be 16.
My friend remained in contact with the “kid” for a while. I wasn’t exactly sure from the sloppy presentation of the predator group’s confrontation video if they had further flirtatious/sexual conversation after that point, but it’s not a good look, to say the absolute least, to maintain contact with a minor you met on a sex/relationship app.
Where things get worse than what I’ve already laid out is that during the video as my friend was being questioned by this group, some of his answers were disturbing. When confronted with the fact that he continued talking to the fake kid after the latter admitted to being 15, my friend responded, “What was I supposed to do?” When pressed about the ongoing communication, my friend on more than one occasion said, “I thought he was 16.” That pretty much speaks for itself.
It hurts because he was one of my first new friends when I moved to my current city, and he’s been so kind and caring to me.
There's nothing here!