Predators (2025)
Not to be confused with the 2010 action movie or the 2025 Predator Badlands (which I've yet to see but I am a big fan of Elle Fanning in Death Stranding so I'll have to check it out). Predators is a documentary that discusses both Dateline NBCs "To Catch a Predator" and the modern copycats, many of which have a massive YouTube following.
I will admit, I've always found this kind of show morbidly entertaining. In the same way that I used to watch Jeremy Kyle on the treadmill in the gym, these types of shows lend themselves to tension, snide comments and quick one-liners. Ultimately though, both myself and this documentary seem to agree, that it's probably not the best way to tackle this issue. Perhaps in the early days of To Catch A Predator it was important to highlight this issue. Beyond that, I often feel these YouTube copycats are not the best way forward. Realistically the sting operations should be handled by government officials with proper training.
We even see a YouTuber get stabbed within this documentary and, having watched Skeeters videos, some of Trilogy Medias (which are more about money scams) and a few other youtubers who go out into public to meet these people, I feel that there is just a general lack of safety precautions being taken. It feels more important to shill and make money and how do you do that? By getting your big moment, by waiting to call the police until after you've cornered a potentially dangerous individual and by prodding them as much as possible.
One thing that I thought stood out in this documentary was Chris Hansen's story regarding young women being exploited. That was something I hadn't seen before and it looked like it shone a light and genuinely helped an important cause. It would be great to see Chris do more work like this rather than trying to chase the old To Catch A Predator audience as it seemed like the support of law enforcement has long been withdrawn.
It is a complex issue though. Obviously you don't want to hinder the capture and exposure of child predators. It's just hard to be 100% behind some of these videos that focus more on advertising their subscription services than helping the public understand how to keep their children safe on the internet.
Very interesting documentary regardless, it was really good to see these creators from a different perspective - one that they didn't get to edit - and to see the evolution of this specific subgenre of reality TV.
