Our goal is rather simple and specific, actually. A lot of people will say "hey, you guys aren't ending pedophilia." Well no, we don't "end pedophilia as we know it." That's not our goal. The goal of this website is to create a "chilling effect" in regional chat rooms and other easy targets of opportunity online such as social networking websites. Simply stated, we want to poison the well of these rooms and places by covering enough of them that even if you're looking for underage females, an extra bit of paranoia will cross your mind.

We believe that regional chat rooms and social networking sites are the most ready and easy way for an individual to try to "hook up with" underage females. Many parents don't understand the harms and dangers their child faces by going into those rooms. Basically, you're letting complete strangers into your childs bedroom or frontroom. And since it's "regional," these people don't live that far away. A kid goes into this cesspool, they're basically at the mercy of chance. Our goal is to help reduce that chance by covering these rooms to a point where we have an impact and create an atmosphere where such happenings become rarer and rarer.

As well, we have the goal of turning the website into a conviction machine with as many information first agreements with police as possible. We feel that we have accomplished this goal, with dozens upon dozens of convictions and hundreds upon hundreds of arrests. For a full listing of our current convictions, click here. We are adding convictions on a weekly basis at this point, something we're quite proud of.

We are a part of our specially formed non-profit foundation. We founded the Perverted Justice Foundation Inc as an umbrella non-profit for all our various projects, of which this website is a part. We're very happy to now be an officially certified non-profit foundation, it was a long time coming. Becoming a non-profit was something we felt had to be done to illustrate how serious we are about this fight and most importantly, illustrate to the public that we're not a bunch of yahoos running around randomly!

This site was inspired by a conversation between site founder Xavier Von Erck and another individual who chatted in the same Portland Regional Room. Noting the vast amounts of strange and creepy chatters who would often make very public "general" solicitations, the problem was apparent and overt.

From there, we created what is termed a "Beta" site where we tested our what worked, didn't work and refined our techniques. In summer of 2003, we opened up Perverted-Justice.com. A couple months later a large website linked us, giving us dozens upon dozens of new volunteers. From there, we have scratched, clawed and fought to expand in the face of no real start-up budget, attacks from other so-called "child protection organizations" and early resistance from various law enforcement we contacted. However, despite these initial hurdles, we have become the pre-eminent anti-predator/pedophile organization online with dozens upon dozens of convictions and Information First agreements with law enforcement around the nation.

In general, the organization's volunteers are motivated by the idea of getting these guys out of chat-rooms by either working with law enforcement, to educate parents via our work with the media and to ultimately scare predators and pedophiles away from approaching kids and teens online.

Obviously, we catch predators. You've likely seen the results of our work on that front on television somewhere. We're very good at catching predators, evident from the fact that we've shattered national records when it comes to large-scale sting operations. However, that is just one aspect of our work as a foundation.

We are currently working to expand on all fronts in the war against internet predators and pedophiles in general. We are moving into training efforts with law enforcement, making sure that they can benefit from the work we have been doing here. We target companies and corporations that allow the online organized pedophilia movement to flourish online. We have areas on our forums for helping the survivors of sexual abuse, such as our "Survivor's Discussion Forums" where those who have experienced sexual abuse can participate in a community of survivors to aid their recovery. We chronicle and catalog internet-related abductions and have on occasion aided efforts to find kids abducted via the internet. We also have a internship program for criminal justice students and in general, seek to raise awareness regarding internet predator to the public via our media efforts.

We are also available for speaking engagements and presentations to kids, teens, parents, college students and law enforcement.

Unequivocably... yes. Of course what we at Perverted-Justice.com do is legal. We work with police on a daily basis. If it weren't legal, at some point, we would have been arrested. In fact, one of the individuals whose chat-log we posted on the website tried... well, just that! He reported the website for what he called "Harassment." The end result was quite predictable however. No area of this country has laws against what we do because what we do is quite simple and lines up nicely with the bill of rights. We harass no one, we don't even break a single civil tort. In short, our long history of existing and our extensive work with police are great illustrators of just how legal we are.

Lastly, there have been no lawsuits filed against Perverted-Justice.com. The only legal attempt of record was a frivilous "harassment restraining order" brought in Minnesota back in 2004 against two site contributors. The judge in that case not only rejected the order on jurisdictional issues, he found that there was no harassment that took place from our two contributors and that such accusations were baseless. Our history has made one thing clear: We are legal. If we were not, we'd already have been shut down years ago.

We don't really like other groups in general. In the website's evolutionary period, we were often attacked by other child advocacy organizations. Those who would style themselves as "THE cyber crime fighter" and "activists" who are more interested than celebrity than productivity tried to stop our growing organization by attacking us viciously. No mind that such people did not ever contact us for a dialogue... it was simply attack, attack, attack. We do our best to stay out of the "child protection scene" as unfortunately, many in that scene care more about being seen as "the one!" rather than cooperating effectively with others. We do our best to insulate ourselves in general, taking great care not to align ourselves with any groups that might have ulterior motives. As a whole, most other websites are extremely passive while we, on the other hand, pride ourselves on being very aggressive. We wish all other organizations the best of luck and if contacted, will definitely hear them out.

We are affiliated with some groups that we've taken great care to check out. Some examples include Child Seek Network, one of the best resources online for people who wish to support abduction victims directly. Child Seek Network often establishes personal communication centers for the parents of still-abducted teens and pre-teens, offering a de facto online counseling resource for the grief-stricken. We have talked extensively with the directors of both organizations, and found both worthy of complete support. We encourage anyone reading this to check out Childseek especially, and offer your volunteer time. We have received support from Love Our Children USA, a non-profit organization run by some very nice people. As well, we support the Jessica Lundsford Foundation.

In general, however, we are not seeking random alliances with other groups. It is too time consuming and accomplishes very little towards our goal of getting mass amounts of predators arrested and convicted.

Yes, nobody likes us, we might as well go eat worms!

Actually, we've been praised by Senator Orrin Hatch, been awarded various plaques and medals by various law enforcement that we've worked with, been praised by public figures as diverse as Tucker Carlson to Bill O'Reilly to Marc Klaas to Opie and Anthony to dozens of others. We've worked with the attorney generals of various states, law enforcement from small rural local areas to even the United States Secret Service. To put it simply, those that work with us have never been dissatisfied.

When it comes to one of our pursuits, the nationally known "To Catch a Predator" series of specials, it has been lauded by people as diverse as Oprah Winfrey to Howard Stern and back again. But most importantly, we have been gifted with the support of the public, from the millions that watch the specials each time they air to the thousands that participate on our forums daily. And that is what truly matters.

No, actually we are not right- or left-wing. We're also not Christian, Catholic, Atheist, blah blah blah. We are a secular non-partisan organization. We have only the following "site opinions." You can decide whether or not you can support us by reading them...

- We do not like pedophiles or internet predators
- They are bad
- Really, really bad
- Hey, they should even go to jail

If you can agree with the above, then you likely won't have a problem with any of our site opinions. That's pretty much the only thing you have to agree with. However, in our history certain people have tried to distract us with non-related topics, from those who hate homosexuals to those who campaign against porn. Don't even bother us with unrelated opinions. We don't want to hear them. Nor do we care to hear that we're evil because we don't as an organization endorse anything other than statements against predators. Here is just a smattering of things we are not nor will ever be...

- Anti-homosexual: Homosexuals are not pedophiles and pedophiles are not homosexuals. Stop trying to compare the two. It's not appropriate. If you believe this, consider: One of the primary goals of the organized online pedophilia movement is to try to link their "lifestyle" to that of homosexuals. They have nothing to do with one another. Pedophilia is a fetish towards the sexual abuse of those who are young. It is not an orientation and don't bother to try to get us to attack homosexuals. It's not going to happen. If you truly can't stand gay people, don't volunteer here as we have homosexuals on staff who are great volunteers. We need the gay community in order to deal with the predator/pedophile community. Stop trying to alienate them. Pedophiles are pedophiles, end of story.

- Anti-porn: We are not anti-pornography. We are anti-child pornography. We will not join in with you against adult porn, so don't even ask us to. We don't care if our members are pro- or anti-porn. It simply has nothing to do with our mission and what we do. If consenting adults want to do "weird thing #23,829" then they can do "weird thing #23,829" so long as it does not involve non-consenting parties such as children or animals. Again, if you think we need to be anti-adult pornography before you can join, then don't join. If you are anti-adult pornography and don't care if we are or aren't as an organization, then do join. We'll be glad to have you. Just don't try to get us to distract from our mission of going after predators.

- Political: We cannot endorse political candidates as we are a non-profit organization. Don't even ask us to. It's a waste of your time.

- Religious: We are a secular organization. We take volunteers from all religious backgrounds. Please don't even bother complaining about that, we don't care if you are religiously intolerant. We're not going to become religiously intolerant no matter how much you complain.

- Any other social anything relating to anything other than predators: Don't ask us to help you on anything other than going after predators. We go after predators. That is what we do. We're an anti-predator, anti-pedophile organization. If you can handle that (and we think you can) then welcome to our organization.

The forums have become a nerve center for the site. About seventy-five percent of our operation happens on the forums. It's a big community, and it gets much bigger each and every day. More information about our forums can be found in the "Perverted-Justice: Your First Stop" forum which outlines forum rules and what is all done there in much greater detail, as well as the FAQ category discussing the forum side of our operations. In short, if you want to get involved with PeeJ, you start at the forums. That's where we evaluate you on various levels towards contributorship.

Think of it as a virtual office, because that's what we've designed it to be.

Most contributor "handles" and screennames are named after food products that sound like real names. Why? Truly can't say, we've just always done it that way. It is pretty amusing to think of a predator who has been convicted, cursing that "If it weren't for that Molly McButter, I wouldn't be in jail! Arggggghhh!" We have fake butter and coffee products send predators to jail. Kind of fun.

No. While the website obviously attracts many survivors of child abuse, we would put the estimated number at no greater than 50%, when it comes to the amount of members who suffered child abuse. Many members have, many members haven't. Regardless, everyone shares an abhorrence of child molesters. For some--obviously for the molested--that abhorrence is very personal. But do not be fooled, it is personal for those who have not been molested as well. Many of the non-molested segments of society are tired of seeing such a large problem being handled by so few. It is the responsibility of all to attempt to help out, in whichever way they choose, against this burgeoning problem of male sexual abuse on females and other males. It's an important area of concern for everyone, and both molested and non-molested website members share it.

We have also established a Survivor's Discussion area in our forum center for people who were survivors of sexual abuse. We consider this area very successful, with long-lasting friendships and social support networks resulting from the work done there. At the end of the day, there is no "prototypical site volunteer." We have retired law enforcement, college students, stay at home mothers... people of every religion you can think of... you name it, every demographic outside of "pedophiles" working with us to achieve our shared goals.

First, if you are actual law enforcement, we ask you to read the following page which sums up our efforts and attitude nicely: Information for Police

For everyone else, our policy is to work with law enforcement in every case. We've created the "Information First" program to interface with police in a smooth and unobtrusive way. Information First is very simple. If a law enforcement department, detective or agency wants the "Information First", they email us, we speak with them on the phone, and work out the details of jurisdiction and what they'd like to see out of the chat-logs we do. Then, we make a note for the Contributors of where Information First contacts are, what areas they cover and how to get ahold of them. Contributors then work Information First areas and turn over the information, first, to the already-stated interested and proactive police contact in that area.

We have also perfected the art of the "large-scale" police sting. We've done numerous predator stings across the country with hundreds of predators being arrested. Prior to our involvement in large scale stings, the record for the most predators arrested in one night, in one location... was five. We now have broken that mark nearly two dozen times with the new record for the most internet predators arrested in one night, in one area being 21 in Riverside, California during a sting that saw 51 predators arrive and be arrested over 3 days. We work with law enforcement to conduct large-scale stings both with and without our media partners.

Yes. The very first question a potential contributor is asked is about their willingness to testify. If they are unwilling, they're automatically disqualified from helping out at the highest volunteer position the site has. Contributors have testified in many different states for many different trials.

How? Well, by a prosecutor. Ba-da-ching. We have created several new technologies ensuring that our work is court-credible. To date, challenges to the evidence we can present have been denied, as we often have tools that some law enforcement does not have. For example, each conversation we have with a wannabe pedophile is double-recorded. Since we foresaw the possibility of a defense attorney trying a wackjob "conspiracy" defense, we decided to make such a defense so out-of-this-world that no jury would buy it. When a contributor logs onto Yahoo, their conversations are automatically recorded in an encrypted format not only on that contributor's computer, but a secure server located in another state. A server that the individual contributor cannot get access to. That means that every keystroke is captured in picturesque condition on two different computers. To say that the "conversation was made up" would require a defense attorney to alledge that two different people, in two different states, who have likely never met in person... conspired together to "frame" someone else who neither had any previous knowledge of. Doesn't really work, does it?

Additionally, we use underage sounding phone verifiers to confirm the phone numbers as being legitimately used by the person in question. That creates a "two person" scenario where both people, the contributor having the chat, and the verifier having the phone conversation can testify as to the intent of the individual who is being charged. Lastly, we also use other forms of evidence-collection that we cannot reveal, except to interested law enforcement as we're not apt to give up all our tricks and technology up publicly. I think it's suffice to say, even I, the founder of this website, have been blown away by some of the things we can do to ensure proper evidence collection.

Lastly, we can tell you about this all day or you can read an opinion by an actual judge who heard a Perverted-Justice-related case. His ruling will illustrate exactly how our evidence can be used in a court of law and the power and persuasiveness of that evidence.

I know that by the time I write this, our Information First coordinator, will have a new one. So I'm going to simplify the numbers for you. Currently, there are agreements with over 2/3rds of the nation. These agreements cover in excess of 175 million Americans. That's correct, our Information First program covers well over half of the population of the entire United States of America. It is likely that by the time you read this FAQ, we'll have signed up another pro-active and great detective, department or agency. We have been floored by the explosion of the Information First program.

There could be many reasons why a lone law enforcement official would speak poorly of what we do. We have had the unfortunate stigma of "vigilante" tossed on us by the media. That word alone can raise the hackles of less-than-informed police out there. However, no officer we've worked with has bashed us. No officer who has made an arrest hand-in-hand with Perverted-Justice.com has raised a voice against us. We're in the unfortunate position where a handful of police who don't work with us or haven't researched us can speak poorly of citizen pro-activity, but police we work with are usually forbidden to go on record praising what we do due to departmental ethics, still, there are many police who have spoken out about what we do to the media when they have participated with ourselves in an arrest. Thankfully, we don't place too high of a focus on verbal kudos, as we consider each arrest and conviction to be the sweetest compliment of them all. Each arrest and conviction is a public statement that our pro-active contact and evidence is useable, proper and damning towards the wannabe pedophile who solicited one of our contributors. It's best to ignore uninformed bluster, and better to pay attention to results on record.

Besides, you should pity any rare officer that speaks out against us, the guy is missing out on some great arrest opportunities.

I do not think it possible for our website to be more cooperative with police than we currently are. We are flexible almost to a fault. We can supply chat-logs, IM names, all manner of evidence. We will take time out of our schedules to testify to put people away. We will be patient, sometimes waiting unfortunate weeks while the wheels of government justice grind slowly. There are times when we say "This is slow... how can it be so slow?" when cases drag on for over a year, two years... but that is the price one pays to garner arrests and convictions. We pride ourselves on being as cooperative with police as possible, having little in the way of ego and being able to interface not only with hi-tech cybercrimes units, but also departments that may never have brought a single cybercrimes case in their history, due to the lack of funds and manpower to work internet chat-rooms. Our goal is to continually shape and turn ourselves into a "conviction machine", where we churn out convictions like a well-oiled factory of court-cases. That's our goal, and we continue to cooperate with police of all kinds to reach it.

At this point, law enforcement comes to us with requests to do large-scale "group" stings. Such stings have been unbelievably successful. What more can we say about how hand-in-hand we work with law enforcement across the nation?

The benefits for law enforcement and government working with us are immense. First, we cost no money to local government for the hours we put in. No overtime, no health care, no need to purchase equipment... we're a self-contained unit that funds itself. secondly, we can work any hour of the day, any time of the year... if a predator wants to chat at midnight on January 1st, we can do that. Thirdly, unlike traditional detectives, our people are taught, trained and drilled in one specific crime, that of internet predators and their effects. We're a specialized unit, experts in our field. Each day we're keeping up on this specific crime. That level of specialization isn't typically found in a traditional detective. Fourth, we have numbers. When we do a large-scale police sting, we bring dozens of trained contributors in on the task. We spend thousands upon thousands of man-hours on each sting. The level of engagement we bring to the table would cost local goverments hundreds of thousands to possibly over a million dollars if they attempted it themselves. Fifth, post-stings, we bring to the table a immense level of evidence coordination, handling a good load of "the paperwork."

Our results in both individual sting and large-scale stings have been impeccable. Not one acquittal has resulted to date. We bring high-impact results for law enforcement at no cost to law enforcement. That's why you see law enforcement contacting us about participating in large-scale police stings. Our methods work, which is why we've received kudos after kudos from the law enforcement we've worked with.

Everyone who is someone with the organization started somewhere... and that somewhere being the forums aka the "Virtual Office." The forums are our nerve center, our volunteer hub. They are massive in scope and scale. New visitors to the website will, at first glance, likely be intimidated by them. We started off our efforts with a single forum and now there are hundreds of them. Each with a different task and hierarchy.

First, for those of you who don't know, a "forum" or "message board" is a term for an interface where "users" can post messages in topical "threads." We've taken the concept of this to a new level, creating a massive virtual office. Literally, if we were to magically transport all the volunteers and all that is done in our virtual office to a offline office location... we would need a massive skyscraper to contain it all. Hence the feeling new volunteers get when they enter, it's the internet equivalent to walking into a huge business structure replete with offices and different departments.

Registration to our forum community is pretty simple, once you enter the forums, click the "register" button and fill out a form with what you'd like to be known by (username), your password and other relevant information. Once you do that, registration takes seconds. After registering, you go to the "Perverted-Justice.com Forums" and visit "Your First Stop." It's like entering the lobby of an office and asking for directions, checking the directory... "Your First Stop" is that virtual lobby, with important information for you to read. Then, you need to "sign in" to our virtual office by posting a reply to a non-important thread. Once you do that, there's a few minute wait before you have access to the rest of the publicly-viewable departments. From there, you're welcome to continue reading and getting acquainted with our operations.

This is one of the biggest misconceptions possible, you don't need to be an uber-anything to volunteer. The only requirements are that you're over eighteen and that you're not a pedophile. If you meet those requirements, we have a place for you. We have volunteers ranging from people with computer science degrees to retired law enforcement to stay-at-home mothers to college students to... well, you name it. You don't even have to be that tech savvy, you just have to be patient, motivated and most of all, self-directed. A major policy position we have is that we don't like directing new volunteers here or there, we try to let people find their own way, naturally. That way YOUR skills come to the forefront and you're not just stuck somewhere "just because."

It'll take time for you to get used to our forum volunteer center and take even more time for you to get comfortable in a role. However, once you do, you'll find it's a very relaxed and enjoyable experience.

And that's great. So do many people who come to the website. However, we bring on contributors VIA the forum volunteer center. Once a newcomer has been around for many months they can send in an application to be considered. After that, it could be months or even a year before someone is selected to enter our Junior Contributor training program. We try to maintain the tightest core possible of people who "get it." Those who understand the organization, show that they're patient and self-motivated and most of all, trustworthy. We're able to evaluate forum volunteers for months upon months, often-times years, prior to bringing them on into our JC training program. That allows us to pick the people we think will do the job well. Doesn't mean they have to have a 180 IQ, just means that they have to get what we're about.

It really depends on how many people we have out there on any given day. Prior to our working large-scale stings with law enforcement, the previous national record for the most predators arrested in one night was 5 in Utah by Utah law enforcement. The new record is 21 in one night, set by ourselves in January 2006 in Riverside California. We have performed sting after sting after sting and seen the same results.

Riverside, California: 51 predators in three days.
Laguna Beach, California: 13 predators in a mere 11 hours.
Darke County, Ohio: Completely rural, two hours from anything... 17 predators in three days.
Fort Myers, Florida: 24 predators in three days.
Harris County, Georgia: 20 predators in four days.
Petaluma, California: 29 predators in three days.
Long Beach, California: 38 predators in three days
Flagler Beach, Florida: 24 predators in three days
Ocean County, New Jersey: 29 predators in three days... etc, etc.

And that's just a smattering of our results. With the proper amount of manpower, we could get an arrest a day of internet predators, easy. There are just that many out there. Each time we go into a room, we get solicited in some way. Whether it's a guy on webcam or a guy who wants to drive over to molest a kid, it's still a huge epidemic online.

We have an official "rules of engagement" that we train contributors in once they are selected. One of those rules is that unless asked to in the chat, always let the male PM you. That way they can't cry that the "kid" messaged them in IM first, they have to take the first step. Often, just entering a chat room is enough to get 3-10 instant messages at once without having to say anything in the main chat room area.

We are philosophically against anyone or any organization that contacts people first as underage personas. There is no reason to do that when online predators are so numerous and motivated to contact what they think is a 10-15 year old male or female first. We want predatory threats and we are happy to wait as long as it takes to find them. Sadly, that doesn't take very long.

Before most predators are arrested, they are chatted up by one of our underage-sounding phone verification specialists in order to confirm the number. Phone verification is an important part of the website. As time has progressed, we have recorded more and more of these calls. Many recent posted files on the website will have phone recording files posted at the top of the file.

Many times. We have partnered with local and national media to do stories exposing individuals showing up to houses to meet up with what they thought were underage children. We have done these stories in Milwaukee, Kansas City, Portland, Detroit, Pennsylvania, Las Vegas, California, New York, Tucson and Atlanta. They have alerted tens of millions to the dangers facing their kids when using the internet. We highly recommend checking out the Dateline NBC "To Catch a Predator" series. Dateline I saw nineteen men show up in New York. Dateline II saw 19 men show up in Northern Virginia. Dateline III saw 51 individuals arrive over a three day period to be arrested by the Riverside County Sheriff's Department. Since then, we have done numerous stings as part of our "To Catch a Predator" specials across the nation. We're quite proud of these specials. They have lead to not only convictions, but the education of many millions towards this issue.

Of course, even without the media involved, we have set up dozens upon dozens of meets between predators and law enforcement. We work daily whether the media is involved or not.

It is becoming more common as the months and years go by. A few notable examples...

At our Dateline: Ohio sting operation, a man named Kevin Westerbeck arrived at our sting home. Just a couple days prior, he was sentenced to nine months in jail for soliciting what he thought was a child. That turned out to be police. With a week of freedom left, he decided to try to find a real kid this time. He was quite convinced that our decoy was the real thing. And he was arrested again, this time on national TV.

At our Dateline: Riverside and Dateline: Long Beach sting operations, one man got a second taste of national infamy. Arrested at our Riverside sting and awaiting trial, he then hit us up nine months later during our Long Beach sting. He arrived in the exact same manner he had months prior and was arrested again. Remember, these people are obsessed, not stupid.

Unfortunately, we do not work off tips from the general public. Yes, "so and so" may be a terrible human being and a pervert to boot, but we have specific protocol behind every bust. The first of those protocols is . . . do not IM a person first. That is one reason why we won't follow up your tip.

If you do know of an online groomer, molestor, or all-around terrible person committing crimes, call your local law enforcement agency through their non-emergency number. Ask them to put you into contact with the internet crimes unit that has jurisdiction over that area, and explain to them in full detail everything about the case. If there is merit to it and the police can do something, we have full confidence that they will try. If that sounds too intimidating to do, fill out an online form reporting the predator at Cybertipline.

We've received threats, of course. What we do is not popular with pedophiles. Pedophiles are irrational people. One such example of a threat can be found at this link. After clicking that, you'll see why we're not all that concerned about threats. People that threaten us in such a way have a habit of going to jail, or having the full brunt of our organization come down on them. One mentally ill individual threatened our administration in a variety of ways. We tracked him down and informed his community of things he had done. We take threats pretty seriously and will aggressively strike back with our vast numbers against such activities. At this point with most of the nation having information first agreements with us... threatening us is a very, very bad idea.

Site administration here have been the target of organized harassment, people trying to post our locations. Few of us are anonymous, really, as our information is known. Many of our volunteers such as Jay Alternative have done interviews being very forthright about who they are and where they live. Quite frankly, you can't work with law enforcement on the level in which we have and be anonymous. Our people have been sworn under oath and testified in open court. While a small cabal of pro-pedophiles have tried their best to intimidate our volunteers, they have failed and we have continually expanded. If you want to learn more about the individuals behind this website, either check the contributor profiles or the excellent "faces of PeeJ" feature located on the bottom right table of this website.

On my left or right side. Sadly, I've never mastered the art of sleeping on my back, and I certainly can't sleep on my stomach. How people do that amazes me!

The fact that we don't want to commit organizational suicide. If we were to change the content of the chat itself, the law enforcement and media we work with would immediately turn on us, let alone, changing the actual content of the chat would defame the person. Also, all .dat files for Yahoo chats are uploaded to our data center. We check these .dat files against the conversation posted on the website. Oh, and there is that matter of the Proxy Server we developed, which records each and every keystroke in real time on a computer that neither the pervert nor contributor has access to edit.

Changing the actual text of the conversations would be easily provable. In our history, no one has come forward to allege that, let alone to prove it. In addition, law enforcement has come out to praise us on many occasions . . . do you really think they would do that if they didn't check into our procedures to make sure everything is above-board? Exactly. Many things stop us from doing it, including the most obvious and important reason of all: We don't need to for any conceivable reason. The chats are just that bad.

To do this, you would have to . . . gain access to their screen name, have pictures of them, somehow find a perverted-justice.com contributor, chat them up, and then somehow convince the person you're trying to set up to talk to our phone verifier when our verifier calls up their house in the same manner as you are doing in the chat itself. Then you'd have to convince them to travel in order to be arrested. Now, if you've done all that... wait, that'd be the person soliciting a minor and getting arrested. In short, it's impossible.

Yes and no. Are they required by protocol? Nah, they're not. However look at it from our contributors point of view. They do not enjoy talking to males about sex when acting as an underage kid. There's no enjoyment out of it. There is little one can do to "blow off steam." Think about it, they're dealing with scum, up close and personal, constantly. Constantly! The side comments are their spot to let loose if they so choose. This allows them to blow off some steam in a healthy way, rather than simply burn out. It is hard enough to keep people doing this over the long haul due to burn out factors of dealing with these poor excuses for humanity. Disallowing them to blow off any steam would simply shorten their life span as a contributor. Additionally, it gives each contributor a chance to show off some "personality," rather than being face-less drones. More often than not, contributor side-comments are more about pointing out the tactics of the predator in a way that is readable.

For those that dislike such comments, you can always opt to read the logs "without commentary" as well. The choice is entirely up to the reader.

Such a stupid statement. If you're reading this and you've uttered this at any point of your life, feel free to smack yourself for ignorance right now. No, there are no minors involved in what we do. That doesn't matter. What matters is the fact that the male involved in the solicitation is told there is a minor involved. At that point, it's a criminal act in the vast majority of U.S. States. Why?

Let's put it in terms we can all agree with. If I go to what I think is a hitman to order a murder of my wife, I've committed a crime. Even if that "hitman" is an undercover person posing as one for the purposes of catching people conspiring to murder. No one on this planet says "Well hey! How could there be a crime! There was no actual hitman!" If a defense attorney tried that tactic in court to defend someone who solicited for the murder of another person, he would be laughed out of the room. So why would anyone believe there needs to be an "actual minor" when it comes to solicitation? All that needs to exist is the record that the solicitor was informed that the person was a minor and had the intent to have sex with that minor. Just as the charge is the same for a person conspiring to murder with a "fake" or "real" hitman, the charge is philosophically the same for conspiring to have sex with a "fake" or "real" minor.

If you disagree with the above paragraph, feel free to leave our site, never to return. You don't need to be here, we don't want you.

This argument is one of the stupidest ones we have seen online. The fact that I've seen it offered by supposed "child safety advocates" just makes it sad. Take for example a park where kids often play. Let's say there's a neighborhood watch sign posted, so that pedophiles know that approaching children there is unsafe. Then! According to the logic of that argument against us, the pedophile "goes underground" and doesn't abduct a kid from that park! And then isn't caught!

You know, caught, abducting a child. That means that one less kid has been abducted from that park. And that there is now one less available area for a pedophile to actually prey on children, in a place where children often go. Regional rooms and social networking websites are not that different. They are a "local chat" where kids and teens often go. An online "park", basically. We're the neighborhood watch that removes them from this park, which removes them from another area where they can prey on actual kids. With pedophiles, you want to take away their hunting ground. Isolate them away from children. So do we "drive pedophiles underground"? Sure, we drive them underground where kids are not found, abducted, and assaulted. If you have a problem with that, please leave. We simply don't need you around.

This is one of the most oft-repeated myths we've heard. "Blah blah blah PeeJ doesn't catch real predators!" has been the refrain of those that dislike what we do for various reasons. Rather than convince you that we do, we'll just link you. There's the example of Ron Rivera of New York, who had already successfully solicited and raped a minor male in North Dakota prior to our finding him. There's the example of Benjamin Brown of Ohio who had raped an actual underage female in the eighties. When he arrived to meet our decoy, he had rope, gags, handcuffs and a knife. Not enough to prove it? Well, there's the case of William J. Corbett of Tucson, Arizona. This former girl's softball coach left a trail of molestations in his wake. Last, but not least at all... during our January 2006 sting in Riverside California, ten percent of the 51 individuals that arrived to have sex with our decoy and were arrested...? Registered sex offenders, with offenses reaching back into the eighties and through the millenium. Oh, also in that crop were two convicted murderers as well.

That's just a smattering of the individuals who have arrived that already had reached an actual minor child. If those aren't real predators then there are no... such... well, come to think of it, there are no "real predators." There are only those who are not predators and those who are. Our position is that you don't have to have prior offenses to be considered a "real" predator, just that you actively plan and plot an offense out... something everyone posted on our website has in common.

Here's another oft-repeated myth... that the predators we catch are all dullard dulls that couldn't dull a dullard. It's poppycock. Sure, it's natural to wonder why these guys, despite all the risks, would go after a kid knowing that we and Dateline and law enforcement are all out there. But to blithely say they're stupid... well, that's a stupid assumption itself.

We like to compare this crime to bank robbery. Why do people still try to rob banks? Almost all bank robbers are quickly caught, they know they'll be on surveillance and most bank robbers know their chances of getting away are slim. So... they must be stupid! No, they're just obsessed with money and believe the reward is greater than the massive risk. Child predators are much the same, sure, they know there's a chance of being caught... but to them, the reward of having sex with a 12 year old is worth it. Fact is, they know that, like bank robberies, some do get away with it. This drives their obsession with trying to find minors.

As we continue to do these stings, we've noticed one truth: The predators are getting more and more frightening in general. The "opportunists", you know, the guys that will have sex with anything be it 8 or 80? They're gone. They're scared. Those are the ones you can scare off. Now we're being left with nothing but hardcore child lusting pedophiles and it's creating even more disturbing sting results. So are they all stupid? Not hardly, just a simple perusal of our website will shoot down that silly myth.

In our view, the most important aspect to such an issue is that they know. It's crucial for the families and friends of convicted predators to know that they are the family and friend of a convicted predator. We're far more worried about a family or friend not knowing and their kid being approached by the predator than we are about whether they'll be sad that their loved one committed this crime. Yes, it sucks for the family and friends of predators for them to be arrested... just as it sucks for the family and friends of many other crimes to find out that the person they held in esteem did something terrible.

At the end of the day, we don't believe the knowledge of true facts hurts anyone.

No. No. No. No. No. No. No. Absolutely not. No. I cannot put into terms how much we DO NOT support violence against anyone we post here. We do not support vigilantism of that sort, we do not condone it, we condemn it. We are civilized individuals and you can do more with the power of scorn than you can of fists. We do not support any type of violence of any kind used against anyone we have posted here, nor do we support harassment of any kind. We never will, and anyone construing us to support violence would be a baldfaced liar who doesn't understand the point of this site.

We are proud of our record on this matter. In the many years we've been operating, there has not been one reported act of violence against the people we post. The only documented legal record of note saw a Minnesota judge throw out the claim of Minnesotan Thomas Cison that site volunteers harassed him and his family. Our track record really illustrates how against violence we are, and how what we do isn't harassment. Claims to the contrary are groundless as our track record is pristine.

We're not here to debate what ages should marry others. We don't really care what say, a Zimbabwe does, nor do we care what a Serbia does. Not to say that either country has a problem with pedophilia, We simply are apathetic about what they are doing and in what terms they view the age of consent. This site is based in North America and in Western Culture in general. If a country chooses to be psychologically backwater and behind the times, that is their problem. We are not going to lobby for changes in laws in third and second world nations. We don't care. I don't know how much I can state that without it ringing through. If you think it's okay to have sex with a twelve year old because a backwards third world nation does it, that's your psychological dysfunction.

What does make us snicker though, is that many of the people who make this argument against us would not agree with child labor, a staple of any country that has such irresponsible underage sex laws. It is amusing to our staff to see such arguments, as we usually only hear them from the organized pedophiles online who reach and stretch for anything that they think justifies their incredibly sick thought processes.

Every parental-blocking software we have tried has blocked the content on this website when used. Netnanny, Safesurf, you name it. Obviously the chats are sexually explicit and net filtration systems block our website due to that. Will some kids potentially see the website? Probably. At the worst, they'll see the scum that is out there, trying to take advantage of them in clear, stark terms. We take every proper precaution we can to limit that from happening with our meta tags that are designed to block the website with all the major web-filtration systems.

Is some of the content graphic? Yep. We don't believe in presenting a watered-down version of the reality when it comes to kids on the internet. We want people to see what it's really like out there. It's very important, as nothing else truly illustrates the problem as simply showing the reality of it.

To the people who like to make that claim, let's deal with an analogy real quick. Pretend that there is a twelve year old sitting in a park dancing around and asking older males for sex. Yes, that extreme of a situation. What should the male say? Yes, or no? Is the prospect of an underage kid so irresistible that we now consider a willing underage kid to be so persuasive that a male can't do anything but say yes? Get real.

So are the files we post "entrapment"? No. Not on any level. These people IM our names first. We don't IM them. They choose to say the things they say, to agree to the things they agree to, and to give their phone number for the verification call. Entrapment is a situation where you go out of your way to entice a citizen as law enforcement to commit a crime they otherwise would not commit. For example, if a department sent around female police pretending to be prostitutes to knock on the doors of private citizens offering sex, that's entrapment. We don't do the figurative "knocking on doors." Rather we sit, wait, and allow them to knock upon our online "door." And when they do, they're in for a surprise. As the law states regarding entrapment, the defense fails when it can be shown that the person being charged had a predisposition to the crime in question. Anyone who knows the law will never make the entrapment argument towards these crimes, because people who know the law understand that these people are predisposed to commit these crimes. It's why they hit us up to begin with.

Hundreds upon hundreds of convictions... zero successful entrapment defenses. Zero.

No. Really, I don't need to say anything more, since the allegation is that insane. Child pornography, even to possess, is a severe felony. Whenever we come across any form of child pornography, we report it to the police immediately and without fail. Unfortunately, contributors have been sent child pornography in the past. Every instance of this happening has resulted in the arrest of the transmitter. The people that do that, are now sitting in jail. We do not transmit child pornography, or use child pornography in any way. We literally hate it when a contributor has child pornography tossed at them. It's absolutely the worst part of what we do.

We do use pictures of underage females and males, but they are all fully clothed, and non-sexually suggestive. The allegation that we send out "Child Porn" comes from the same people that think of everyone at PeeJ as "nazi pedophile satanists." Truly, as you probably well know, there are some insane people out there that will allege almost anything. To completely squelch such allegations, we have left two profiles intact. One was at the urging of Dateline NBC. The other was a profile used in the arrest and charging of Ron McCollough, a teacher in California. Profile used in the arrest of Ron McCollough and One of the profiles we used during a Dateline Group Media bust left intact. Do we use sexually suggestive pictures? No. We use profiles like those.

It's better for these guys to not be talking to little girls online, offline, on a phone line, whatever. And as related above, one of our big criteria is to profile individuals that want to meet offline. So hey, we cover both aspects nicely. If you're really curious about whether or not it's a good thing for these guys to talk to little kids online, talk to any teen that has been abducted by an internet predator. We've had the unfortunate displeasure of talking to an abducted kid who quickly went from "being talked to online" to being kidnapped, abused and taken advantage of. The scars such crimes leave are very real, and often those crimes start with what one may initially look at as "innocent conversation."

While people can vary in "how sexual" they can talk to a 10-15 year old, one thing does not vary. They express a desire to meet, try to meet, get arrested and convicted for attempting the act. The "slimy voting scale" is there just as a feedback tool to gauge your reactions to the people we post. However just because one individual is physically unsettling to the point of severe uncomfort, doesn't mean that the lower end didn't also agree to meet and show up. That is why we post the "less disturbing" ones, because we don't believe in internet predators should be viewed in any form of "context" against other predators. The desire to meet an underage kid for sex is wrong, whether that desire is expressed in a "polite" way or a more "crude" way. Some of the most disturbing people we find resist talking about sex with a child. Not because they don't want to talk about sex, but rather because they're cautious, exacting and worst of all, patient.

What if, indeed? If someone is simply "roleplaying", they won't be posted as a conviction on PeeJ. Perverted-Justice does not work silly adult "roleplay" rooms on any chat service. Some other organizations do, but we don't waste our time. Why? Because we want individuals who are serious about it, and also in places where little kids are known to go. Not many 12 year olds are going to go into the roleplay adult room du jour. But they will go into a local regional room to talk to people from their area or whom share their interests.

Now, if you're in a regional room to roleplay, first off, you're in the wrong room. Secondly, you still won't get posted. Every conversation we post have a few things in common. They agree to meet, they iterate their desire to have sex upon meeting and they're convicted and arrested for it. That's not roleplaying. If you meet someone who tries to say it is, promptly laugh at them. One infamous example in site history was an older teacher who went online into a regional room and hit on an underage female. He represented himself as a math teacher, in his thirties, with a first name, and gave his actual phone number.

Then he tried to say he was "Roleplaying."

Sure he was. He was "roleplaying" as a male with his actual name, profession, age, location, and number who talked about meeting an underage female for sex and tutoring. Sure he was playing a role, the genuine role of someone interested in such activities. If one is roleplaying, they'll play a role. it is not roleplaying when you play yourself and give your own information. It can be amusing to see how far people will go to claim that, as we have already had an individual plead innocent to his chat-log based on the "roleplay defense." Took the Jury less than five hours to find him guilty. It's a stupid defense and people see through it.

Good question. Well, not really, but pretend we think it is... we asked one of our female contributors why she gets off pretending to be a female. Her answer to that query is as follows: So do they "get off" on this? Of course not. What they do is the diametric opposite of "fun" or "entertainment." It is tedious, disgusting and often, physically revolting.

Sure, some people will assume we're all "closet pedophiles", oogah boogah. They'll point to some infamous examples of people in the public light, like a Mark Foley, who say one thing publicly and then do another privately. While such cynicism is understandable considering how often it seems "crusaders" are found to be utter hypocrites, it's just not true when it comes to our organization. Don't believe us? Then just keep your eye on us. We welcome the skepticism and are happy to prove people wrong. We've been under a national spotlight and scrutiny for many years now, after all. If there were anything to that stupid assumption, we're pretty sure a newsmagazine competitor of Dateline NBC would have found out by now.

The best answer to that is that we are human beings, with logic, morals and maturity. Then again, we don't really have to judge. Judges do that. We report on their judgements while showing you the evidence of what was judged. It's a rather simple process.

It's not for lack of trying. As of this FAQ update (January 2008) we currently have found a grand total of zero females in regional rooms trying to hook up with an underage kid. That could change as of tomorrow, because we're trying! However, it appears our efforts are simply proving once again that pedophilia, grooming and molestation are uniquely and overwhelmingly male attempted. Not only have studies shown that very few females have the inclination, but our own efforts have, thus far, proved it. We do hope to get more females, if for no other reason than to shut up some of the less . . . oh, educated males who IM and email me, a fellow male, to call me an "unfair feminist."

And yes, you will hear of a rare and random female pedophile on the news... but that's because they're rare and random. Makes for a "better story." Know that for every female pedophile the media reports on, there are 15 males that didn't make the evening news cut just because it's such a common offense for males to do.

What about them? They're dumb. Can't say it any more succinctly than that, can we? Every organization in the media spotlight has oddballs and crazies out there criticizing them. Hell, even the Red Cross has critics. And they're the Red Cross!

In other words, we don't care, our record speaks for itself.

For the vast majority of you, media brought you here. Media educated you by exposing you to the problem of internet predators. What more justification is needed? The media can be a great partner in addressing the issue of predators, pedophiles and exploitation. Rather than demonize the media, it's far more constructive to try to bring media, law enforcement and the citizenry into one "big tent." We successfully did so in January 2006 with our Dateline NBC/Riverside County/Perverted-Justice.com "group bust." Men showed up for the cameras, which educates parents... they were then arrested, which protects kids. Education and protection all in one, that is our goal. Over 12 million people watched that episode, an incredibly large number. Those 12 million people are now more educated than they were the day before it aired.

All three elements have a role. The media can bring funding, law enforcement brings the cuffs and a trained citizenry can make the huge dent. Our first media/PeeJ/law enforcement operation in Riverside, California netted 51 individuals over 3 days, five of whom were already convicted for sex offenses in the past. This effort broke all records and surpassed any and all expectations. Pro-active media, police and citizens can do great things. There is nothing negative about having that publicized, it helps all involved. Brings more police funding to those that work with us, brings more volunteers to us and gives parents a chance to see the kinds of thing that occur. A true "Win, win, win" situation.

We are available for a myriad of stories. Profiles of arrested people, profiles of convictions, profiles of simply posted people, profiles of simply what we do, profiles of the people behind what we do, Group Media Busts, educational programs for kids and even opinions on the issue of internet pedophilia in general.
Usually we have a contributor in your area who can do an on-camera interview if you're television media, and we're almost always available for radio and print interviews. However, we are not usually available on complete short notice, so don't email us two hours before you want to do the interview and get angry when we don't respond in that time. We've partnered with small and large media organizations to do all manner of stories and we are independent media friendly! We have long remembered the fact that the very first story done on our website was done by a small free weekly independent paper in Oregon called the "Portland Mercury." From there, this long ride has kicked off. Just because we've done national programs doesn't mean we don't respect smaller publications. Media leads to informing parents, it's a good thing.

You contact the webmaster, myself, Xavier Von Erck. My contact information is on the "contact us" page that you can find on the top image. If you contact others about the site rather than go through me, you will be doing nothing more than wasting time. All contributors and people associated with the site know that I approve or disapprove of all potential interviews with the media. 19 times out of 20, we'll be open to doing a story with you and will be able to supply someone to interview that will meet what you need for information. If you wish to do a group sting operation with ourselves and Law Enforcement, do be mindful that we get a LOT of requests. We want to do them all! Just don't expect us to be able to jump on command for the next window. Our scheduling is tight and we do all that we can.

There are a lot of great people out there in the media. However, there are also some unscrupulous individuals. We have had news reports done on us by media members who have been rejected for "Group Media Busts" who simply wished to do a hack-job on the website. And of course, there are some males out there who are philosophically opposed to AoC laws, and the chilling-effect we create on regional chat rooms. Look at the people we find, they are in every area... law enforcement, firefighters, teachers... and media. We even had a high level ABC News Producer show up to our first Milwaukee "Group Media Bust" back in late 2003, for example.

Typically, if you see a negative story about our website, we will have a response up to that story. When one clicks on a website link from their website, they are immediately taken to our rebuttal. If they don't link to us, we discuss it on our forums. There is a lot of misinformation out there in today's society, and as always, the best way for you to see how the website operates is to not only read this FAQ, but to observe our actions on the front page, and in the forums. You be the judge.

At the end of the day, we partner with Dateline NBC to do shows chronicling sting operations. Other media conglomerates don't really like that. Is it any surprise then, that we sometimes get dragged through the mud? Nope. It's the nature of the media.

If we had our choice of doing a large scale sting with the media or without the media, we would always choose with. And no, it's not for the reason you may be thinking.

When we partner with a newsmagazine like Dateline NBC for a sting operation, we then have the ability to use world-class surveillance to make sure everything is safe, smooth and secure. Often-times we're able to see blocks and blocks in all directions, we have extra eyes on the streets... fact of the matter is, such surveillance is an invaluable tool. It makes everything go easier and makes getting predators arrested easier. Tactically, it's a win.

Everything else, the funding that we sometimes receive, the exposure it brings to gain our organization new volunteers and the awareness it brings to society are all gravy.

Yes, yes it is. What, surprised by the honesty? Shouldn't be. We want everyone possible to see these shows in order to be aware about this problem. Hopefully all of the shows we do are high-rated, it means there's an interest to learn more about how predators operate, an interest to be aware of this rising aspect of internet crime. No show done in history is done with the hope that nobody watches. No matter if you're trying to make people laugh or make them think, you want people to view what you have to offer.

For more information on how to help, check out the How to Help page.

We do not post busts from the public on our main page. We don't know you. We don't know that your intention is genuine. We don't know what sort of evidence credibility measures you have in place. We simply do not know. You can always report a predator to Cybertipline.org however.

There are many aspects to how we select people to train to be site "contributors." A contributor is someone we train to go into chat-rooms and work with our team on Information First areas and large-scale law enforcement sting operations. They are the people that do the chatting with the predators you later see listed as convictions on our website.

We take contributors from the volunteer pool that registers and integrates into our forum community. It's not an easy or quick process, but it's not completely inaccessible either. Volunteers on the forums will spend at least four months, usually six, before they have shown us that they should be selected to be trained. Once they've shown maturity and dedication with a lack of "drama", they are offered a position as a "Junior Contributor." Junior Contributors is the name of our training program. "JC's" then are trained by our JC training staff on nearly a daily basis, with weekly group training sessions and distance learning programs. Each JC is trained at their own pace, with some graduating from the JC program after merely three or four months while others pick it up at a more gradual pace. Some JC's will spend a year in the program before being promoted to full contributor status.

So, best case scenario? You can become a contributor in eight months of work. More realistically, contributors are made over a year, year and a half period when you combine both forum work and JC training together. Seem like a long time? It can seem that way, however there are a myriad of volunteer positions you can enter into that make time fly.

To report child pornography and/or sexual exploitation of children, please contact the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's CyberTipline at their Cyber Tipline. The CyberTipline allows parents and children to file a report by submitting an online form. This form is then reviewed by analysts and forwarded to law enforcement including the FBI, the U.S. Customs Service, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and state and local police agencies. While we aren't great fans of Cyber Tipline's response time for reports of internet solicitation or their attitude regarding us, we've heard of nothing but positive results when you report child pornography through them.

Why, yes. Yes, we do. You'll need to make sure that we're an acceptable internship (or externship) by checking with your college counselor; once you've done so, you can read our internship program page for more details on who to contact and how to apply.

Yes, our non-profit foundation does accept donations via our Foundation portal website, PJFI.org. Any donation we receive helps us be the stable force we are against internet predators and pedophiles. There's much more information on our PJFI.org website about how we accept donations and even a FAQ about it. Feel free to read.

The best way to let them know is to sign up for the forum and leave a thread in General Discussion about it, or contribute to one of the pre-existing threads about it. They always love hearing a bit of encouragement, it helps keep the morale up from dealing with such depths of scum.

Why yes, it is. It's a really long FAQ because we expect our potential volunteers and trained contributors to be comfortable reading. There's a lot of reading when you volunteer for the website. And a lot of waiting... you'll need much patience. We don't just bring people on all willy-nilly like. No, it's a process, it's deliberate and it requires you to read and often-times, make your own decisions. We don't lay out a deliberate path for everyone... we provide new volunteers with new volunteer options and expect them to show us why we should take an interest in having them at the top level of the website.

Each administrator and contributor did the same thing you're considering. They all started from the bottom and worked their way up. If you want more insight on the process of becoming a contributor or site administrator, read some of our "Faces of PeeJ" interviews that randomize on the right side of the website.