Facebook Pedophiles - Real Threats or Viral Hoaxes?

Facebook, inevitably, has become one of the most prolific platforms for not only genuine threats but also viral hoaxes as well. This means that when the unavoidable rumours start to spread across the social networking site, it can be hard to determine where they are true, false, or a little of both. It is made increasingly difficult by viral hoaxers starting false rumours about true topics, but changing key details to make their rumours extremely alarmist and urgent, meaning unaware and uninformed Facebook users are more likely to pass that hoax on.

One particular type of hoax, with endless variants is the currently prolific Facebook pedophile rumours which seem to continually spread across the social site panicking children and parents alike. Is there any truth to all of these Facebook pedophiles, or is it someones sick idea of a joke?

The answer isn't a simple Yes or No.

The sad fact is that sex offenders have and do use Facebook, and there have been reported incidents where such offenders have met their victims online, like in the incident in 2009 in the UK where sex offender Peter Chapman met and killed a girl he met on Facebook. This is a stark reminder that even a famous site which promotes the sharing of friends and other innocent activities is used as a platform for sick individuals to use to recruit victims.

But do real life incidents like these mean we should or need to pay any credence to viral rumours warning of random groups or people who apparently prey on children?

The many different types and variations of warnings that caution people against apparent pedophile threats on Facebook are in their thousands, and millions of Facebook user has seen some type of these warnings at some point during their activies on Facebook. The fact is however, that to our knowledge, literally none of these viral rumours have ever actually related to a real or genuine threat, because in nearly all cases, the rumour was both senseless and illogical.

Take for example the most common type of Facebook warning, that advises people not to add or speak to a certain Facebook profile, because that person is actually a pedophile looking for victims. For those who are familiar with the evolution of social networking hoaxes like this, you'll know that it actually is a spin-off to the early "hacker warnings" that plagued Yahoo, AOL and MSN messenger users over a decade ago. These warnings would caution people against adding certain contacts for fear that they will "hack your computer", "delete your files" and other pseudo-jargon nonsense.
In reality, these newer pedophile warnings suffer the same logical flaws as their hacker predecessors, in that if there was any real truth behind the message, then it is likely, if not inevitable that such offending accounts would be shut down by the respective service, and any continuing messages warning of such a threat would thus be immediately outdated. Pedophile rumours have the additional flaw that if they were true, presumably the person or persons who first suspected the profile in question would not only report the offending profile to Facebook, but also to the police.

Lets take a look at one popular pedophile message that did the rounds in 2010.

ATTENTION...To all parents whose children have a profile on facebook. There is a man trying to get in contact with children to talk about sex. His name is Thierry Mairot. Please copy and paste this onto your wall and warn all ur friends! Please everyone Moms and Dads ...repost an...d get him off of Facebook! Parents, Grandparents Aunts, Uncles and Cousins! EVEN if you have NO kids

This rumour warned of alledged pedophile Thierry Mairot who tried to talk to children about sex on Facebook. It became extremely popular in late 2010 and at the height of its popularity our site ThatsNonsense.com was getting several thousands hits regarding the hoax every single day.

But looking at the message logically, the message would have the reader believe that the person who created the message either -
a. knew the profile belonged to a sex offender, but decided not to report the account to either Facebook or the police, rather employ a viral rumour to warn others about him.
b. Did report the account to Facebook and the police, who decided not to pursue the complaint and left the profile free to continue to recruit children.

Both assumptions are rather unlikely, since anyone who is aware of a sex offender recuiting children on the Internet would report it to the police, and the police would always investigate straight away, since the allegation is extremely serious. However for the warning to be valid, the reader would have to assume that the profile Thierry Mairot was still active, so would have to believe the far fetched theories we outlined above. Of course looking logically at the message, we have to conclude it is a hoax, the creator never reported the account to the police because there never was such an offending account. The above viral message has seen many different variations, usually the only significant detail ever being changed is the name of the supposed pedophile. Additionally, the messages are never backed up with any credible evidence or source.

Other Facebook rumours relating to Facebook pedophiles include warnings of certain Facebook groups run by pedophiles in an attempt to either recruit victims or steal photos of children. One such popular example includes -

ATTENTION !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!do not join the group that runs currently on facebook with the title 'becoming a father or mother was the greatest gift of my life' This isa group created by pedophiles whose aim is to access yourphotos!!!!!!!!!!!! Please rotate this post to all Your Friends on Facebook.

Not only does this face the same flaw as the example discussed earlier, in that any genuine group run by pedophiles would be reported and inevitably shut down, this specific rumour also gives itself away in that joining a group doesn't put your photos at risk, like the message implies.

Additionally, messages warning of groups like this beg the question of how the creator of the message actually found out about the groupand it's intentions.

To summarise, it is critical for Facebook users, especially children, to take extreme caution on the Internet and Facebook. There are real threats out there, and practising simple procedures such as always being alert, never adding friends who you do not know to your Facebook profile and never meeting strangers from the Internet should be enough to make sure you stay safe on Facebook. However passing on these vicious, baseless rumours only serves to waste peoples time, diluting a serious issue, and possibly ruining the lives of the people who share the names "outed" in the hoax messages.

Pedophiles on Facebook are a real threat, but viral rumours about them will always be unfounded hoaxes.