Insights
Sexual Predators
In the following, you will find a compilation of "Tweets" and "Posts" by Church Protect's Founder, Jon K. Uhler, MS, LPC @JonKUhlerLPC &
Facebook/JonUhler ). These represent a small portion of what he addresses each month, as he focuses on a wide variety of topics dealing with both Predators and Survivors.
As Church Protect's mission is to educate churches and other organizations on the true nature of the most sophisticated of Predators (those who specifically select churches and people of faith as their "primary targets of opportunity"), the information contained in these bite-sized nuggets of truth are designed to equip the reader to better understand the inner world and mindset of the Sophisticated Sexual Predator, in order to equip good people to better protect children and other vulnerable individuals from such Predators.
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As we all experience the impact of the Corona Virus, finding ourselves at home even more than during the Holidays, and kids off from school for an extended period of time, it is far too easy for parents to permit their children to be on their phones and computers for longer periods of time than what would be normal. However, what most parents don't realize is how much Child Predators are active during such times, and work overtime to take advantage of such opportunities, turning "social distancing" into the perfect opportunity to "reach out and touch someone"... especially children.
Predators are at the top of their game when they know parents are distracted, fatigued, or are lulled into a sense of complacency or a false sense of security, as kids are permitted online with little meaningful protections and supervision. And, they hunt best when parents are unaware of the methods Predators employ to strategically hunt, select, close in on, and groom certain kids. The reality is that child sexual predators hunt best when parents are lulled into assuming that calm waters means that everything is fine. Given that Predators are unusually patient, persistent, and strategic in their methods of hunting, they are most active and effective when they know that a parent's resolve toward remaining vigilant begins to wane.
Much like sharks which focus on certain sections of coastline, child predators troll those areas of the internet where kids are known to frequent.
The most sophisticated of Predators are the most proficient in their use of deception, and have an unusual ability to make themselves appear as harmless and safe, lulling both children and parents into believing that the child's new online "friend" is simply harmless, and even fun-loving. But, few parents understand the methodical and strategic grooming process employed by Predators, as they artfully wait for the right opportunity to avail itself... when parents aren't around... when children are permitted to spend extended time online with the unusually attentive "friends" they've made while playing certain online games, on certain social media sites, or in certain chatroom. Thus, despite all the warning signs about the dangers of those waters, the parent is often lulled into a false sense of security, and eventually begins to assume that his or her child's activities are safe from danger.
The predator is unusually patient and tactical, and using time to his advantage. Like a shark canvasing the shoreline just beyond the waves, the child predator takes his time trolling the most likely places on the internet to find kids, and, once he identifies a child, he begins to prime his "target of opportunity," overriding the child's intuition, to where they become unable to distinguish friend from foe, unable to discern the harmless from the predatorial.
Coupled with a decreasing degree of vigilance regarding online activities, most parents have also been misinformed about the nature and profile of the most sophisticated of predators, which adds to their false sense of security. Many parents have come to believe that Predators are fairly easy to spot, as they are "creepy" and impulsive, which is the furthest thing from reality. Parents are unaware of the sophisticated predators ability to appear as something very harmless and playful, which enables the predator the ability to start closing the gap, and lulling both parent and child into believing that everything is safe, and that there is nothing to fear from getting close to such new found friends who seem so friendly, playful, harmless, andnice.
That is how Predators are able to introduce themselves, to get close enough to unsuspecting children to gain their confidence, to gather sufficient information from the children, and to create the sort of emotional bond with the intended victim that enables a dangerous attachment to be established... by which a predator can begin emotionally separating a child from his/her parents. They are able to masquerade so skillfully that both the child and parent can lose the ability to discern between a playful online greeting from a nefarious one.
Though things have changed a bit in terms of their methods... given the mandate for social distancing... that simply means they have made hunting on the internet all that more of a priority during this brief interlude. Predators have found this "down time" to gear up for when their direct-contact can resume. So, the same groups of pedophiles are using social distancing as a means of improving their game toward establishing contact with children and "softening the targets" by promoting those activities that will afford them direct contact once things get back to normal. Through these target marketing efforts, they will have already "gotten a foot in the door"... made headway in the child's mind, introduced sexually provocative topics and images through seemingly "innocent" cartoons and animation, engaged them through anthropomorphic online games (where the child can take on an animal personality, lowered their inhibitions, peeked their curiosity, lured the child with emotional appeals, and relationally manipulated the child to where he/she is eager to go see the kinds of "fun adults" with whom they were interacting. The following categories have become some of the more useful kinds of "fun and games" for predators to utilize in their grooming: Drag (introducing the sexual theme of porn-influenced deviance) , anime (which introduces sexual themes and pictures), and Furries (introducing zoophilia/bestiality themes), which can serve to help introduce Trans (sex change) and pansexuality (no sexual limits in terms of sexual behavior). And, as seen in the following screen shots, there is a clear and intentional effort to market to younger and younger kids.
The following have become widely utilized by Sexual Predators as a means of grooming kids, as they know the power of marketing and rebranding deviance. Are all adults within alternative life styles predators? Of course not. That would be like saying that anything that comes close to the shore at the beach must be a Predator. But, what I am saying is that for those who haven't carefully studied the minds, methods, motives, characteristics and profiles of the sexual predators, it places them at a significant disadvantage in terms of the ability to discern whether it is safe to venture into those waters. Parents can't be expected to know al the warning signs of dangerous waters, so that is where the experts come in... those who can give the all clear or raise the Red Flag warning, warning parents to keep their kids out of the water. The question is, who is raising the warnings vs. who is trying to suggest that there is nothing to fear by playing in those waters, so they can simply ignore the phobic guy with the signs?
However, the silence by those "Communities" with respect to condemning and calling for the aggressive prosecution of those predators within their ranks is not only appalling, but very telling. So, decry as they might, claiming 'Phobia" against even the suggestion that there are predators who purposely embed themselves within those movements in order to easy access to vulnerable kids. However, 11+ years working with thousands of incarcerated sex offenders, reviewing their criminal files, hearing from them how grooming is accomplished, puts to rest such lame attempts at distracting from the reality that Predators use the the following to target and groom kids, as they know that many kids, who are either naive and are sitting ducks, or who've already been sexually groomed and/or exploited, gravitate to the following, and therefore are easy prey for sophisticated predators who are waiting in those waters.