As the mother of a disabled quasi adult this story is terrifying

Wow that's so messed up! And that boy wasn't even the pursuer! The "girl" reached out to him and later revealed her age. By the information provided it didn't seem like he was preying on her or doing anything inappropriate. Ugh. I hope he gets his job back.

Me too. But would he really want to work there with people thinking what they do? Ugh. I hope his parents sue both groups of people.

It makes me terrified of my own son doing anything online.

One of the things that strikes me about a story like this is how much empathy we extend on looks alone. We feel sad for him really based only on his looks. If he wouldn't have looked like the sad little puppy that he looks like, most of us would have been far less sympathetic. Just a striking example what a poor guide empathy is in how we judge things.

Having said that I am not a big fan of creep catchers, or vigilante justice in general for obvious reasons.

I am going to sound somewhat heartless and be the dissenting voice here and speak from my own perspective as a person with ADHD and a background in English/mental health.

I'm sorry, but after reading this article, it is smeared with bias through the use of inaccurate information and textual structure. This is the stigma I truly hate about this article:

Jaxson Jacoe is 21 going on 13.

 

The Burnaby man doesn't just look young. His father says he has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) that's left him developmentally delayed and mentally challenged, with a pre-teen's understanding of the world.

Let me repeat: ADHD does not cause intellectual disability. It does has some developmental delay such as social skills, but they are not as significant that it will impact one's independent living skills.

It isn't uncommon for people with ADHD to have other disabilities, but how this writer spun the article makes it sound otherwise. This was clearly written by someone who has no knowledge of mental health, but it's important a news report educates themselves over topics they are responsible of covering before providing the public with wrong information that could stigmatize a particular group of people. Why can't mainstream media get their facts straight? I'm truly bothered by this inaccurate imputation it places on folks with high-incident disabilities.

"She messaged me first, saying I was cute and I want to ask you out on date," recalls Jacoe. "And I responded back saying 'Thank you.'"

 

But Ashley had a surprise. A short time later she revealed she was actually 14.

 

Jacoe said that was OK.

This is where the fault of the parents lie.

Disability or not, it's the law. A child abuse case is going to win the court favor over a perpetrator who is an adult with a disability. I'm not sure what it is in Canada, but the sad reality is in the US about 70% of inmates have a cognitive disability. The disability card can only get a person so far in the adult world-- and this is why parents need start stepping up to teach their children how to protect themselves and avoid over-coddling/over compensating. Because really, the law isn't going to give too much of a damn.

So sadly, Jacoe is not the only person with disabilities who has been placed in this very situation before. What his parents should of done before he was given any internet access, or signed up for a dating app/online community is to go over Internet safety- don't trust anyone you talk to online, don't give away your personal information of where you live, go to school, work, etc. My parents taught me this at 12 years old and monitored my online activity-- and this was back in the mid 1990's. The point I'm making: This is not new technology and the parents had every opportunity to intervene before it escalated as it did.

These parents could of sat down and read the Terms of Agreement with their son before allowing him to create an account (ENA has these too). They could of reviewed dangerous situations with some role playing so that their son would learn and instantly know how to respond to them.

"Are you like, not all up there?" asks one. "Do you need somebody to talk to? Therapy?"

This is something Jacoe can probably use against them. This language was not professional. I would also question this organization's affiliation with law enforcement too if I were the family, but the damage is done.

A few hours later, Jacoe says he was told he was fired.

Interviewed by CBC News a week later, the young man is still shattered.

"Planet Ice was my home," he says, fighting back tears.

It sucks, I hear him... but people do get fired whether it's their fault or not. No job is ever permanent. This kind of rejection is something he will have to work through.

However, it will be tougher for him to find a job if that was his first job and he did something inappropriate online. Unfortunately this is the reality we live in- we need to watch what we post online because it can come back to bite us. There have been people let go of their jobs over a picture of a stated that was posted on MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or any social media platform- and this is why it was very important for mom and dad to teach Jacoe Internet Safety before giving him free reign online. The problem with parenting these days is that parents aren't watching what their kids do online and it comes back to bite them (both their kid and the entire family) legally.

Please take your time to teach your children how to use the internet safely. This is an important Life Skill they need to learn from home or they should not be given any access.

However, this disabled person was directly TARGETED by grown people with the intent to harm him. These are people with full faculties who sought justice not by law. I agree with teaching more about the internet for the girl as well. I have no idea why a 13 year old is allowed full reign on the internet.

I do hope his father sues though.

I do hope his father sues though.

What could the father sue for? The company he worked for, or the creep catchers? You can't sue for libel if what they are saying is true.

I did show my son this story and he was very outraged and said he won't ever trust people unless they are family members.

What could the father sue for? The company he worked for, or the creep catchers? You can't sue for libel if what they are saying is true.

Actually not true. Read the article. And this is why we have a professional police force and laws . We don't need yahoo justice. What they did was entrapment .

Actually not true. Read the article. And this is why we have a professional police force and laws . We don't need yahoo justice. What they did was entrapment .

No its not entrapment, only a law officer can commit entrapment. The privacy commissioner is appalled by what he calls vigilantism and is looking into the incident but it doesn't look like to me any laws were broken. As far as I can tell the creep catchers are just revealing the conversation that they obtained when they chatted with him. It would be no different if you chatted with anyone and revealed to someone your conversation. That is not a breach of privacy or breaking any laws. (As far as I know) There is nothing in the article to indicate any laws were broken.

I do totally agree with you that we don't need yahoo justice.

Personally, I can't wait to hear they've been prosecuted.

The odder part of this is the fact that these dudes pretend to be 19 year old girls online, change their age, and then pursue. No lives, very strange.

The odder part of this is the fact that these dudes pretend to be 19 year old girls online, change their age, and then pursue. No lives, very strange.

I'm not sure how many hits a lot of those videos get on Youtube, but if its enough and they're monetized, there is money in it for them. That's probably the reason why.

However, this disabled person was directly TARGETED by grown people with the intent to harm him.

No, the article did not mention that. The Creeper Catchers did not know he had a disability during their online conversations until they met him in person.

ADHD and autism (what your son has) are two different distinctions when it comes to social interactions. It's very apparent when someone has a severe form of Autism by severe social skill deficits, but an individual with ADHD can easily mask it that you can't always tell if he/she has the disability. There was zero mentioning in the article that this kid disclosed his disability over online.

You are jumping to conclusions here. There is no solid evidence they discriminated him based on his disability other than make one unprofessional comment about it on camera after noticing his response was slow... in person.

Either way, it doesn't fully excuse the behavior-- their part or his-- but the facts are still there.

I have no idea why a 13 year old is allowed full reign on the internet.

But in this case, it really wasn't a 13 year old. There is no age requirement of using the Internet-- hell, I used it at 12 years old and was in chat rooms. If the person was - unfortunately, you cannot control how another parent enforces their own children in their own home. The only thing you can control is the safety of your OWN child.

Again, it is your job to educate your own child about online safety. These parents didn't do their job and it cost their son's reputation. It's a real shame, but the parents are the ones to be blamed here.

The odder part of this is the fact that these dudes pretend to be 19 year old girls online, change their age, and then pursue. No lives, very strange.

Or what if they had a family member that was preyed upon by an adult man? I'd do the same thing too if it happened to someone I knew.

I know the difference autism and ADHD. My husband has severe ADHD. My husband's family is full of neurodiverse people .

However, it would appear the boy has more than that. The report may have got his neuro diversity wrong.

I get that I can't control how other people parent their child.

I'm not saying that they did it because they knew he was disabled. I'm saying they are jack holes and managed to trap somebody who is disabled .

I was preyed upon by an adult man as a child and I still wouldn't do this . They think they are above the law and it's disgusting .

I actually couldn't find any evidence this guy was disabled at all, certainly if you're able to hold a job you're more able-ed than disabled. Maybe I have a different notion of what disabled means.

I'm not sure how many hits a lot of those videos get on Youtube, but if its enough and they're monetized, there is money in it for them. That's probably the reason why.

Must be. Otherwise they're doing it for fun. Not much of an income I suppose?

I'm mixed on this.

I feel bad for Jacoe. But as Snny mentioned, they definitely got something wrong with the diagnosis - Whether it have been the writer, or the family...exaggerating on his ADHD DX, in order to excuse what was definitely inappropriate behavior. I tried to find more articles on this but came up empty handed.

If he indeed is operating cognitively at a young teen level, then he absolutely needs online supervision. And also as mentioned, no one was aware of his disability prior - Only that he was 21 years old and still wanted to make this 14 year old his girlfriend.

I think the idea of 'creep catchers' is...Creepy, in and of itself. I would agree that's some yahoo justice.

I'd like if I could find further articles about this issue.

I just notice in the video they don't put on THEIR OWN FACE. Only his. I checked out on of the guy's YouTube and he never shows his own face. Chickensh.t. If one thinks they are sooooo right show your own face.

I don't really see how this is any different than the creep catchers catching a different "creep" or whatever term they like to use.

Other than it came to surface that this man has a disability, that no one knew about.

I mean, I'm sitting here thinking about how I would feel if this were a neurotypical, regular old perv type. Although I'm still weirded out about 'creep catchers', it's very likely I'd applaud it on some level. He wasn't targeted because of his disability, he was targeted because he continued his online romance with who he thought was a 14 year old girl.

We will have to wait to see what he felt what " romance " was or gf is. But I have no respect for these creep hunters who can't put their face on camera .

Okay, deleting my comments. It just makes me angry, I have to do a media blackout, because seriously the world is teeing me off these days.

Something here in the states is "perverted justice". The people who do it are trained and actually work with law enforcement. They are trained to "chat" like young kids and teens and not to entrap anyone. They do not ask sex questions or start any of that, they don't say much at all, it's the pervs that drive all of that. And they have the chat logs to prove it. And they have had these lowers busted and charged with crimes. I think it's wonderful. Honestly if I didn't have a job and other stuff going on, I'd love to get trained and help out.

I'm sad what happened to this man here but I don't see where they knew he was disabled. His guardians should not have let him on the Internet unsupervised.

I blame the parents/guardians more than I do the creepy catchers but that's just me.

I blame the parents/guardians more than I do the creepy catchers but that's just me.

I largely agree except I think it really wasn't clear from the article how his ADHD made him function at the level of a 13 year old. I can't see how anyone can think this is some established fact from reading this article. At the same time it illustrates one of the problems with "Yahoo" justice, we actually don't know.

Something here in the states is "perverted justice". The people who do it are trained and actually work with law enforcement. They are trained to "chat" like young kids and teens and not to entrap anyone. They do not ask sex questions or start any of that, they don't say much at all, it's the pervs that drive all of that. And they have the chat logs to prove it. And they have had these lowers busted and charged with crimes. I think it's wonderful. Honestly if I didn't have a job and other stuff going on, I'd love to get trained and help out.

 

I'm sad what happened to this man here but I don't see where they knew he was disabled. His guardians should not have let him on the Internet unsupervised.

 

I blame the parents/guardians more than I do the creepy catchers but that's just me.

Yeah ,but these creepy catchers are not cops they are just dudes that thought they would do this on their own .