[Potentially NSFW] What can you do if you come across someone online bragging about committing a crime?

Mariah, this is a tough nut to crack for several reasons. You named a couple in your question.

A person that would make that statement to millions of people must be demented.
Upfront, it sounds like a braggard, but you never know.

You first would need to know where this person lives. United States, England, where?

Second, if he lives in the U.S., then he would have to be pinpointed to a state and city.

Once this is accomplished, the local District Attorney(where the crime was committed) should be notified and let his office and detectives follow up with an investigation.

Look for any clues he might be giving as to his location. This will be the starting place for a jurisdiction coverage.

Maybe the site owners/managers can get an IP address and alert the local authorities?

I’d refer it to the FBI, as they can investigate to possibly track the ISP address. If a Federal Crime has not been committed or suggested, they can determine the proper jurisdiction.

I’d set the creep up. Stinger style… ask questions, get him to provide more details. Show interest, fascination… to the point where he’d want to meet up. All with the end goal to introduce him to the local authorities.

You could notify the staff on whatever place this was, and provide a link to the claim. If it’s something on a chat engine though, it might be harder. Save the text, though a PrintScreen thing, and send it to whoever powers said engine. (or whatever place, through its contact options) You could also contact the local authorities and see what they have to say about it. Unfortunately, I’m not sure how many claims are taken seriously when it comes to the internet. :/

Can you lead them on and get a link to their face book or personal email? Then turn it over to the FBI.

I mentioned hear before once, I was in a chat room and a man started talking about being a paedophile. I rang the police and saved the conversation with all the info I could get. They didn’t just brush me off. I was phoned by someone working on a task force over here. I doubt they found him but you never know. I would do as @zenvelo says and ring the FBI or the local police force. They may be able to obtain more information than you will.

I must join the crowd that says pass it to the right authority. I would google for organizations against child abuse. There are many for different countries/regions/states/provinces. Make a report there with the link, date and if you can a copy of the page. Let them do the detective work and do not get involved further that may lead you to break any regulations in your respective place of stay/origin.

On the other hand, I feel your frustration and I understand the urge to take the matter in your own hands. I agree that one ought to do something indeed, but just report it and make a follow up on what happened after your report.

Snitches get stitches. No one likes a snitch, even the cops. They may thank you for turning in your neighbours, but they’ll hold you in utter contempt. There is no more foul thing to call someone in Russian than “stukach.” A stukach is an informer, a snitch, someone who turns in her or his friends and neighbours to the secret police. To this day, Russians maintain blacklists of stukachi who were discovered to have snitched on people.

Do-gooding liberal busybodies do more harm than anything they’ve ever managed to stop through their self-righteous chest-beating.

Don’t snitch.

@SmashTheState we seem to have diametrically opposed positions here. If I understand this correctly, to you it’s more important not to break your rule against snitching – than to perhaps save someone from further harm. Or from receiving help for traumatic experiences.

Do you have any exceptions for this ‘rule’ against snitching?

@phoebusg “If I knew for a certainty that a man was coming to my house with the conscious design of doing me good, I should run for my life, as from that dry and parching wind of African deserts called the simoom, which fills the mouth and nose and ears and eyes with dust till you are suffocated, for fear that I should get some of his good done to me – some of its virus mingled with my blood” – Henry David Thoreau, Walden

The instinct for do-gooding comes from a selfish desire to impose your will on others. If someone asks for my help, I will give it. I don’t thust myself uninvited into situations where I don’t know the details and can’t know the outcome, and I particularly do not get outside agencies involved which are totally beyond any capacity to control once invoked. Invariably, the result of such busybody intervention is worse harm than anything you might be trying to prevent. It’s one thing to react when someone approaches you for assistance; it’s quite another to turn loose the cold, remorseless machinery of the State because you have a suspicion something might be going on with which you don’t personally agree.

@SmashTheState although a well targeted quote, it may be out of context. Since in Walden Thoreau aims at self-improvement, a focus in internal wealth vs what the ordinary joe’s pursuit thinks may be actually of ‘good’. In that sense, he does not want the common conception of ‘good’ forced on him, that good – which is the plain view of wealth. Not avoiding harm for example. He wants to fight the blind zombie-like dehumanization, but what is more dehumanizing than being victim to abuse, let alone being a child.

If there are a few examples where learned helplessness makes a victim unable to reach out and ask for your help, this is definitely among the top.

So, which part of Thoreau’s attempt for self-improvement untangled from traditional values supports becoming someone who sits idly by. Here we’re not imposing the materialistic sense of good on that little girl’s misfortune, instead defend basic human rights. Which invokes a questioning of the ethical grounds behind this thinking. I think Thoreau would instead be in favor, helping reform both one self and this unfortunate victim. Being in that state, you’re often not even in the luxury to even enjoy the plain ‘goods’ such as ordinary wealth – let alone not be touched by them by achieving higher spiritual wealth.

Sure, in a Kantian way, you cannot control the consequences of your actions regardless of the intent, but you ought to act by a maxim that makes sense for the whole.

@SmashTheState “It’s one thing to react when someone approaches you for assistance; it’s quite another to turn loose the cold, remorseless machinery of the State because you have a suspicion something might be going on with which you don’t personally agree.”

@Mariah “a post online claiming to be a 20 year old guy who had “seduced” his 14 year old sister.”

That’s a blatant confession to breaking the law. It is far beyond personal disagreement. Apathy towards the abuse of children is inexcusable. Especially when that fate is boastfully proclaimed for all to hear.

@SmashTheState I realize you have very different views on the law than I have, but this is not just a matter of me “disagreeing” with what this guy did. He is 20, the girl is 14, it is illegal, it is statutory rape at the least if not true rape. A 14 year old is a child and cannot consent. While I may not be in the know on the entire circumstances, this guy had posted a transcript of a conversation he had had with his sister in which he had “seduced” her. At the end of it, she seemed extremely upset and was telling him “stay away from me.”

@Everyone else, thanks for the advice, I’m just decreasingly sure I can really do anything. The post was on Reddit, but it was a repost of somebody’s post from another website, and I don’t feel comfortable notifying the owners of that website. I don’t even feel comfortable naming the website in this thread. People from this website have been known to harass people in real life for crossing them. But maybe I can still send the link anonymously to police.

What about this, would this be an appropriate way to go about this?

@Mariah That is a great place to report it, That group is vigilant in tracking the leads and they are known for working with the appropriate authorities.

@Mariah exactly what I had in mind, yes.

Why are you uncomfortable notifying the websites owners? You think the owners will harass the user?

@nikipedia I think in this case the best action is notifying an organization geared toward this. For appropriate and quick action. Notifying the owner could say in a case tamper with evidence, delete/secure-erase the content.

Speaking of which, make a copy of the content and screenshot, and date it if you’d like to be sure.

@nikipedia I will PM you.

Backlash from the offending poster is something to be concerned about, if they ever learned it was you who ratted on them.

Most likely there won’t be anything you can do. Honestly, I wouldn’t get involved.

I wouldn’t get involved. You really don’t know who/what you’re meddling with.