Chris Hansen on the Latest with the Onision Scandal, and ‘To Catch a Predator’
Chris Hansen joins Mike Morse to discuss how To Catch a Predator began, what he saw confronting close to 330 men in his stings, and his YouTube investigation into Onision and his wife, Kai.
About This Episode
Chris Hansen is an American television journalist known for his work on Dateline NBC, particularly the well-known program To Catch A Predator. Just this year, Hansen has continued his fight against predators with his new YouTube channel titled Have A Seat with Chris Hansen where he’s been digging deep into the recent conversely surrounding YouTube-er Onision.
In this episode of Open Mike, Mike sits down with Chris to discuss his early career in journalism, his passion for seeking justice against predators, and his thoughts on the recent controversy surrounding YouTube-er Onision.
Check out Chris’s YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgKTJAN-IrVyX-jIJ5INEhA/featured Chris’s latest video on the Onision scandal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qo_E5hn5yH0 👉 CONTACT US NOW – FREE CASE EVALUATION https://www.855mikewins.com/contact-us/
Show Notes
- Introduction
- Career beginnings
- To catch a predator origins
- Sting operations protocol
- Law enforcement partnership
- Technological threats
- Cultural impact
- Show development
- Psychology of predators
- The confrontation
- Bizarre cases
- Real world dangers
- Security and fakes
- End of the show
- Legal challenges
- Moving forward
- Impact of YouTube
- Local news scandals
- Recent YouTube work
- Investigating Onision
- The grooming process
- Online platform responsibility
- Victim support and action
- YouTube channel success
- Future projects
- Closing thoughts
FAQs
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How did To Catch a Predator get started?
According to Chris Hansen, around 2004 Kevin Dietz told him about Perverted Justice, an online watchdog group that set up stings with decoys posing as 12-, 13- or 14-year-olds to catch men trying to solicit who they thought was a child. Kevin had already done a local version of the story in the Detroit area and urged him to look into it. Hansen pitched it as a Dateline story, and the first investigation was on Long Island.
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How many men has Chris Hansen confronted in his stings?
Hansen says he has sat down with probably close to 330. In the first investigation, on Long Island, 17 men, including a New York City firefighter, came through the door in two and a half days; in a later investigation in Riverside County, California, 51 men showed up in three days.
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What legal outcomes resulted from the To Catch a Predator investigations?
Hansen says he knows of only one prosecution that ended in a dismissal. In every other case he is aware of since law enforcement began running a parallel investigation, there has been a guilty plea, a conviction or a no-contest plea.
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What is Chris Hansen investigating about YouTuber Onision?
Hansen says people on social media urged him to look into Onision, so his YouTube show, Have a Seat with Chris Hansen, began interviewing alleged victims. He describes girls aged 12 to 14 who found Onision’s videos and were then contacted and groomed by him or his wife, Kai, exchanging sexually explicit pictures and, in some cases, moving into the couple’s Washington state home. Hansen believes there is a very strong case for enticement and transmission of child pornography, and has reached out to the FBI and YouTube.
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Why do the men confronted on camera often stay and talk instead of leaving?
Hansen says some do bolt, but amazingly very few. He agrees with Mike that part of it is the authority figure controlling the situation, and says the men are busy trying to figure out how to get out of it until it switches over to wanting to get it off their chest after carrying a horrible secret for so long.
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