To Catch a Predator - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

To Catch a Predator is an American reality television

Reality television

Reality television is a genre of television programming that presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and usually features ordinary people instead of professional actors, sometimes in a contest or other situation where a prize is awarded...

series that features hidden camera

Hidden camera

A hidden camera is a still or video camera used to film people without their knowledge. The camera is "hidden" because it is either not visible to the subject being filmed, or is disguised as another object...

investigations by the television newsmagazine

Newsmagazine

A news magazine is a typed, printed, and published piece of paper, magazine or a radio or television program, usually weekly, featuring articles or segments on current events...

program Dateline NBC
Dateline NBC
Dateline NBC, or Dateline, is a U.S. weekly television newsmagazine broadcast by NBC. It previously was NBC's flagship news magazine, but now focuses on true crime stories. It airs Friday at 9 p.m. EST and after football season on Sunday at 7 p.m. EST.-History:Dateline is historically notable for...

. It is devoted to impersonating underage

Age of consent

While the phrase age of consent typically does not appear in legal statutes, when used in relation to sexual activity, the age of consent is the minimum age at which a person is considered to be legally competent to consent to sexual acts. The European Union calls it the legal age for sexual...

youth (generally ages 12–15) and detaining adults who contact them over the Internet for sexual liaisons. People are lured to meet with a decoy under the pretense of sexual contact and then confronted. Show host Chris Hansen

Chris Hansen

Christopher Edward "Chris" Hansen is an American television infotainment personality. He is known for his work on Dateline NBC, in particular the former segment known as To Catch a Predator, which revolved around catching potential Internet sex predators using a sting operation.-Career:Hansen...

emphasizes that these subjects should be labeled as potential sexual predator

Sexual predator

The term sexual predator is used pejoratively to describe a person seen as obtaining or trying to obtain sexual contact with another person in a metaphorically "predatory" manner. Analogous to how a predator hunts down its prey, so the sexual predator is thought to "hunt" for his or her sex partners...

s, and not pedophiles

Pedophilia

As a medical diagnosis, pedophilia is defined as a psychiatric disorder in adults or late adolescents typically characterized by a primary or exclusive sexual interest in prepubescent children...