Chris Hansen, the journalist who created the televised series To Catch A Predator, warns that the problem of adults preying on children for sex is growing at an alarming rate. 

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has reported that during the peak of the pandemic, inappropriate contacts between adults and children, predatory contacts, as well as the transmission of inappropriate material between adults and children shot up nearly 900%.

Indicative of the problem is the case of the former Virginia police officer accused of “catfishing” a teenage girl and murdering her grandparents and her mother.

“Catfishing” is a form of online deception in which someone pretends to be a different person.

Firefighters discovered the teen's family inside their burning home in Riverside, California. 

28-year-old Austin Edwards, the ex-cop, was killed in a shootout with San Bernadino County Sheriff’s deputies.   The teenage girl was not harmed. 

Hansen and investigative reporter Robert Riggs have encountered predators throughout their respective journalism careers. 

The journalism community has honored Chris Hansen with 10 Emmys and 5 Edward R. Murrow reporting Awards.

Chris has broken stories worldwide and is launching a new series, True Crime Nation, on the TruBlu Streaming Network. His To Catch A Predator series is now called TAKEDOWN. 

In this episode of True Crime Reporter®, Riggs and Hansen go inside the crime scene tape to remind parents that predators live online and that they need to have a conversation with their children about how to stay safe online and on social media.

We want to become your favorite true crime podcast. Please leave a review wherever you listen.

Join our true crime community and follow us here. 

The True Crime Reporter® podcast features stories about serial killers, mass murderers, murder mysteries, homicides, cold cases, prisons, violent criminals, serial rapists, child abductors, child molesters, kidnappers, bank robbers, cyber criminals, and assorted violent criminals.

True Crime Reporter® is a @2022 copyrighted and trade-marked production by True Crime Reporter®, LLC, in Dallas, Texas.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.