Chris Hansen: 22 Years of Catching Predators | Planet Tyrus

Summary

Planet Tyrus: "Chris Hansen: 22 Years of Catching Predators"

Podcast: Planet Tyrus
Host: Tyrus (Outkick)
Guest: Chris Hansen
Date: April 9, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this powerful and candid episode, host Tyrus welcomes legendary investigative reporter Chris Hansen for an unfiltered discussion on 22 years of exposing sexual predators, the evolution of online dangers facing children, and the ongoing battle to keep kids safe in a rapidly changing digital landscape. With his signature mix of humor, gravitas, and straight talk, Tyrus navigates the harrowing yet essential stories from Hansen’s career—spanning infamous "To Catch a Predator" stings to shocking modern cases involving platforms like Roblox. The pair dissect the alarming scale of the problem, debate societal and parental responsibility, and shine a spotlight on the failures—and sometimes willful ignorance—of tech giants.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Chris Hansen’s Legacy and The "To Catch a Predator" Origin Story

• Initial Approach (starts at 01:00):
  • Hansen reminisces about the early stings (beginning in 2004), the uncertainty of running such operations, and being unsure if anyone would show up.
  • "We didn't know what was going to happen. ... I'm driving out to the house and I'm thinking to myself, what if I've just blown tens of thousands of dollars of the network's money?" (Chris Hansen, 04:31)
• Evolution of Public Perception:
  • Tyrus reflects on viewing the show as dark humor when younger, but his attitude changed profoundly after becoming a parent.
  • “I saw the episodes again, and I didn't find anything funny about any of it.” (Tyrus, 04:00)

How the Predator Problem Has Worsened Online

• From Chat Rooms to Roblox (06:41):
  • Hansen outlines how things have only become more dangerous for children, with more platforms facilitating access to minors.
  • "Predators will go wherever the children are... The problem is way worse than it was 22 years ago." (Chris Hansen, 07:34)
• Recent Cases (08:17):
  • Describes a recent Louisiana sting with alarming ties to human trafficking and illegal immigration.
  • "Two men who showed up at the same time who we think were involved in a human trafficking operation. They're illegal immigrants from Honduras." (Chris Hansen, 08:59)

Corporate Irresponsibility & The Roblox Investigation

• Alarming Gaps in Platform Safety (11:13):
  • Hansen details his latest documentary, “Dangerous Games,” focusing on Roblox's failures to protect children, including a requirement that parents sign NDAs and waive legal rights.
  • "Why won’t Roblox allow law enforcement to come on the platform and conduct investigations? ... Why do they make parents sign an NDA and an agreement that they will never bring a legal claim against Roblox?" (Chris Hansen, 14:10)
• Profit Over Safety (18:25):
  • Both Tyrus and Hansen call out corporations for putting profit and engagement above children’s safety.
  • "Why wouldn't Roblox crack down even more...? Engagement runs a platform." (Chris Hansen, 18:28)
• A Parent’s Nightmare—A Case Study (19:03):
  • Hansen shares the story of a mother who uncovered her husband exploiting a child through Roblox and the lengths she took to protect the victim.
  • "She did this at great risk to herself... She calls the police and then reaches out on TikTok to me." (Chris Hansen, 19:34)

The Role of Parents—and Digital Vigilance

• Parent Responsibility (21:34):
  • Tyrus stresses that parents can't abdicate responsibility to technology.
  • “You cannot use the tablet as a babysitter.” (Tyrus, 21:34)
  • Hansen adds: "At the end of the day, you’re the only one who can put the fence up around your yard." (Chris Hansen, 22:19)
• Dangers of Sextortion (22:57):
  • Discussion of how social shame can lead exploited kids to suicide, and the critical importance of fostering open communication at home.
  • "I've seen too many kids get caught up in the moment and commit suicide. ... They couldn't get past that 15 minutes of shame." (Chris Hansen, 23:53)

Prosecuting Predators and Systemic Inequity

• The Mixed Results of Justice (32:06):
  • Hansen reflects on uneven prosecution across jurisdictions, using examples from Florida, Louisiana, and Michigan.
  • "Some guys are getting caught and spending, you know, a matter of days in jail. But at least, at least they've been exposed on my network..." (Chris Hansen, 35:12)
• Redemption and Recidivism (33:28):
  • Few offenders turn their lives around, and Hansen supports strong penalties, especially in severe cases.
  • "I've also realized that a lot of these guys are never going to change... The death penalty is necessary here [in severe cases]." (Chris Hansen, 33:50)

The Challenge of Platform Accountability and Journalism Ethics

• Hansen’s Unique Approach (41:03):
  • Rather than sensationalizing, Hansen emphasizes his method: let the perpetrators speak for themselves, to understand the psychology.
  • “If you decide where the interview is going before you do the interview, you're not going to extract the kind of information that you want to.” (Chris Hansen, 39:55)
• Notable Quote on Corporate Responsibility:
  • "If I were Roblox, I'd invite a reporter into their world, show them what happened. ... The fact that they wouldn’t do that... tells me they're either afraid or arrogant." (Chris Hansen, 37:13; also 14:10)

Cultural Impact & Humor

• "Have a seat" Catchphrase:
  • Transpires organically, born out of a need to control the room during confrontations, and becomes iconic.
  • "That started just spontaneously by trying to gain some control over the room." (Chris Hansen, 46:29)
• Humor Amid Horror:
  • Both Tyrus and Hansen acknowledge that a certain dark humor is required to process such evils, but lines are drawn at making light of victims.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments (w/ Timestamps)

• On realizing the severity of the issue:
  • "Should have been a wake up call to everyone." (Tyrus, 04:24)
• On platform accountability:
  • "Predators will go wherever the children are ... the problem is way worse today than it was 22 years ago." (Chris Hansen, 07:34)
• On Roblox’s legal maneuvers:
  • "When they ask parents... why do they make parents sign an NDA... Why is that necessary if we're going to have an open discussion about security?" (Chris Hansen, 14:10)
• On parent responsibility:
  • "At the end of the day, you're the only one who can put the fence up around your yard..." (Chris Hansen, 22:19)
• On cases that haunt:
  • "He gets his son, four or five year old son, by the hand and leads him up the driveway... I know why you're here and you know why you're here, and I'm not going to put you through it in front of your child, but you need to get out of here now." (Chris Hansen, 31:06)
• On predators' psychology:
  • "They're self absorbed and they are able to convince themselves that in this particular instance, it's okay for them to do it. They know it's wrong. ...They've already come up with their story if they get caught." (Chris Hansen, 56:29)

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Audience Q&A Highlights

• Why do predators keep showing up even after so much publicity?
  • "Now we're getting guys who, in the chat, will say, is this a Chris Hansen investigation?... and they still show up." (Chris Hansen, 52:14)
• On vigilante predator catchers:
  • "I think some guys have not gone away because of their methods and that concerns me. ...That is why we have such a successful prosecution rate." (Chris Hansen, 57:30)
• Weirdest chat handle?
  • "It's a hundred way tie for first, right? But as you can imagine, there's some very graphic, there's some perversely funny." (Chris Hansen, 58:29)

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Conclusion & Takeaways

Stepping boldly into the modern dangers of digital childhood, Chris Hansen's crusade is as urgent as ever. He and Tyrus agree: awareness, vigilance, and open family communication are the best defense against predators who never stop adapting. Corporate platforms like Roblox must be held accountable, but so, too, must parents and communities. The fight is long from over—as technology evolves, so do threats, but Hansen’s efforts and determined reporting remain a vital force for safety and social accountability.

Recommendation: Check out Chris Hansen’s latest documentary “Dangerous Games” on True Blue (watchtrueblue.com), especially for parents concerned about online grooming via gaming platforms.

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This episode is a can’t-miss for anyone who cares about the safety of children in the digital age—combining hard-hitting journalism, lived parental wisdom, and the unforgettable stories from Chris Hansen’s pioneering career.

Transcript

[Tyrus]

There's no one like you and there never will be.

From the producer, Bohemian Rhapsody.

[Chris Hansen]

There are many legends, but there is only One Michael. Rated PG13. In theaters April 24th. I finally said, there's a man on your back porch with his genitals in his hand and he's trying to have sex with your daughter.

[Tyrus]

You cannot use the tablet as a babysitter.

[Chris Hansen]

No. The things we found about Roblox are shocking.

[Tyrus]

Why is this not a bigger story? So obviously legendary. Chris Hansen.

[Chris Hansen]

And

[Tyrus]

you, you already weren't a great investigative reporter. You know, you covered Oklahoma City. Oklahoma City bombings, the Union bomber investigation. Ava. Like you have done. Your resume is quite impressive. Yes.

[Chris Hansen]

Do a lot of stuff. Yeah.

[Tyrus]

And then. But you're most known for.

[Chris Hansen]

Absolutely.

[Tyrus]

The Catch a Predator. But it's funny how it. It changed for me, personally, because originally, you guys started in, what, 2002 or something like 2000.

[Chris Hansen]

2004.

[Tyrus]

2004.

[Chris Hansen]

So it was 22 years this month that we did the very first that

[Tyrus]

you started doing these investigations. So when I first watched them, I watched him as a. As a single guy.

[Chris Hansen]

Yeah.

[Tyrus]

With no kids.

[Chris Hansen]

Sure. And it was dark humor and. Dark humor.

[Tyrus]

And it was like. I remember I would. The guy who was like, I just came to get something to eat. And literally, you guys, you caught him. This was even before the police were involved. You let. You know, you called him out. He was naked when you walked in the room.

[Chris Hansen]

Second investigation outside of Washington, D.C. and you expose him. He exposed himself.

[Tyrus]

He exposed himself and you exposed him. Then he leaves and literally calls your people to say, hey, there's. It's a setup. Meet me at McDonald's the next day.

[Chris Hansen]

Well, he got caught again.

[Tyrus]

And you caught him again.

[Chris Hansen]

Yeah. So he goes at our decoys. In those days, it was Perverted justice, an online watchdog group had another decoy in another chat room. And he found them, and they came downstairs and they said, you won't believe this. Remember the guy yesterday? I walked in naked. I said, hard to forget.

[Tyrus]

Yeah.

[Chris Hansen]

He said, he's back in the chat room and he wants to meet. I said, well, he's not gonna come back to this house, obviously. And then I'm thinking, it's the last day of the sting. What if we miss somebody who comes over while I'm out doing this? I said, it's worth the risk. Tell him we'll meet him in at McDonald's, a couple miles from here. So they set up the meeting. We go, I've got two TV crews with me. We see him Pull up in his red pickup truck. He goes into the McDonald's to meet the kid. We walk up on him, and he comes out and I say to him the only thing I could think of, which was, I've been in this business 24 years and I've very rarely been at a loss for words, but I don't know what to ask you first.

[Tyrus]

I could feel the. The almost disgust in anger, but that's a natural.

[Chris Hansen]

You see this guy walk in naked, right? And these guys always make themselves the victim. Victim, Right. So he said, oh, I'm sorry. Now he doesn't know whether I'm the man, the cop, or whatever. And I give him towel that was on the top of the refrigerator the producers had set aside for me. And, you know, I've been prepared for a lot of things in my career, but never a naked guy walking into a Sting house.

[Tyrus]

Yeah.

[Chris Hansen]

There to meet who so clearly was willing to explode. To exploit a young boy.

[Tyrus]

And, you know, I remember I was at that time, I was in WWE Developmental, and we were. We watched it without fail, but we were laughing at it, you know, at the guys. And we. We even did for promo class, we did spoofs, like To Catch a Bad Wrestler and, you know, all these things. And then I had children.

[Chris Hansen]

That changes it, doesn't it?

[Tyrus]

And I saw the episodes again, and I didn't find anything funny about any of it.

[Chris Hansen]

No.

[Tyrus]

And it was disgusting. And. And I think maybe that was. I don't want to say it became a tool that you look back now, you were way ahead of your time telling the people that this stuff is dangerous happening everywhere.

[Chris Hansen]

Right.

[Tyrus]

And you were the only person. And. And I look back and like, man, this was. Should have been a wake up call to everyone.

[Chris Hansen]

Well, we didn't know what was going to happen. Tyrus. I mean, we went out to do the very first Sting, as you mentioned, 22 years ago, this very month. And we did it out in Bethpage, Long Island, 40 minutes from here. Right. We rented a house. Perverted justice, the online watchdog group, came out and I thought, well, look, if we can wire this house and have them be the decoy and these guys would show up, we could confront them and it could be pretty compelling. But I didn't know it was actually gonna work. So I'm driving out to the house and I'm thinking to myself, what if I've just blown tens of thousands of dollars of the network's money? What if nobody shows up? And with that, my producer calls and says, where the Hell are you? We've got two guys scheduled to show up in 45 minutes. So we get there and immediately we're off to the races. First guy shows up and I've done a lot of edgy interviews and crazy stories all around the world. Africa, India, Asia, Thailand, you know, dark spots. And I'm, you know, my heart is in my throat. We get through the first one and they just leave. Law enforcement wasn't involved. We had a security guy, Ronnie Knight was there, my security guy, to make sure everybody was okay.

[Tyrus]

But they left and went right back to.

[Chris Hansen]

And they went right back to their life. So the second guy comes in, same thing, third guy comes in and, and at this point, the transcripts of the chats which are being printed out right there in the sting house, are a mess. So I come out with the wrong transcripts and I say to the guy, it says here you wanted to do blank, blank, blank to this girl. No, it's not me. Hang on, come back. Second set of transcripts. A 13 year old named Beth. No, it's not me. A 14 year old named Suzanne. Yeah, that's me. Okay, great, we can get. And finally he just says, okay, that's me. And we do the interview. So at the end of those two and a half days, 17 men surfaced in that first investigation, including a New York City firefighter who was the only one who criminally prosecuted from the sting. The FBI picked up that case and ultimately there was a guilty plea. And we confronted him outside the firehouse eventually. But you know, I thought, holy hell, if we can do this in two and a half days.

[Tyrus]

Right.

[Chris Hansen]

And remember in, in 2004, we were only conducting these stings with chat rooms, in chat rooms on AOL and Yahoo and maybe MySpace. Well, think about what has happened in the last 22 years.

[Tyrus]

Yeah, it's. As a parent, it's shocking.

[Chris Hansen]

I mean, we just finished an investigation and documentary on Roblox. The online gaming community.

[Tyrus]

Yes. And I used to play with that with my kids and I couldn't delete it fast enough.

[Chris Hansen]

So the first hour of the documentary dropped a few weeks ago on my streaming crime network, True Blue. The second hour will drop in a few days. And it was shocking to me that you have this kids game with characters that appear to be so innocent, like LEGO characters.

[Tyrus]

Right.

[Chris Hansen]

But I guess it just goes to show that predators will go wherever the children are. So people ask, is the problem worse today than it was 22 years ago? The answer is yes, it's way worse because there are so many different platforms. There's more access upon which adults can approach children. But if you had asked me 22 years ago how long we'd be doing this, I figured, well, maybe two, three, four times maybe. And who's gonna show up? They'd be so embarrassed. And here we are, hundreds and hundreds of guys later, 22 years later, and we are out every month doing an investigation. We work exclusively with law enforcement agencies now because it makes for a much cleaner prosecution. Yes, the custody. The chain of custody of evidence is much cleaner. So the decoys are law enforcement, and we are embedded with them, and we tell the story. And we work a little differently with each different law enforcement agency, but it's still very compelling. And we were just out two weeks ago in Louisiana with the Livingston Parish Sheriff's Office. Great crew. They all are. And, you know, seven guys show up in three days, including two men who showed up at the same time who we think were involved in a human trafficking operation. They're illegal immigrants from Honduras. And one hid in the car while the other came in. And as I'm confronting him inside the sting house, the other guy beats feet. Now, we think the guy inside texted him. He was pretending to use a translation app, but he was telling the guy, get out of here. So he goes out, obviously, there's surveillance all over the place. They give chase. He t bones an undercover sheriff's truck. They take him into custody. But we think now, and we're still sorting through it, and it'll be on True Blue very soon, that they were going to try to kidnap this girl.

[Tyrus]

Because that's one of the things that I was curious about when the borders were just wide open.

[Chris Hansen]

Yes.

[Tyrus]

Have you seen?

[Chris Hansen]

Absolutely, we have seen it.

[Tyrus]

We have seen because, yes, they come from countries where.

[Chris Hansen]

They come from Honduras, Ecuador, you know, throughout South America. We've seen in almost every sting, somebody gets arrested who should not be in this country. And so, you know, what percentage of them? A small percentage given the overall. But, I mean, we've had quite a few and shocking examples. We had again, in an earlier sting in Louisiana, we had a guy show up. 2. One was a Chinese national who was here for eight years studying opera at Louisiana State University. Another who was already on HSI Homeland Security's radar during a human trafficking investigation, ferrying people back and forth from the airport. They already had him as a suspect, and he shows up in our sting to violate, to exploit a teenager.

[Tyrus]

You know what concerns me? Because, one, I don't understand why you have not been given some form of Major award.

[Chris Hansen]

Well, I get you're not doing that, but I'm sorry. My award is the fact that we create awareness and a dialogue that helps parents protect their children, that educates people on the dangers of a gaming platform like Roblox. I mean, the things we found about Roblox are shocking.

[Tyrus]

Why is this not a bigger story?

[Chris Hansen]

Well, I think it is a bigger story. I mean, we do it on True Blue. I come on shows like this and talk about it.

[Tyrus]

I'm sure everyone understands where they can find it on the streaming network.

[Chris Hansen]

Right. Watch trueblue.com yeah. And take down as a series. But I mean, you know, Fox is very gracious about getting the message out. I mean, I go on Jesse Watters primetime show.

[Tyrus]

I understand that.

[Chris Hansen]

I mean, we get a lot of recognition.

[Tyrus]

We see it from very conservative stuff. But I'm saying, like, shouldn't this be something that there. You should have a lot of competition. Shouldn't there be different?

[Chris Hansen]

Well, there are vigilante predators who go out and they make Internet content.

[Tyrus]

Yeah.

[Chris Hansen]

That doesn't. That's a different deal.

[Tyrus]

Being the guy up in the, in this, in Walmart isn't helping anyone.

[Chris Hansen]

Every time I talk about this, I get, you know, people protesting online. You're trying to shut us down. I'm not trying to shut anybody down. But what I can tell you is that we have a 99 plus.

[Tyrus]

You send them where they need to go in that situation.

[Chris Hansen]

Successful prosecution.

[Tyrus]

Yeah.

[Chris Hansen]

Right.

[Tyrus]

Yeah.

[Chris Hansen]

Now, I'm not going to put hands on these guys.

[Tyrus]

No.

[Chris Hansen]

Because assault is not. That's not what we do.

[Tyrus]

You're not helping the problem.

[Chris Hansen]

We let the law enforcement.

[Tyrus]

Yes.

[Chris Hansen]

Take care of what law enforcement is supposed to take care of. But, you know, again, you know, we do get a lot of attention on

[Tyrus]

this, and I know that, but I'm what I'm.

[Chris Hansen]

And I think it's like we haven't

[Tyrus]

seen a cultural shift on any platform. I know there was just the. The verdict came out, the meta verdict,

[Chris Hansen]

which I think is significant.

[Tyrus]

Significant.

[Chris Hansen]

But what I've learned, Tyrus, is that so much of this is driven by obviously, money. These are private corporations and in our capitalist society, everybody needs to create commerce and do business. True Blue Mystery Crime Network, that's a business. We make money. This podcast makes money. This show, Fox News makes money. That's what we're supposed to be doing. But when you have the responsibility for so many vulnerable children, if you run an amusement park, if kids are flying off a ride at an amusement park, left and right, they have a responsibility to make that ride safer so kids aren't flying off the ride. Roblox has a similar responsibility here. And I am sure shocked after multiple calls and background briefings with this company that they did not do an on camera interview. And what it tells me is that they're either afraid of what I'm going to ask them or they're arrogant. And because they created this world, this online society, they know what's best for it and they don't have to be held accountable. Now they've enacted safety precautions, facial recognition, age verification to try to prevent adults from contacting children. But we've seen these circumvented over and over again. And so I've come to the conclusion that law enforcement is doing its best. And in the documentary that people can see also on True Blue, you'll see a detective in Marion County, Florida, who probably is one of the most knowledgeable detectives in law enforcement today when it comes to roadblocks. And it's complicated. But you see these kids get so exploited, so victimized, and their only recourse, I mean, yes, they can bring a criminal case, but the only thing that's going to bring attention to this in many cases are civil lawsuits. Right. And we've seen, for instance, one law firm which we've dealt with in Chicago, who represents a guy named Schlepp, who's an online character, who's been an advocate for safety on Roblox, who he himself was victimized by a predator at a young age. When we started investigating and interviewing for this last summer, this one law firm in Chicago had 500 cases. Since then it's grown to like 3,000. And that's not the only law firm representing plaintiffs against Roblox. And so why won't Roblox allow law enforcement to come on the platform and conduct investigations? They won't. Why? When they ask parents to be part of the Parents Champion program and have input into these safety and security measures, why do they make parents sign an NDA, a non disclosure agreement, and an agreement that they will never bring a legal claim against Roblox or any of its employees. Why is that necessary if we're going to have an open discussion about security?

[Tyrus]

And that's one of the things that I'm with the Internet, the fake accounts, especially the fake. And it happens a lot to my fan base.

[Chris Hansen]

Right, sure.

[Tyrus]

Where the fake Tyrus on Facebook is,

[Chris Hansen]

happens to me daily.

[Tyrus]

We're always looking for My wife took my money away. I'm trying to get divorced. Can you send me $250 and you send it to, you know, all these die hard fans, they think it's you.

[Chris Hansen]

Yeah. And, but, oh, trust me, I am well aware.

[Tyrus]

But I am also well aware that the companies are aware of these fake accounts because when they make it. So I'm like, wait a minute, I don't even have a Facebook account at all. And my wife handles all my social media and she's reaching out.

[Chris Hansen]

My wife handles much of mine and

[Tyrus]

she's reaching out going, he doesn't have an account. Why are there all these videos? AI videos being made of him, or hey, it's Tyrus. This is my new thing. And yet they're getting them shut down. She got an answer one time back where they said, well, he has more followers for you. So we believe that's the real Tyrus because you don't have an account. And she was like, it's my husband.

[Chris Hansen]

I've seen the show. You've got people. We've done videos on TikTok. For instance, I've got to be the only 66 year old in America who's got a million TikTok followers.

[Tyrus]

Yeah. I don't even have TikTok.

[Chris Hansen]

But even I get limited sometimes because of the language used. Predator, exploitation, things like that. And that's fine. I mean, I'm not using it to, to, to make money. I'm using it to bring attention to my content on my network and to get people's attention so they, they protect their kids. Right. But I can tell you there are people on TikTok who are exploiting the fact that, for instance, they're married to somebody who's in prison for possessing child pornography. Right. A bad guy.

[Tyrus]

Yes.

[Chris Hansen]

And the wife is out there saying, oh, he's been victimized, he's wronged, and all her content gets monetized and she's making money hand over fist exploiting the fact that she's married to a guy who exploited children. Now you make sense out of that.

[Tyrus]

I'm not, I can't.

[Chris Hansen]

That Costco shouldn't be on TikTok.

[Tyrus]

Yeah, and that's like I was when they were talking about, you know, TikTok going away. I was all in for it. I was all for it. And again, I feel like if you have an id, you can get a social media account. If you don't, it needs to be, it needs to be. They all like, blue check, blue check. We need a red check. Not verified.

[Chris Hansen]

Right.

[Tyrus]

Not safe. Unknown this 13 year old girl because there's a 45 year old man pretending to be a 13 year old girl to lure some young boy on the thing to come meet him somewhere. I refuse to believe that they're not aware. And I think a lot of it is, it's just so much money.

[Chris Hansen]

Well, it's engagement.

[Tyrus]

Yes.

[Chris Hansen]

Why wouldn't Roblox crack down even more than it has? It limits engagement and Engagement runs a

[Tyrus]

guy on there that will have 13, 14 accounts. You got 3,000 pedophiles with 15 accounts with different pretending to be different ages of children. That's very lucrative. Opposed to just if it was just four kids.

[Chris Hansen]

We have a portion of the documentary devoted to this woman, the mother of two or three kids. The daughter caught the dad chatting with a child on Roblox. She alerts the mother who confronts him, finds the chats and it turns out this man in Hollingen, Texas is going on Roblox and is sexting, grooming and taking advantage of exploiting a vulnerable 15 year old girl in California because this woman was so adamant about exposing her husband. Now she did this at great risk to herself. Yeah. Financially, physically, family wise.

[Tyrus]

That's not something he's going to walk away from.

[Chris Hansen]

No. She calls the police, he's a sex

[Tyrus]

offender the rest of his life.

[Chris Hansen]

She calls the police and then reaches out on TikTok to me. And this is why I have all these social media accounts. Because many times people don't know how to reach out to me or my producer or my network or my agent, but they can find me on TikTok or on Instagram or on X. So I keep a lively presence there for this reason. So this woman Alyssa, reaches out on TikTok. I think my wife saw it first and says, you should contact this woman. I do. Tells me the whole story. She's got the chats, the whole thing. She does the detective work to find out who this girl's mother is in California. No easy task. Uses social media, figures it out, calls the mom, says this is what happened. The mom's shocked. They get the statement, they go to the police. I interview her. I go to the place of work where the husband is, all this is in the documentary. And I confront him in the parking lot of the retail store where he works and he's oh, I'm having a tough time and I'm going through divorce. And then I pull out the text chat and I confront him with it. Oh, okay, that was nothing. Well, they finally prosecute him. They arrested him also. We have that on camera. So it's this organic connection you have with people who have important stories to tell. I mean, it's a two edged sword. Obviously the social media platforms create an opportunity for adults to exploit children. That's horrible. But it also creates an opportunity for those people to come to me to show what's going on and to create dialogue and awareness and get some sense of justice for these people.

[Tyrus]

I think for me, the frustrating thing is that there could be more done from the parent side of things.

[Chris Hansen]

Well, I think that's.

[Tyrus]

I think we. You can't. That's about one without the other. Absolutely. You have to parent. You cannot use the tablet as a babysitter. No, it's not Generation X. It's not us worrying about the guy with the van on the corner with wine coolers and snicker bars.

[Chris Hansen]

Well, you still have to worry about that. It's there, but it takes a different.

[Tyrus]

Now he can literally sit from the comfort of his home. Yeah.

[Chris Hansen]

And be right there.

[Tyrus]

Be right there in your home.

[Chris Hansen]

Yeah. While you were busy. It's, you know, my guys are 34 and about to be 32 now. So the worst thing we had to deal with was like World of Warcraft. Right. I can't go to bed now. The guys depend on me. You tell your guys you're going to bed because you're a sophomore in high school. Get to bed. Or whatever age they were at the time. Now it's different. And it's 247 and you don't have to be on a desktop. You could be on your phone. And I tell people all the time, especially parents and I do a fair amount of speaking on this. It's like, look, law enforcement cares about this. They are working day and night 24 7. At every level of law enforcement. I'm doing the best I can. Other people are doing the best they can to expose this. But at the end of the day, you're the only one who can put the fence up around your yard. You're the only one who can peer over the shoulder or who can get some software, a bark phone system where you can be alerted if your child is giving away personal information. But the most important thing, we've got a documentary coming out next on sextortion and how these poor kids are being taken advantage of and sometimes driven to suicide at very young ages. These kids don't see a way out of it. Sometimes they make a commitment to go do something they know is inappropriate intellectually, but they're going to go through with it because they said they would. They put something out There and then worry about that damaging their image on social media, their identity on social media. And it's everything to a lot of these kids today. And so we see these horrible things happen to these kids because they're afraid to go to their parents. And you have to create an environment where if something happens to your kid online, whether it's their fault or not, you have to create the environment where they can come to you as a parent and say, dad, Mom, I messed up. I screwed up. This is what I did.

[Tyrus]

I sent a picture to this person. What do I do?

[Chris Hansen]

I've seen too many kids get caught up in the moment and commit suicide. Kids who should be in college, in their third year, playing sports and dating and doing all the important stuff you do in college, who are dead now because they couldn't get past that 15 minutes of shame.

[Tyrus]

Right.

[Chris Hansen]

Worried that Graham is going to see my junk because I sent it to somebody I thought was a girl, but it was really a Nigerian con artist,

[Tyrus]

you know, who's blackmailing me now.

[Chris Hansen]

He's blackmailing me now. Nobody cares. At the end of the day, the national center for Missing Exploited Children has an entire program to help you scrub the Internet. And by the way, nobody cares. You care, because you're the kid who's in the center of the storm.

[Tyrus]

Right.

[Chris Hansen]

The world's not going to judge you on this.

[Tyrus]

And that makes sense.

[Chris Hansen]

And the parent has to. It starts at home. I have sat across too many parents whose kids kill themselves in a moment of shame. And I'm convinced beyond any doubt that this has to be the key to it. And I will hold these social media platform companies responsible and these gaming companies responsible, and I'll be on their tails the rest of my career. But at the end of the day, the parents got to really be on

[Tyrus]

top of this, you know, And I. And some of that is you got to look in the mirror.

[Chris Hansen]

Absolutely. And if you're on your phone the whole time, what example is that setting

[Tyrus]

for the kids exactly? You know, shouldn't be phones at the dinner table. No, but you have to. You got to turn. You got to turn it off.

[Chris Hansen]

Yeah. And I do it in my own life because, I mean, I got to get away from it from time to time. And I don't care whether it's going to lunch with my mom or skiing down a hill with my sons or whatever it is, because how you got to get away from it.

[Tyrus]

We have seen things that would turn stomachs that would. People lose, would never be the same again. How do you balance.

[Chris Hansen]

I'm blessed, right? So I have a very normal life. Right. You know, we're very comfortable. We get to do a lot of neat stuff. And I'm just blessed with the ability to compartmentalize work and home life. And so my identity is closely tied to work, just like yours is. That's what we do. I'm a brand. You're a brand. You have to accept that. You have to accept that there's a certain amount of ego in what we do, and that ego protects us and allows us to do what we do. And look, a lot of the allure for people who consume my content is the dark sense of humor to it. And I lean into that. And as much as I think it's appropriate to be comical and have some humor with it, I do it. And I don't think there's anything wrong with that. And I don't mean any disrespect by it, but because I'm in the streaming world now, I can get away with that. And I have a longer leash to do it, and I exploit that in my own.

[Tyrus]

With being in streaming, you're also you in control of your content.

[Chris Hansen]

We own the content. We own the distribution content. I can decide what shows I want to do. That story, I mean, we used to go through. When we did the first investigation, we did it in March of, as I said, 2004. It did not air till September of that year. And they were nervous. They knew what they had was important. It was compelling. It was something that had never been seen on television. But they were afraid a little bit. And finally we were in an editorial meeting and I lost my cool. And an executive said, how are we going to tease this? And I finally said, there's a man on your back porch with his genitals in his hand, and he's trying to have sex with your daughter. Tonight, we're going to show you how to stop that from happening. Hanson's lost his mind. Finally. It's gotten to him. But they understood it. It's pretty cool. And a few weeks later, the first episode. Aaron,

[Tyrus]

are you more comfortable now with it, with being on streaming where you can. Like I said, there's nothing you can't tackle because there's. I imagine there has to be a lot of pushback with. Especially with the way the climate is now, where you're correlating the mistakes with the border have only added more fuel to this fire.

[Chris Hansen]

Well, I'm very fortunate because I have a lot of places where my content.

[Tyrus]

This should be a Non Biden. Nonpartisan.

[Chris Hansen]

I'm pro justice.

[Tyrus]

Yeah. It should be like, get the bad guy out. It shouldn't be. Well, hey, it's unfair that you're, you're, you're blaming a few bad immigrants for the whole.

[Chris Hansen]

Right. And I had pushback on that. On social media. Look, you know, it's, it's somebody, you know, said once, oh, Twitter's not going to. X is not going to like that. Well, a lot of people on those social media platforms don't like it. If you don't like it, you should. But you can't worry about trolls and all that stuff. But I, I'm lucky because I have multiple platforms. Yeah. I've got two podcasts. I have one podcast, Predators I've Caught, that is dedicated to the previous cases. And I update people on, on, on what's happened to these guys. The other one, have a seat with Chris Hansen, talks about all kinds of things, from Epstein to any other investigative reporting that I care to do. Anything I want to dig into. We've got the presence here in this building. We get to appear on Fox. We have our own network. So really, from that standpoint, I don't feel that I'm held back at all. I mean, if somebody wants to see what we're doing, it's pretty easy to see it.

[Tyrus]

Yeah. And I think, and, But I think that's important that people know that it, that it's out there. Now. You're connected to this, but I don't think you've ever lost the respect as a journalist, which is a term you use loosely now.

[Chris Hansen]

Yeah.

[Tyrus]

Because telling the story without your own personal influence, I think is one of the things that you have always been phenomenal at in a situation that's not easy.

[Chris Hansen]

Yeah.

[Tyrus]

Because you're a husband, you're a father, you're, you know, what the intent, if you weren't there, what their intent, what was going to happen? And you've always maintained your professionalism. Which one. And you've done so many. Which one was the one that was. I. I can remember the one with the man who brought his kid. I remember.

[Chris Hansen]

Oh, yeah. That was shocking.

[Tyrus]

That was tough. That was in Fort Myers, Florida. That also changed my attitude from.

[Chris Hansen]

This is. It changed mine. I mean, we were in Fort Myers, Florida. It was the last day of the sting. He was the last guy to show up. And as you can imagine, the guys who work with me have been around the world with me.

[Tyrus]

You've seen it all.

[Chris Hansen]

Some of the darkest parts of the world on all Kinds of crazy, wild investigations. And he pulls up at his SUV and he goes to the back door on the driver's side. We think he's going to get pizza or, you know, wine coolers, whatever it is.

[Tyrus]

Yeah.

[Chris Hansen]

And he gets his, his son, four or five year old son by the hand and leads him up the driveway and people are going crazy inside, say, oh my God, do you see this? What's going to do? And I don't think he was going to involve the child in a sex act, but I think he was going to set him aside to watch a video while he got it on with this teenage boy. So he walks in and I said to him, I know why you're here and you know why you're here, and I'm not going to put you through it in front of your child, but you need to get out of here now. And of course the police were waiting and a female officer gently picked up the child and they arrested him. His wife was working that day at a retail store, a high end retail store, and his only job was to spend the day with his child. And this is what he decided to do. The court and the Department of Child and Family Services in Florida made him leave the house because of the crime.

[Tyrus]

Yeah, he's. Well, he's.

[Chris Hansen]

The wife took him back in, what, and let the child live with a relative and they had another child together. And people were so offended in Florida government that I would get regular reports from folks telling me what's going on with this guy. But it's just, and that's part of the story. Tyrus is the collateral damage. This isn't just one guy, right? No, no, He's a representative trying to harm a child. There's a whole, it's almost like a

[Tyrus]

society, this underground society.

[Chris Hansen]

Well, you look at the Epstein case. Yeah. I mean, did we, we knew it was bad, we knew it was horrible. We did a documentary on Peter Nygaard. You know, it was another billionaire who was involved in all this stuff. But I mean, you could, you could spend the rest of a career, unfortunately, some journalists are doing that. I'm trying to do my part going through the Epstein files and, and the extent to which these guys were involved and had power and, you know, thought this was okay, and running human trafficking rings and, you know, all kinds of other things, it just, it's stunning, I guess.

[Tyrus]

And here's the other thing. Have you, with all the, the, the predators that you have gotten off the streets, has there been any redemption? Has there been anyone where like they've gotten treatment or they've, Yeah, I, I,

[Chris Hansen]

I, I hear stories and we've done some episodes of the podcast where guys have figured it out, knew that they were obviously wrong, committed a crime and went on to lead crime free lives. But I've also realized that a lot of these guys are never going to change.

[Tyrus]

Right.

[Chris Hansen]

And I never used to be a big death penalty advocate. And I get into this conversation with Sheriff Grady Judd down in Polk county and I've known him for 40 some years when he was a lieutenant Grady Judd and I was a reporter in Tampa, Florida in the 80s. And he's adamant that the death penalty is necessary here. And I've come to the conclusion that it is in severe cases and not just to take the life of somebody who's going to exploit another child potentially, but it gives prosecutors a very important tool. And a lot of these cases end up in plea bargains.

[Tyrus]

Right.

[Chris Hansen]

The guy will plead guilty, take five years, 10 years, whatever it is. If there's child pornography involved, it could be much longer. It gives prosecutors a tool and leverage in a plea bargain situation. We'll take the death penalty off, but you're going away for 30 years.

[Tyrus]

Yeah. And I think that in itself and

[Chris Hansen]

these guys are learning that they'll lose if they go to trial. There was a guy who we caught in one of the Polk County, Florida investigations, bad guy, child porn. And they offered him a 10 year deal. He told him to go pounce hand. Well, he got convicted at trial. What did the judge do? Life, mandatory life.

[Tyrus]

Awesome.

[Chris Hansen]

So he's going away forever. Now we don't get this in every jurisdiction. We have stings that happen in some urban environments where prosecutors are overwhelmed and they're doing plea bargains left and right and some guys are getting caught and spending, you know, a matter of days in jail. But at least, at least they've been exposed on my network and in other places and at least they have to register as a sex offender. They're on probation and they're on the radar. Right. So I consider that a win. Not the biggest win, but it's a win.

[Tyrus]

Do you notice is there again, since we have dealing with all that we hear the blue cities, red cities, all that. Is there a different, do you notice significant difference between, let's say a sanctuary city where a person's arrested and a, and a, we don't really have red cities. Right.

[Chris Hansen]

But yeah, no, but I, I think they're, you know, the counties, prosecutors counties. Right. So I think that it's safe to say that In Florida, they're pretty tough. In Louisiana, they will now generally not accept a plea bargain for less than five years in prison. And I think that's a pretty good benchmark. In Michigan, depending on which county, and we work with a few. It's uneven, and that's just the reality. But they are having to register sex offenders, they are having to report. And God forbid they do it again then, right? They go.

[Tyrus]

It just. You would think again when it comes to our children. But it just. It's very frustrating because I feel like a lot of this, you can't. Bad. People are going to find a way

[Chris Hansen]

to be bad, of course, and it's the predators committing the crimes. And that was the frustrating thing in the Roblox investigation. A smart company who is facing scrutiny in the media. Like Boeing, for instance. Right? Boeing, years ago, we did a big story on the 737s. They're having problems, right?

[Tyrus]

The doors are falling apart.

[Chris Hansen]

They didn't hide.

[Tyrus]

No.

[Chris Hansen]

They invited me to come to their factory. They showed me how the big airplanes were made, how many miles of cables went into it. And then the appropriate executive sat down and said, look, we don't think the problem you're pointing to caused a fatal crash, but we understand it's a concern. And so here's what we've done to address that concern. And thank you for pointing other things out to us that we may or may not have known about. And then people can make their decision by viewing the work of journalism and decide for themselves. But they're smart to do that. We've caught people in all kinds of situations. And if you're going to be a good corporate citizen, you sit down and explain it. And if I were Roblox, I'd invite a reporter into their. Into their world, show them what happened.

[Tyrus]

25 adults this week alone. We're gonna keep.

[Chris Hansen]

Yeah, this ain't the place. We're putting the word out. This is not gonna be tolerated here. And by the way, Chris, remember, it's the predators committing these crimes, not the platform.

[Tyrus]

They're using our platform.

[Chris Hansen]

And that would be the end of the story and their involvement in it. But the fact that they wouldn't do that, and what they said was not on the record, but what they said on background was that it was because we interviewed Schlepp, who's this great character, smart young man who has caught predators on the platform, and because we interviewed some of the attorneys general who have filed lawsuits against Roblox. Well, of course we're going to interview Them.

[Tyrus]

Right. So the reasons for doing it was because it's a court issue. Like I always.

[Chris Hansen]

They, they said it was, it was, you know, it was sensational and that it was a hit piece. And that's not what we do.

[Tyrus]

Okay. But regardless, it's. It's not a hit piece saying that you, you're a MAGA or you're.

[Chris Hansen]

Well, take part. Take part in. If you're not arrogant or you're not afraid you're gonna take part in help because it's children. And my last line of them was, you know, we will accommodate anytime you want to talk to us.

[Tyrus]

And I think that's all you can do serious thing about when you come because you're. Like I said, you're. It's like the old west is. A real journalist is hard to find these days. Who you.

[Chris Hansen]

But we do our homework.

[Tyrus]

Yeah, but I don't know every opinion. I. Even in all these situations, I didn't ever like. Well, I know it. You never put your two cents on it. You never put your. You just tell the story. And I think that's why for 22 years when you do the interview, I've never watched you be like, well, he's gonna. Or like, oh, he's gonna get this. I have to make that decision for myself because I have to watch it. You present the facts.

[Chris Hansen]

Well, I don't know where the interview is going. If you decide where the interview is going before you do the interview, you're not going to extract the kind of information that you want to.

[Tyrus]

You let themselves.

[Chris Hansen]

I want to know what led them to do this. And very rarely, very rarely do we see these guys just clam up and not want to talk. And it's because of the approach. It's because I really am trying to understand still to this day why an adult would want to get with a child. I don't get it. And I've had this conversation with a lot of smart people and psychiatrists will try to explain it. And I understand the difference between a 20 year old predator and a 30 year old predator and a 50 year old predator. And the difference between a stone cold pedophile and somebody who wants to exploit a younger person to take advantage of them or somebody who's not as mature. I get all the stuff that goes into it. But at the end of the day, who wants to get with a child? I can't tell you the answer to that question.

[Tyrus]

I have a hard time understanding why, like I'm 53.

[Chris Hansen]

Yeah.

[Tyrus]

A guy my age would date a 20 year old. I just. And again, I'm not, it's. I'm not. I'm just saying that there's such a difference in maturity.

[Chris Hansen]

Right?

[Tyrus]

What the hell do you even. And again, I don't know because I've been married for 15 years. But when I see. Whenever they try to explain themselves, it's never about anybody else but them. And I always. And I equate a lot of things. I'm a big science and. And zoology nut and I'm always looking and I look at primates a lot, especially chimps when they. There's a good documentary on Netflix about the Angulo tribe and the behaviors and all this kind of stuff. And it always seems to be the same kind of thing. The. The males that act out. And we're seeing a uptick in women doing it now more than.

[Chris Hansen]

Well, that. I mean that's that we, we have a file this thick with cases and we'll get to it. We want to do some sort of a documentary or long form.

[Tyrus]

Is it just social struck? Is it that. That power that I'm not powerful among my peers or is it a chem. Like.

[Chris Hansen]

I think there's no single point failure. Yeah, right.

[Tyrus]

But it just seems to be a lot of different.

[Chris Hansen]

If you want. They're not all the same guy.

[Tyrus]

No, they're all different.

[Chris Hansen]

Now the women are more easy to categorize because what you see there are the teachers. And what the shrinks will tell you is that the reason we don't see female predators in our scenario is because the female predator doesn't like the anonymity. They like to know their target. Right. And so a teacher would know the student. So that's what you see. They know that they want that intimacy where the male predator gets off on the fact that there's this anonymity, this surprise. What am I going to find when I get there? And part of me has a little more sympathy for a 20 year old who's trying to meet at 14 or 15 year old. And maybe they're socially inept, but is it different or is it not? And I can't reconcile this because to me there's no difference in the level of danger presented by a 20 year old versus a 40 year old. It's the same damaging effect on a child's psyche. And every time I think that I've confronted somebody who's younger, like a 20 year old, and I think to myself maybe maybe I was too hard on him, maybe I should be more understanding. And they take him away and they go to search his backpack and what do they find in the backpack? A loaded gun. So what's gonna happen when this guy who talks in the chat about wanting to make a porn video with this girl, 14 or 15 year old girl, what's going to happen when it doesn't go his way or he doesn't want. What's he gonna do with the gun?

[Tyrus]

He's gonna kill her.

[Chris Hansen]

Right. So why is that 20 year old with a gun in his backpack any less dangerous than a 30 or 40

[Tyrus]

or 50 year old? You know what? And I'm sitting right here.

[Chris Hansen]

So he makes the movie.

[Tyrus]

He automatically.

[Chris Hansen]

He makes the movie.

[Tyrus]

He makes the movie and then puts a gun to her head. That's best case scenario, right? You've got tell anybody you're dead or I can't have any witnesses.

[Chris Hansen]

Because you don't, you don't know what's going to happen.

[Tyrus]

We don't know what happens. Right, but we know what shouldn't happen.

[Chris Hansen]

Yeah.

[Tyrus]

Because he shouldn't even be in there in the first place. So again, I think you're right. And before, I guess sometimes you look at it, you. I think a lot of times we try to put ourselves in the position.

[Chris Hansen]

Absolutely. And you can't because you would never act that way.

[Tyrus]

That's not right. You wouldn't act out that way. You. And you know, and I think that's the, that's the, I guess the human side of us is sometimes when you see somebody younger, you want to, you

[Chris Hansen]

try to apply some intellectual integrity or logic to it when there isn't any, there is none. And so you create deterrence, you know, and then.

[Tyrus]

Oh, I have to just to switch gears for a second because I was having an argument with my B team because the kids today, they don't research anything. And you know, it's funny because if I want to know what's going on with what's with children and real news, there's. There's you, but then there's the NFL, then there's the network and then that is your brother. Correct. Who does the red zone?

[Chris Hansen]

No.

[Tyrus]

Okay. Because he even tries to sound like you. Have you not noticed this? Because I'm like, wait, this guy?

[Chris Hansen]

No, he spells it, it's spelled different. It's H, A, N, S O, N. I've never met him. He seems like a wonderful guy. You're not the only guy who thinks that there might be some chance infringement. There's not a dissimilar presentation. I think he's a very Talented guy. He does a great job. I subscribe to the Red Zone, obviously. It's fantastic. But the only other relative of mine who's on television is Connor Hansen, my son, who's a correspondent for Fox Business and Fox news in Washington, D.C. yeah. Started right here at News Edge. Yeah.

[Tyrus]

So that's. Okay. So that is dispelled because I was. I thought. I can be honest with you.

[Chris Hansen]

Everybody does.

[Tyrus]

Looks like a young.

[Chris Hansen]

I understand.

[Tyrus]

No, he could be. Yeah.

[Chris Hansen]

He could be a brother, cousin. Absolutely.

[Tyrus]

And he has the same kind of.

[Chris Hansen]

Yeah. Cadence.

[Tyrus]

The cadence. I was like, okay, this is.

[Chris Hansen]

I got. I should reach out to him. We should do. We should do a bit together.

[Tyrus]

1,000%. You should tell him to have a seat.

[Chris Hansen]

Yeah.

[Tyrus]

That's still the greatest catchphrase of all. Have a seat.

[Chris Hansen]

And, you know, that started just spontaneously by trying to gain some control over the room.

[Tyrus]

And it did change the behavior because they're, I think, have a seat. Also let them know we're going to talk.

[Chris Hansen]

Right.

[Tyrus]

And you're. And I think the other thing is he's not going to kill me.

[Chris Hansen]

But I didn't think about that going into it. It just happened spontaneously because we happen to have a stool there where the camera is lined up, you know, but

[Tyrus]

it immediately diffused what could be an aggressive situation.

[Chris Hansen]

We had a guy in Ohio years ago who was a little person dwarf, and he showed up to meet a child, ended up having a horrible criminal history. He was a bad guy. In fact, the day after he showed up in the sting, he was due to be sentenced for inappropriate sexual behavior with a young relative. Right. So this guy shows up and he's standing at the bar, and I said, I'm going to need you. Get on the stool. He goes, no, I'm good right here. And I said, no, I'm going to need you. Because if he stayed there, he wasn't in the shot. He was a little person. So I said, fine. So he hops up there and we did the interview. But had he not been in the chair, he would have been out of the shot.

[Tyrus]

Again, not funny, but funny.

[Chris Hansen]

Well, it was humorous at the time.

[Tyrus]

Speaking of not funny, but funny, my. I have my gen zers. I'm trying to do a little Gen X with them. And they. When I. When we found out that you were willing to come on the show, they were like, can we ask them a couple questions?

[Chris Hansen]

Sure, they can.

[Tyrus]

So Ryan and Harry, they're the B team.

[Chris Hansen]

Yeah, I met him.

[Tyrus]

Ryan has. Has dreams of. Of interviewing and things like that. But I'm just going to warn you his, his questions colorful. He hasn't quite learned the art so bear with us. But yeah, thank you again. I have been, I've been watching you faithfully.

[Chris Hansen]

Well, I appreciate that Tyrus and big fan of yours. I appreciate it.

[Tyrus]

Well, thank you. That means a lot coming from you. But just real quick for people who haven't, if you've been under a rock, if you haven't checked it out. The True Blue streaming network he hosts he Takedown with Chris Hansen and True Crime Nation. True Blue describes takedowns and the continuation of his decade long, decades long efforts to expose online predators. And I don't know if you hear this enough but as a parent, thank you for.

[Chris Hansen]

Well, I appreciate it and that, that's, that's really the most important thing.

[Tyrus]

And there's a lot of us who look at things differently with the, with the star. The stark reality that you present to us.

[Chris Hansen]

To understand, folks should check out this Roblox documentary. It's called Dangerous Games. It's on, on True Blue MyStream of Crime Network. Watch trueblue.com tru b l u and

[Tyrus]

if we could get run the trailer on this podcast, that would be one.

[Chris Hansen]

I'll get it for you.

[Tyrus]

That would be great.

[Chris Hansen]

Yeah, no, I have it. I can thank you.

[Tyrus]

Get it to you right away. I will, I will catch it.

[Chris Hansen]

It's. It's very compelling. Yeah.

[Tyrus]

Yeah. And as a guy as like I said, as a father who used to play Roblox with his kids on there. Yeah, I had all, I had all four of my kids. We were all playing on there and then next thing I know I was deleted off everything and you'd be, you know the app keep wanting to pop up and it. And all of a sudden four different other versions of the game would pop up on their stuff. So it's a real, it's even as a parent when you think oh I got rid of it all, you have to stay on it.

[Chris Hansen]

Well, you'll see in the documentary one of the victims in our case was a 10 year old girl who was on Roblox without her parent who homeschooled this child even knowing that's how clever kids are about this stuff.

[Tyrus]

It's the. Because whenever you say don't or it's forbidden, they want to check out.

[Chris Hansen]

And the predator in this case was actually in the uk it's ubiquitous.

[Tyrus]

Yeah. Oh it's. But Roblox makes. So if you look at how much

[Chris Hansen]

money they make, billions and billions and

[Tyrus]

they Know if a guy is coming from the same IP address, gets 10 accounts. I mean, and some of these guys had up to 100. They were just, you know, because they. It is all. They have nothing else to do. They don't have. They don't have to stroll malls anymore or hang out at schools. They can, you know, and then they can have buddies.

[Chris Hansen]

Well, and then. Then they get the kids to do things and capture it on video, and then they can turn around and traffic that video or trade it for other videos.

[Tyrus]

And trade. Yeah. It's a whole underground, disgusting world. And thank you for shedding.

[Chris Hansen]

Well, I appreciate it.

[Tyrus]

And thank you, sir.

[Chris Hansen]

We'll continue.

[Tyrus]

Yes, we will. And please come back.

[Chris Hansen]

No, it's easy.

[Tyrus]

After the documentary stuff, I'd like to bring you back and talk about more. And I'll get you the trailer, too. That would be wonderful. Thank you so much.

[Chris Hansen]

All right, I'll do it right now.

[Tyrus]

Best of luck.

Have a seat. Are you big daddy 43?

[Chris Hansen]

That's what it says in the transcript.

[Tyrus]

That's what it says in the transcript. Chris. Ryan. Nice to meet you.

[Chris Hansen]

Ryan. Nice to see you.

[Tyrus]

I gotta say, I am a huge fan of yours. Thank you. I've. My fiance and I have probably watched every episode of Takedown. I think you're on what season? 18, 19 now. We watch it every night.

[Chris Hansen]

I mean, 200 episodes we have now. Yeah.

[Tyrus]

So I've watched about 200 episodes of the same show, and I just can't get enough of it. So, you know, I've loved all those moments from even, you know, Jeff Sokol, when you used to have the original. Yeah, the pizza guy. The guy. The Steelers and the Ravens. Yeah, I've been a huge fan. So I have a couple questions for you to get what Tyrus said. I think I'm a phenomenal interviewer. So the first question is. So you've been doing this for almost like 20 years, I'd say.

[Chris Hansen]

Right? Sure, 22.

[Tyrus]

Your clips are everywhere. It takes one clip to go viral. You've got 20 seasons of a show. How do guys keep doing the same crime with just. With how social media and everything is just blown up? How do guys keep doing this?

[Chris Hansen]

Well, it's shocking. I mean, again, I thought we'd do this for two or three investigations and who would show up, but now we're getting guys. Who in the chat will say, is this a Chris Hansen investigation? Is this a sheriff so and so investigation? Sheriff Grady Judd, or, you know, I read about this, and I know they work together and you know, a guy down in Louisiana sent the decoy posing as the girl. An article from the sting we had done in the same jurisdiction, Livingston Parish, Louisiana, said, you know, that Sheriff Jason Ard works with Chris Hansen. And he still showed up.

[Tyrus]

Yeah, it's crazy. And then I love. You know, when you show up, you have your funny line, which, by the way, I don't know if you, if these are just all on top of your head. It is hilarious. Some of the things that you say, like, oh, you enjoying that popcorn? Or oh, you get an extra piece of pizza for me, it's crazy the amount of guys that will sit there and say, oh, shit, you're Chris Hansen. You're like, I am Chris Hansen. And they still, still show up.

They know you, right?

And they'll still show up.

[Chris Hansen]

Well, that shows the drive that some

[Tyrus]

of these guys have.

It's crazy. It's sick. What would you say out of your whole career, I mean, there's been so many. One of my personal favorites, I want to say this is a few seasons ago when you had the big house and the guy said, oh, he wasn't gonna do anything because he shot his genitals off.

[Chris Hansen]

Oh, yeah, I thought that was hilarious at the end of the interview, too. So we're wrapping up and, you know, the camera never stops rolling because you never know what's gonna happen. But we're sort of kick back, you know, watching the police go through their part of it, or in this case, the Blount County Sheriff's office. And Lieutenant Chad Long has talked about at the guy and says this, and you know, what's going to happen next? And. And he volunteers spontaneously that he couldn't have done anything.

[Tyrus]

Yeah.

[Chris Hansen]

And he said, why? And so I start doing the interview again and the lieutenant graciously lets me proceed. And. And he's doing the paperwork and he tells me the story about how he was cleaning his.38, I think it was, and he shot himself in the penis. And I said, well, are you okay? He goes, yeah, you want to see it? No, I don't want to see. I don't want to see it. That's for the jail medical people.

[Tyrus]

I mean, that's probably a first for you for a man to willingly want to show you a picture of himself. Not even a picture in person.

[Chris Hansen]

Yeah, that was a first.

[Tyrus]

That's crazy. So my final question for you, and you ask this at the end of almost every episode, what do you say to all the guys that are watching this podcast right now that are thinking about doing something stupid. I'm gonna watch the Planet Tires podcast and then tonight I'm gonna meet up with a 14 year old girl. What do you say to the morons out there, the sick people that are thinking about doing that?

[Chris Hansen]

I'm hoping nobody able to commit that crime is watching this particular podcast. That's my overriding hope. But to anybody who may, and I don't think there are many out there watching this particular show, don't do it. I. Yeah, it's a horrible thing to do. It's horrible to exploit a child.

[Tyrus]

It's awful. And, you know, I think you're doing a great job.

[Chris Hansen]

Well, thank you.

[Tyrus]

I hope you keep it going.

[Chris Hansen]

Yes, we will.

[Tyrus]

Because, you know, as great as it is to see you in action, it's also good that you're doing a good job and you're still taking these people that should be locked away for a long time. You're still going out there working with those police departments and you're doing a great job protecting the community.

[Chris Hansen]

So I appreciate it.

[Tyrus]

Yeah, absolutely.

[Chris Hansen]

We're gonna keep going.

[Tyrus]

Absolutely. Keep it going. So I'm gonna work now. Harry, you know, he's.

[Chris Hansen]

Harry's got some questions too.

[Tyrus]

Yeah. Good luck with Harry, Chris.

[Chris Hansen]

All right, good luck, Harry. See you, Ryan.

[Tyrus]

It's really intimidating.

[Harry]

Chris, nice to see you guys.

[Chris Hansen]

Nice to see you, Harry.

[Harry]

Thank you so much for taking the time.

[Chris Hansen]

My pleasure.

[Harry]

Appreciate it. I'm a huge fan. Me and all my college buddies loved watching your show.

[Chris Hansen]

Where'd you go to school?

[Harry]

I went to Providence College.

[Chris Hansen]

Oh, wonderful.

[Harry]

Yes. But I just had a few questions.

[Chris Hansen]

Sure, absolutely.

[Harry]

So what is one common thread that you saw among every perpetrator where you were like, all right, like this is one thing that applies to all of them.

[Chris Hansen]

Well, they're self absorbed and they are able to convince themselves that in this particular instance, it's okay for them to do it. They know it's wrong. They've convinced themselves that they can get away with it, and they've already come up with their story if they get caught. So if you're already thinking about what you're going to do if you get caught, you must be, you know, aware that you're doing something wrong, because otherwise, if you got caught, you know, you wouldn't have to come up with an excuse for it. So they have their excuses and they're pretty easy to pick apart because I've got the transcripts. The crime is committed in most cases online before they even show up. The fact that they show up is you Know, the icing on the cake.

[Harry]

So like on that topic, what you and Tyrus kind of talked about, this new age of people making their own content, doing similar things that you were doing, is that overall a positive or a negative for the issue?

[Chris Hansen]

Well, look, I think there's a place in our digital world for citizen journalists. You know, there are a lot of crimes are crowd solved because of podcasts and murders are solved because of podcasts and people's dogged obsession with a particular case. I think some bad people have been exposed and put away by quote unquote vigilante predator catchers. I think some guys have not gone away because of their methods and that concerns me. And we have a very strict protocol of how we do things and that is why we have such a successful prosecution rate. And I don't see any change in our methodology. I think we are able to expose these guys working with law enforcement, make sure that they face the consequences and create awareness and a dialogue in the way I think it's appropriate to do so.

[Harry]

What was the craziest handle that you've seen for someone's name on a transcript?

[Chris Hansen]

There's so many. I'm trying to think of one that's appropriate for me to say without being wholly embarrassed, but I mean it's a hundred way tie for first, right? But as you can imagine, there's some very graphic, there's some perversely funny. It spans the, spans the imagination and

[Harry]

the globe with Jeff Sokol, right? When he offered you a piece of pizza, was there part of you that

[Chris Hansen]

wanted to take no, I didn't want any part of that pizza? Jeff Sokol was probably the definition of smarmy and unctuous, just absolutely universally the most hated predator I've caught. And he ended up being found guilty, pleaded guilty, did I think like two years and later went to court to try to change his name because of his notoriety. And not only did the judge refuse the request to change his name, he refused the request to seal the transcripts of the court hearing because he wanted people to know that this guy tried to change his name. I mean this guy went far and above what we see in predators. And he was just so wormy and weaselly when he came in and he went in for the hug and he was so aggressive about grooming this child and he was so excited when he saw the on site decoy. I mean it was really alarm. The whole, I mean every one of these guys is alarming, frightening, dangerous and crazy criminal, right?

[Harry]

They're predators.

[Chris Hansen]

For a reason, but that one really sticks out. And.

[Tyrus]

Yeah.

[Harry]

That what you're talking about earlier, with the common traits that you see, he definitely had that. I. I have a transcript.

[Chris Hansen]

Sure.

[Harry]

And I would be honored if you could read it.

[Tyrus]

Absolutely.

[Harry]

I don't know where this came from. This was sent in just because people heard that you were coming on.

[Chris Hansen]

So, Harry, I'm going to read something here. Hey, just so you know, you're talking to someone who is clearly the best part of the B team and it goes on. Not only that you're a great interviewer, one of the strongest voices on the show. Thank you. And then this line caught my attention also. Let's be honest here. You might actually be the best looking one in the room.

[Harry]

Oh, you.

[Chris Hansen]

Yeah. You don't have to say that. So help me to understand this. You walk in here confident, clearly carrying the B team, getting all this attention, and you thought nobody was going to notice.

[Harry]

Thank you, Chris. That's this episode of Planet Tyrus.

[Chris Hansen]

Thanks for having me. Thanks. Appreciate it.