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11 Illinois teens charged with felonies after men lured and beaten using dating apps (www.nbcnews.com)
submitted 5 days ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world
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Summary

Eleven Illinois teens face felony charges after allegedly luring two men via dating apps and assaulting them last July.

Inspired by a viral social media trend, the teens attacked a 41-year-old and a 23-year-old in separate incidents, damaging vehicles and using slurs in one case, resulting in hate crime charges for one teen.

All suspects turned themselves in and were detained at a juvenile center.

Police urge parents to discuss the dangers of social media trends with their children to prevent such incidents.

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[-] TommySoda@lemmy.world 90 points 5 days ago

They refrain from mentioning what trend, what dating app, and what slurs these teens were using. But based off context my best guess is that these guys were convincing some gay men they were down to hook up only to just assault them instead. Why you would want to do this, I have no idea. I know kids do shitty things but I think these guys were just shitty people.

And what kind of fucking internet trend involves luring people just to assault them? If that's the kinda content you consume as an individual you're a fucking idiot.

[-] AbidanYre@lemmy.world 42 points 5 days ago

Yeah, social media trends aren't the problem here. Being a piece of shit is the problem.

[-] catloaf@lemm.ee 20 points 5 days ago

Social media is a factor. Unmoderated content encouraging violence results in events like these.

[-] AbidanYre@lemmy.world 4 points 5 days ago

Is it though? That kind of sounds like the next iteration of blaming movies/video games/d&d/whatever the latest crazy is.

[-] djsoren19@yiffit.net 15 points 5 days ago

The thing is, the boomers of the past were wrong because none of that media was promoting violence. They were making it up.

The Tiktok algorithm promotes violence as a fast-pass to fame. It rewards people for making abhorrent trends with clicks.

[-] AbidanYre@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

I don't know, it's hard to argue that the action movies of 40 years ago or games like Postal weren't glorifying violence.

Though I can certainly see an argument about the difference based on the fact that movies/TV/video games are all imaginary vs the actual violence in something like this.

[-] Tinidril@midwest.social 4 points 4 days ago

The question is, does "glorifying violence" encourage people to be violent? Barring other factors, studies have not found that to be the case. There are some studies that show video games actually reduce stress hormones by giving people a release, and this might actually lower violence.

It's a lot different to connect violent rhetoric with gay bashing, refer to gays as predators, then provide a template for how to ambush them.

[-] distantsounds@lemmy.world 7 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

The major difference is that the app is the not content, it is the bridge to actioning.

[-] catloaf@lemm.ee -3 points 5 days ago

This one has scientific backing. Just Google any combination of terms and you'll find studies showing harm.

[-] fuckwit_mcbumcrumble@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 5 days ago

Just Google

Why don't you and post a few links?

[-] catloaf@lemm.ee 1 points 5 days ago

I wasn't sure exactly which aspect of harm they were talking about, so I left it up to them.

[-] DeathsEmbrace@lemm.ee 4 points 5 days ago

Let’s do the butterfly knife to the eyes challenge it’s on TikTok…

[-] GeeDubHayduke@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 4 days ago

I prefer the Fargo Challenge! Who wants to look at my woodchipper?

[-] irotsoma@lemmy.world 26 points 5 days ago

The trend is of homophobes luring homosexual men to be attacked using the app Gr*****r. It's been gaining steam since Trump won the first time and has escalated again after the latest win. In many places it will not be prosecuted unless it gains media attention. And most gay men in those kinda of areas don't want to be out, so don't even report it. So it's becoming more common.

[-] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 16 points 5 days ago

And the solution is to make such hate crimes dangerous. Gay bashing used to be more common, but armed f*gs bash back, and that reduced it

[-] Kit@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 5 days ago

Further reading on the historical context of "f*gs bash back" for anyone curious: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queer_Nation

I haven't heard that slogan since the 90s. Really shows how far we've come, and now we're sliding right back.

[-] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 18 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Why you would want to do this, I have no idea.

For real? My guess would be bigotry and homophobia?

[-] TommySoda@lemmy.world 8 points 5 days ago

Yeah, for sure that's the reason. But at the end of the day I still don't get it.

[-] funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works 4 points 5 days ago

ah back in my day we didn't need an app or to even be out to get the shit kicked out of us for being gay*

funnily enough my bullies knew better I was gay* than I did

*bi

[-] beefbot@lemmy.blahaj.zone 30 points 5 days ago

GAY men

Fucking news sites trying to erase us This is why heterosexuals need to be [REDACTED]

[-] Cypher@lemmy.world 3 points 4 days ago

Outrage over the headline lacking the word gay and none for gay men trying to have sex with 16-17 year olds?

[-] Frost752@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

Why do you assume these teens wouldn't lie about their ages in their evil act?

[-] Cypher@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

I didn’t. I just happen to be aware of the tik tok trend that they refused to name in the article, because that could have been damaging to the victims.

[-] Frost752@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Fair enough, this is the first I'm hearing of the trend myself but I also dont use tiktok

[-] OsrsNeedsF2P@lemmy.ml 2 points 4 days ago

Police did not mention which slurs the teenager allegedly used. None of the teens were identified because they are minors, police confirmed.

Part of me wonders if this is because they were calling him a pedo and they lured him under the pretense of meeting minors

this post was submitted on 03 Jan 2025
148 points (99.3% liked)

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