In case you’ve been living in an Internet-free cave, Pedobear is a character made popular by the 4chan image forums that is frequently displayed or referenced when someone is being a little too weird about children on the Internet and basically amounts to one big Internet in-joke, in no way supportive of pedophilia. Despite this, California’s San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Department issued a “public safety information bulletin” describing the dangers of Pedobear.
The Californian sheriff’s office didn’t get the memo that the people who make mention of Pedobear are Internet nerds, not actual pedophiles (surely if real pedophiles identified themselves with such a symbol, it would be a godsend to law enforcement.) They released a pamphlet (unintentionally) humorously entitled “A Seemingly Innocent Menace: An Introduction to ‘PEDO BEAR.'” A news station even reported on the “menace” in the segment in the video above.
The pamphlet describes the bear as a common symbol pedophiles have created to unite under to easily identify themselves within the pedophile community. Of course, most of the people who sport the symbol or even dress up in costume as the character are simply people who are fond of Internet jokes, something of which the sheriff’s department is apparently aware, but decided to ignore and produce a serious pamphlet regarding the “issue” anyway. As funny as the police warning may be, it’s scary that people who simply enjoy Internet humor could be branded as pedophiles by the police or by people in their community due to one overzealous sheriff’s department and the tone-deaf news outlets that have picked up their warning.
Kudos to Valleywag for contacting the sheriff’s department as well as digging up pictures of the flyer, below:
(via Valleywag)
