Pedophile admits to contacting 30 minors online, watching child exploitation videos after caught in sting operation

The operation was conducted by Predator Poachers, an effort headed by Alex Rosen, who told FOX40 "We pose as underage kids online. It's the same premise as 'To Catch a Predator,'" referring to the 2004 Dateline NBC program where host Chris Hansen bait-and-switched suspected internet predators.

Rosen, who is from Houston, Texas, along with occasional sidekicks, travel across the country and use similar tactics to those of Tetrad Core, the team behind Hansen's show. The Predator Poachers lure potential predators over the internet and post the videos of their encounters, as well as hand over evidence to law enforcement.

Rosen shared footage of his interaction with Carl Shattuck of Plattsburgh, New York, a "pansexual" who admitted to "helping" at least 20-30 boys and girls, including those identifying as transgender, online. According to Rosen, the "help" refers to talking them into "coming out" of the closet as LGBTQ+. Shattuck also said that he wanted to help people who have been accused of sexually assaulting minors.

"This is kind of what I want to do. I want to help people; it doesn't matter if it's the LGBT community or people who have been accused of like sexual assault of a minor," he said on camera.

An hour after confessing to talking to dozens of kids online, Shattuck admitted to watching child pornography that he had been sent, as well as on Twitter.

When asked who was sending him the illegal content, Shattuck told Rosen that he gets it when he finds "someone underage to talk to," but it "doesn't happen all the time."

When Rosen asked if he was a pedophile, Shattuck corrected him with "minor-attracted person."

"But throughout the years, you've probably looked at thousands of images of child porn," Rosen argued.

"Yeah and I actually even tell myself every day that it's wrong, but like, I don't know how to stop myself," the New York man replied.

When sharing the footage to Twitter, Rosen did add that "cops did get involved and as far as we know he's under investigation."