Origin
The character of Pedobear popular on 4Chan originally comes from the popular 2Chan character, Safety Bear.
About
The subject of Pedophilia is instantly divisive and is viewed by many as the most despised form of sexual deviation in modern societies. Because of this reason, many people seem to enjoy a certain feeling of schadenfreude in witnessing the exposure and punishment of perverts.
The Dateline special feature To Catch a Predator starring Chris Hansen and Perverted Justice gave the public a form of entertainment akin to the days of Ancient Rome when people gathered to watch criminals be torn to shred by wild animals; such as lions and bears. But rather than justice taking the form of being violently mauled to death, the pedophile’s identity and conduct were publicly exposed.
Due to 4chan’s anonymous nature, people tend to act without fear of retribution. Because of this, there are the occasional pedophiles swapping Child Pornography, or CP.
Pedobear serves to mock pedophiles. Urlesque offers an accurate description in their Beginner’s Guide to Pedobear.
Pedobear is a shorthand for saying, “You’re being creepy about a kid.” If anyone on 4chan posts a picture of a questionably young looking girl in a sexy pose, someone will inevitably reply with a pic of Pedobear. Many times, Pedobear is added to a picture to point out real-world sexualization of presexual kids, but it’s alternately shown as an acknowledgment of being inappropriately attracted to a child.
Visual Style
The appearance of Pedobear is that of a cartoon mascot who’s presence alone warns of the threat of sexual predators; as was the original Safety Bear. The irony here is that Pedobear appears to be a pedophile himself.
Usage of Pedobear may be seen by some as an unjust sterilization of the serious nature of child pornography, pedophilia, and rape. But to show anger toward Pedobear is to misunderstand Pedobear.
It’s not that Pedophiles identity one another by posting Pedobear. Pedobear is a mockery of pedophilia; something many Anons have worked together to fight.
In this video from 2007, Anonymous is credited as a “Teen Vigilante Group” for setting up and exposing the identity of pedophile Chris Forcand, then calling the cops.
This skill of entrapping a deviant personality into revealing their true nature is one of the greatest skills of the Anonymous hivemind.
However, due to the high likelihood of a person being incited to a state of rage over the subject of pedophilia, Pedobear is often used as the more traditional trolling “for the lulz.”
Mainstream Crossover
On July 13th, 2009, CollegeHumor.com produced a short parody of the film Doubt starring Phillip Seymour Hoffman. The Parody placed Pedobear in the role of the priest. Because the material made direct reference to a meme from 4chan, many a /b/tard clinging to Rules 1 and 2 raged in the comments, apparently not understanding that /b/ is no secret.
Pedobear News
Miley Cyrus
As of September 3rd, 2009, Pedobear has achieved the position of Miley Cyrus’ #1 fan, due to the concerted efforts of Anonymous.
Polish Newspaper prints Pedobear as Vancouver Olympic mascot
On July 3rd, 2009, blogger Michael Barrick created a composite image depicting Pedobear grouped together with fanart of the cartoon mascots of the Vancouver Winter Olympics created by Angela Melick. The image is available here.
Then, on Thursday, February 4th, Polish newspaper The Gazeta Olsztynska mistakenly used the image for a front page story about the Olympics in Vancouver.
For more information on this, see Micahael Barrick’s blog, Metronews, and The Telegraph.
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Meme Details
Origin
2Chan
Year
unknown
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