“The NBC News Dateline show mined the same territory in its special series, ‘To Catch a Predator,’ from 2004 to 2007. Ratings soared, and the network described it as a public service, but in three years the series was over, after drawing negative news coverage, advertiser wariness and a lawsuit from the family of a target who killed himself.” Social media enabled vigilante activities like predator catching to go wide. Very wide. From NBC News: He lures alleged child predators and shames them on Facebook. Now one of his targets is dead.