Following the cancellation of To Catch a Predator in 2007 and the spread of conspiracy theories about "grooming" and child sex trafficking on the internet, several vigilante groups were established in the United States. NBC News identified 30 groups in 2019, and subsequent research by the Washington Post found 160.   A 2024 investigation by USA Today reported that such groups have operated in about three-quarters of the United States.

The typical procedures of anti-pedophile vigilante groups include posing as a minor on social media in order to lure an adult into a real-life confrontation, where they would be interrogated by the vigilantes. Such interrogations have often included heated exchanges, some of which have culminated into arguments and threats. When not enough remorse is shown, vigilantes have commonly threatened to call their target's wives or employers. If the target attempts to run away, they are followed to their homes by the vigilantes.

University of Winnipeg cultural criminologist Steven Kohm stated in 2019 that anti-pedophile vigilante groups have sought to restore the more emotional, punitive and participatory nature that the American criminal justice system had 100 years prior. He stated that their sense of mistrust in authority is analogous to that of conspiratorial campaigns such as QAnon and Pizzagate, among others. Kohm described those groups as having "a mob-justice vigilante mentality".