Inside the shocking fetish forum that offers kidnap advice, with 78,000 users interested in ‘abduction play’

A website that hosted an “Abduction 101” forum linked to a 28-year-old suspect in the kidnapping of a Chinese scholar at the University of Illinois bills itself as the most popular sexual fetish networking site on the internet — and it has faced pressure in recent months to be clearer about not tolerating behavior that could be regarded as criminal.

Brendt Allen Christensen, who earned a master’s degree in physics from U of I this year, is charged in the June 9 abduction of 26-year-old Zhang Yingying, who investigators believe to be dead. The federal complaint says Christensen’s phone was used on April 19 to visit the FetLife.com forum, including to view threads titled “Perfect abduction fantasy” and “planning a kidnapping.”

Christensen remains jailed and is due to make an initial appearance Monday in federal court in Urbana, not far from the University of Illinois campus where Zhang conducted research in agricultural sciences. Christensen, who is from neighboring Champaign, was arrested Friday after agents monitoring him heard him tell someone he had kidnapped Zhang and held her against her will.

FetLife describes itself as “the Social Network for the BDSM, Fetish & Kinky Community,” stressing in online policy statements that it is a place for consenting adults to trade advice and images of themselves, and to arrange to meet. The acronym BDSM stands for bondage, dominance, sadism and masochism. Established in 2008 by Canadian software developer John Baku, it now claims more than 5 million registered members.

FetLife early this year decided to prohibit hundreds of fetish categories after it was cited in a few criminal cases, including one in Australia, Baku said in a February online note to members. He said that, among other things, he wanted to reduce any legal liability and risks to the wider community.

As of Sunday, however, the site still included multiple forums focused on abduction fantasies, and an “Abduction Play” group had more than 78,000 FetLife members expressing interest in the topic. Among the threads still available on the site was one called “Tools of the Kidnapper” and another titled “Original kidnapping Play.”