In those cases there is usually physical evidence of intent, and when there isn't the charges get dropped or aren't upheld in court. In general with these online conversation entrapments, there is no real evidence of actual intent to commit a crime (this specific case appears different, as his going to pick the 'girl' up from the airport goes certainly shows intent to at least meet her in person). Unless the person actually makes contact, it's impossible to tell if they would ever even consider doing such an action for real, or if they're just fantasizing with another person. For all we know, many of them may not even really believe they're talking to an actual minor, and are content with sharing a fantasy with another adult who is just pretending.

Obviously there is a real need to protect the vulnerable members of our society from sexual predators, but if we start imprisoning anyone for just thinking of committing a criminal act, there will be very few people not in jail.

Hah, that means my sister is a pedophile* too , Yeah the current laws about child pornagrophy in sweden(and I assume that they're the same in almost every other country too) need to change, if I'm not mistaken a new law is being proposed about the subject and I think we'll get to vote on it soon, I don't remember the details though.

It's going to be an interesting event for sure.

• that reminds me, I remember seing something about kids in the USA being branded as pedophiles and criminals(in records) because they for several reason had aquired pictures of naken kids(like themselfs!).

Sexual child "abuse" is a sensitive matter(duh), as kids we learn that there are individuals who would ruin our lives and that they will burn in hell for trying.(my parents only told me to stay away from strangers but somehow my head got filled with dangers of pedofiles anyway)
I hated them simply beacuse that was what I was supposed to do, that is until I realized that the girls I had dreamt about sexually would stay the same even though I would age .

It's one of those things normal people don't want to address beacuse it means the end of your social life which in many cases is your life. Even I care about what some people think, even though I strongly promote that anyone who would hate me for it isn't worth caring about.

The problem is that the laws we have today refect the problems we had ages ago.

Sex Before:
Potential Pregnancy.
Potential Death due to pregnacy(especially at young age).
Social problems/trauma due to the big deal everyone makes it(fair).

Sex Now:
Social problems/trauma due to the big deal everyone makes it.

Personally I hope that in 1000+ years or so sex wont be a big deal.
And no, I don't think sex is a big deal by human nature.

People who gets boners by looking at people who are 17 years and 364 days old will always be the target of people who need to define themself morally by how much they oppose something they want to believe is wrong.

I'm sure most parents want to protect their kids from the possebility of harm socialy or other(I would). But people who pretend to be underaged on the internet are not doing it for anyone but themselfs.

Haha, can't wait until I get famous and someone finds this thread .

What is this? Is this possibly proof that discussing on the net CAN make a difference!?

Remember the Duke University "rape" case?

http://jewishworldreview.com/cols/sowell010207b.php3

[EDIT]

The follow up is good too.
http://jewishworldreview.com/cols/sowell010307.php3

How can they deem a picture to be sexually suggestive without "seeing" for themselves? Aren't they breaking the law if they say it is suggestive? If the excuse is that they had to look first to determine if it's suggestive or not, couldn't the plaintiff say the same?

If this is in reply to what I said, I wasn't certain if what you had written was referring specifically to the case in the OP, or about online entrapment in general, which is what the thread seemed to have moved on to.

As I added in my parenthesis, I agree that this guy certainly seems to have shown intent to do something beyond talking. Exactly what his intentions were, I don't know. I'm not going to try to decide based purely on a news article.

Accelerating towards the speed limit isn't illegal. Talking sex to a 14 year old girl is, and as far as this guy knew, that's exactly what he was doing. Whether anything further happened or not.

Interesting. So democracy isn't about reality, but projected reality. It's not about results but ad campaigns. And the real power isn't in the voters but in your power to project the image you want onto the voters.

Congress passes many laws every year that you haven't even heard of and most people couldn't care about. Some of those laws are for circumstances which are rarely invoked. The patriot act and Gitmo are both still in effect and even though Obama has told everyone he will close Gitmo, its legally impossible due to Bush (Bush was never popular with Gitmo either and I think Rumsfeld lost his job partially over that and some attorney firings... or was that Gonzalez).

Wow, I didn't realize how many pedos hang out here

shudder

Beatrice Ask is one scary woman.

Loose, I-have-one-minute-to-do-this translation:
"Manga comics?
If you read that kind of filth you should be locked up...

Moral panic goes before due process!"

And that... thing... masquerading as a human in that picture is Beatrice Fnask, our Minister of so-called Justice.

What's evil about wanting to have sex with someone who's more than interested?

Beacuse no one has explained that part to me.

Cause you know: "it's just evil".

If you ever see a picture of or remember a girl who happens to be 17 years and 364 days old or less that makes you think even the slightest about anything sexual then you can call yourself a pedo too.

Good luck avoiding that..

I'm not saying there shouldn't be a line.

If google is right about the word bamboozled(meaning lying or deceiving to gain trust) I must say I don't understand why you assume every "situation" is created by lying and deceit.

I'm pretty sure most people who are approach by "hunters" don't takes the initiative, and I doubt people who "hunt" pedophiles sit and wait until the guy turns up and takes the intiaitive.