Yes, but how is a minor defined? Is a minor who claims to be of the age of majority still a minor? What due diligence should reasonably be performed by the other party to determine the validity of such a claim, given the medium of interactive textual chat session? Is this different than the due diligence which should reasonably be performed in the case of other mediums, up to and including face-to-face? If so, what are the distinctions? Further, is an adult who claims to be a minor (and who is not a cop or is otherwise not intending to entrap, but merely to misrepresent), to be regarded as a minor or an adult for the purposes of qualification of acts occurring (in the chat session). Now then, based on all of the foregoing, did the cop in fact emulate a minor, and how did he advertise this fact? Did the other party have a reasonable expectation that the cop was a minor?

Then there is the question of soliciting sex. Are we to understand that sex may be performed over a chat session!? If not, there is an implicit assumption that the sex being solicited was being solicited out--of-band. In which case, I believe there should (but can understand that legally there may not) be an incumbency on the police to follow this through to a physical meeting with a human who at least gives the strong and consistent appearance of being a minor.

For that matter, what if the other party had proven to be a minor also, perhaps one misrepresenting themselves as an adult? Or, what if it had not in fact been an interactive person, but an avatar or other virtual party? Or, to extend this even further, what if it were a posting or advert?

Am I to understand that an advert offering sex to anyone under the age of, say, 30, would constitute the solicitation of sex from a minor? This beggars belief, but it seems to be the logical extension of the arguments outlined in the article.

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Link to this comment: http://www.securityfocus.com/comments/columns/233/25829#25829