Well I'm from Canada, and yes 14 is our age of consent.. sort of. That map is a little misleading. It's 14 if you are having sex with a 14, 15, or 16 year old. If you are 16, you can have sex with a 14 year old. However, if you're 17, you can't have sex with anyone in sthe 14, 15, 16 year old window. Basically 14-year-olds, 15-year-olds, and 16-year-olds can have sex with each other, but adults can't have sex with them.
I completely disagree. There is a grey area here because those "pervs" (and yes, they may be pervs) are NOT TALKING TO CHILDREN. If there is a law that specifically says "intending to" sleep with a minor, then fine. But you can't get these guys for the action of talking to a minor in a sexual manner (because they weren't talking to minors) or for going to a minor's house for sexual purposes (because it wasn't a minor's house). It doesn't matter how good the typists are at typing "r u hard rite now? o i nver had sex b4. cud u sho me how?" They're still not children. And yes, they type things like that, which to me, is egging these individuals on. If the individual in question was about to say to himself "Hey, maybe I shouldn't do this, I think I'll log off." but then a typist pretending to be a 16-year old girl or boy says "i wana lern how 2 give a blo job, cud u sho me?" Then that typist has created a problem that might not have ever existed. On the same program, I saw them put female police officers on the street to pose as prostitutes, while they arrested anyone who picked her up. That's not catching a crime. That is creating a crime.
Oh come on now... The officers are not typing suggestive things like that. If they were, this would not hold up in court. These guys are sexual predators that absolutely intend to have sex with minors. That we prevent sex with a minor before it actually happens is, frankly, laudible. I mean, should we give them little 14 year old boys and girls and wait until after they've actually raped these children to intervene? Does that seem the reasonable course of action? As for picking up undercover officers as prostitutes--again, the men (or women) absolutely intend to have sex with prostitues. Should we wait until after they've had sex with the female officers for money to make the arrest? Is that really the reasonable thing to do? Putting an undercover officer on the streets working as a prostitue, along with all the real prostitues, and waiting for a John to pick her up (typically only takes a few minutes, from what I've seen) is anything but creating criminals. That's a bit like arguing that putting up surviellance cameras to catch shoplifters is creating shoplifting. No, no it's not, it's just catching those that do it. Chris
Oh gardner please! Padlocks and passwords barely slow them down these days. And if a predator gets a teenaged girl in his sights he'll work on her until she blocks him or he gets what he wants. Oppressing your kids only causes them to rebel further. As for IdentityCrisis assertion that they weren't actually talking to a teenaged girl, that's irrelevant. I don't watch TV but I researched this show. The predators sought out underaged boys and girls as young as ELEVEN for the expressed purpose of sexual gratification. Entrapment? Perhaps. But they showed up at a given address showing the intent to commit sexual acts with minors under the age of 14. That's a felony and rightfully so. Unless you enjoy the idea of your little sister blowing a 60 year old man, in which case you have issues I don't even want to address here. If a pedophile walked the streets asking little boys for sexual favors he'd be locked up or institutionalized or both. Doing it on the internet isn't different at all.
Actually some of them don't show up to the "minor's" house. They get tracked and arrested anyway. One guy decided not to go, they went to his house to try to arrest him, and he killed himself. Why? Because he was talking to someone who was PRETENDING to be a minor. It was entrapment and he killed himself. Yes, I think that's wrong. Also, yes, the typists DO say things like that. They are sexual typists and completely tempt anyone who might be on the edge of talking to a minor.
OK, so... the facts: The man was an ADA, his job was to PROSECUTE sex offenders The man had agreed to meet a child for sex but changed his mind because he was afraid he might get caught, hence, the man KNEW he was about to do something wrong. Or maybe his car wouldn't start, it doesn't matter. When he knew he was caught, even though he broke no laws, he knew his career was over so he killed himself because he was, in fact, a child molesting sicko and a coward. He was later found to have kiddie porn in his home, on his computers and on his cel phone, which could have earned him 25 to life in prison. And they weren't there to arrest him, they were there to serve a legal search warrant because the guy had proven himself to be a sexual predator by soliciting minors for sex on the internet! Now that you have the story straight, tell me again which part you think was Dateline's fault? Because I'm not getting it...
And although I think our justice system is skewed, I think all pedophiles and other sexual predators should commit suicide. There would be fewer children harmed and a lighter load on the justice system. Maybe they could give serious time and consideration to more pressing cases, like people who have been in jail for 20+ years for possession of trace amounts of marijuana.
While I agree with your point about minor drug offenders taking up jail space in the US (it's not the case in Canada), I do disagree with Dateline's protocol. I never once disputed that these people are sex offenders. What I said was that Dateline was maliciously creating crimes that MAY not have existed had they not pushed the envelope. I am also disputing your "facts". I realize you quoted a media source, which I always take with a grain of salt anyway --- but I love your further comments beneath the exerpt. "When he knew he was caught, even though he broke no laws, he knew his career was over so he killed himself because he was, in fact, a child molesting sicko and a coward." Really? Did you somehow hear an interview with the man after he committed suicide? I thought not. So maybe if you're going to get into "facts", you can state the facts and leave your speculation at home. For all we know, he may have been fighting with personal issues relating to his own childhood sexual abuse which may explain is advocacy against sex offenders. The pornography (and I use the term lightly as it means something different in the US than in Canada) on his computer which contained "kiddie porn" (the age of consent is 14 in Canada, so here it wouldn't be 'kiddie porn' until the 'minor' is 13 or under) is ambiguous as we don't know where those 'minors' come from, or under what laws they fall under, or how old they were exactly... so again, i take this accusation with a grain of salt, especially in the US. In this case, the man could be viewed as a victim SO LONG AS HE HASN'T HARMED ANYONE. I never saw any actual convictions of him harming a minor. Do you see how perceptions change? Again, I'm not arguing that I completely believe the man was innocent of the accusations, but what I am saying is that the issue here is Datelin's protocol. They are not the law, they are an entertainment source. They will show you what they want to show you and media will tell you what they want to tell you. Whatever makes a good story. American television is created for one sole purpose: capitalizing on entertainment. They don't care about child sex offenders, they don't care about "catching predators", they don't care about the safety of children online. They care about ratings and profits. Through the magic of television, anything is possible. The director of photography, music producers, hosts and actors, and the filming director can make you see, think, feel, and sense anything that they want you to. To simply answer your question, "Which part you think was Dateline's fault?", it is the part where Dateline sacrifices truth, justice, honest, integrity, and possibly an innocent (wo)man's professional and private life with profits. I also think that Dateline, in fact, teases adults in a sexual manner and crosses the line in terms of "pretending to be an innocent minor". It has also cost a man his life. If you still don't understand, all I can say is that I would find it typical of an American... and I don't mean that to insult you. You really have to be from a different country to observe the social phenomena that is the SLIGHT majority of the American public and their inability to comprehend a more dynamic point of view that focusses on facts and reality regarding highly emotional issues.
I see your point and accept your position. My cite was a compilation of three media sources including Wikipedia's version but EXCLUDING NBC (Dateline's network). All three stated the same basic facts based on confirmed statements and sources. I didn't take offense at your statement about me being an American, and I would expect nothing less from an ultraliberal Canadian. You've obviously never had a family member hurt by a predator. I spent 20 years travelling the world and saw quite a bit of how other cultures live. In some countries, having sex with minors, forcibly or not carries the death penalty. I think that's a little barbaric. But it's their law, not mine, not yours. This story did not cost a man's life. A man took his own life because he feared being discovered. The catalyst is not important. If they had shot him for trying to escape custody I would have protested the barbarism of the police, as would you. He deserved a fair trial. But the man knew he had done something legally and morally wrong and took his own life in the fear of discovery. He was a member of the local prosecutor's office and should have had nothing to fear from law enforcement or TV cameras if he was innocent. If you can't see this clearly I obviously cannot convince you, so I guess we'll have to agree to disagree. Than you for the opportunity to debate the subject.
There is a possibility that had the police shown up at the man's house alone, his life may have been spared. It's a little different when you're on National TV being accused of a child molester. I just need to cross the water to see how other cultures live. In my province alone, a muslim father killed his daughter for dating a boy at school. In Bountiful, British Columbia, there is a commune of Mormons who marry several underage girls to one man. And yes, I have had people close to me who have been sexually abused. In fact, I think hardly anyone hasn't since everyone is supposed to know between 1-5 sex offenders that they don't know about. I do agree to disagree.
