I keep seeing videos lately of grown men posing as children online and baiting individuals to public spaces and either assaulting them or recording/exposing them for content. While I don’t mind the idea of a predator being outed, the idea of grown adults posing as children online seems unsavory to me. Especially if their end goal isn’t to protect children, and is to provide content for views.
Obviously, being a child predator is wildly immoral and illegal and their actions are not what’s being debated.
I guess that is one way to look at it. They never actually talked to a minor, just were led to believe they did. Still scummy fucks, but technically never committed a crime in that instance.
Conspiraing to commit crimes is a thing you can be charged for. Few if any people get away with crimes they planned just because they got stopped before they can do them.