Dateline NBC "to catch a predator", possible entrapment?

[Zygote]

If anyone hasnt seen this show, NBC basically gets old men to list themselves as 13 year old girls/boys looking for sex in chat rooms and lure "overage" men into sexual encounters. The decoy asks the men to sometimes send pictures of themselves, to bring condoms, and sometimes alcohol and drugs. (search youtube for samples)

When they arrive, they meet a female agent, dressed to look young, who invites the guy in and leaves them alone until they face a surprise meeting with NBC's Chris Hansen. After attempting to pick their brains, the suspects leave and are immediately arrested and charged.


My problem with the whole thing is if you think beyond the sleezebags who actually show up, you'll realize that the whole thing starts with decoys who are actually middled aged men, of mature sophistication, initiating and upholding the chat. They appear to start and tempt the majority of comments in a leading manner.

In addition, the person who greets the predator is of age but just dressed to look young. Id assume they use this same over-age person's picture in the online chat so the predator is really only showing attraction to women over 18 (interesting how the mind is supposed to know 18 years old is the cut-off for attraction especially when the person posing is only trying to look young).

Overall, it appears the fact about the girl in the transaction being 13 is of nominal value. Is this really different than two consenting adults playing games with each other but in this case one of the over-age consenting adults is an undercover agent setting up the other up?

One thing is for sure, none of this is as bad as the 17 year old who got sentenced to ten years recently for getting a BJ from 15 year old... http://www.ajc.com/news/content/metr...611wilson.html


*not sure about the technical legal stuff - just my two cents