We support the bill HB 1556 on the proviso that it authorizes the AG to prosecute cases involving ACTUAL children. To date, LE and prosecutorial arms in VA and elsewhere are allowed to further prosecutions by setting up online sex stings in which police approach unsuspecting adults looking to adult companionship, pretend to be an adult subscriber to a cite in violation of federal and state law, then abruptly claim to be underage (though their picture looks older), before arresting their targets in proactive (non investigatory trolling) and claiming the adult target was the aggressor and grooming a (fake) child merely by talking to the persona. An arrest is made even if no sex talk is advanced, and the prosecution then proceeds as if a real child was endangered. This must NOT be allowed to continue.
We support the bill HB 1556 on the proviso that it authorizes the AG to prosecute cases involving ACTUAL children. To date, LE and prosecutorial arms in VA and elsewhere are allowed to further prosecutions by setting up online sex stings in which police approach unsuspecting adults looking to adult companionship, pretend to be an adult subscriber to a cite in violation of federal and state law, then abruptly claim to be underage (though their picture looks older), before arresting their targets in proactive (non investigatory trolling) and claiming the adult target was the aggressor and grooming a (fake) child merely by talking to the persona. An arrest is made even if no sex talk is advanced, and the prosecution then proceeds as if a real child was endangered. This must NOT be allowed to continue.