Australian man convicted of indecency with a cartoon

[OwlHoot]

Webcam sex with fake girl Sweetie leads to sentence

Obviously the intent to offend was present, and real kids will be slightly safer while this critter is behind bars.

But is it really proper to prosecute and jail someone for interacting with an animated character, however short sighted they may be and convinced they were dealing with a real child?

[Doggy Styles]

Strange one this.

1. There doesn't seem to be a victim in his case. No children were involved.

2. Can you use an Agent Provocateur to incite a person to commit a crime that, for all they know, he might not otherwise commit?

3. Is it a crime to take actions that you believe is committing a crime, even if you are not?

[SpontaneousOrder]

I've not given any time to consider it. Does seem like a short leap from there to thoughtcrime though.
I do think, though, that if people really were more interested in protecting kids than having a boogie man to vent at, then they wouldn't make criminals of people who viewed material (in this case it might be different because there was active participation) - criminalising it drives it underground, whereas if protecting children is a priority then help should be available to people with those kinds of thoughts.

If someone is too scared to seek help at the start, then it's much more likely that they'll take it that step too far at some later point in time.