I'd like to point out false information in your recent news story "Fake kids, real charges: Washington state lawmakers push additional oversight for net nanny stings."
The Center Square reported that officers pose as minors on a dating website or online forum and sometimes they pose as a “parent seeking adults to engage in sexual activity with their children.”
This is false information. It is a fact that those officers first posed as an adult who was seeking to meet an adult man for a casual encounter. In many of the net-nanny sting operations, they posted ads in the section of Craigslist "Casual Encounters." They intentionally selected this category over all the other categories that were not about sex. The Casual Encounters category was the only category on Craigslist that was for finding other like-minded, consenting adults to meet for casual sex, which is what a "casual encounter" is. You can look that up, to confirm that.
The point is that they very intentionally target men who they know are seeking a like-minded, consenting adult to engage in lawful sexual activity, a sexual conversation and possibly meet for a sexual hookup. Law enforcement changes the narrative after they have lured the men under false pretenses.
They basically then tell those men that they should do something illegal instead — engage in sexual activity with a minor instead of with a consenting adult, like those men were clearly seeking and were in the right place to find.
The lack of this understanding is why all of these cases have been wrongfully prosecuted. There are so many lies, coverups and misrepresentations in all of these cases. Hiding exculpatory evidence is a common tactic law enforcement and prosecutors use in these cases. The sting operations are intentionally designed to create a lot of confusion in the men they entrap as well as for the public and the courts.
Please correct your story. Law enforcement does not pose as a minor to begin with or a parent pimping their children. Their ads or profiles would have been removed right away if they had done that. They do not ever use the age of a minor in the profiles they create or on the ads they post. That is a fact that can be proven in almost all of these cases. They very intentionally lure the men by making them believe this is about an adult who is seeking an adult man to meet for a casual encounter. That is who they target every time in a proactive online sting operation.
It's not about trying to save or protect children from online predators like they have shamelessly lied about. It's all about creating these cases for money and to help their careers.
Aracely Yates
Texas
