The Glade 4.0

In the sense that all the facts are still "alledged", yes, this has to be established in court. There is no indication that he thought the officer was anything other than a minor though. At one point he alledgedly stopped because he learned that the supposed minor was 15.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

Thought crimes ftl.

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“The duty of a patriot is to protect his country from its government.” - Thomas Paine

This isn't a thought crime at all.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

Sure it is.

Emphasis mine.
That's a thought crime.

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“The duty of a patriot is to protect his country from its government.” - Thomas Paine

I don't think this should be considered a crime.

A) Pixels don't hurt children. I don't see how it's very psychologically harmful. Also the child can shut it off.

B) No different than watching porn.

C) In this case, it wasn't actually a child on the receiving end.

D) We don't know if he even thought it was a child.

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"The map is not the territory."

No, it's not, any more than any crime involves thinking about it. That's like saying if you try to rob an armored car and it turns out to be empty, it's a thought crime if you're charged with robbery.

He wasn't charged for just thinking about jerking off with a minor watching, he was charged because, as far as he knew, he did jerk off with a minor watching.

It is, legally, not a defense to a crime that committing the crime was impossible if, were the facts as the defendant understood them to be, it was possible to commit the crime.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

"It is, legally, not a defense to a crime that committing the crime was impossible if, were the facts as the defendant understood them to be, it was possible to commit the crime."

The fact that you bring this up indicates you think it is a good idea that an act that is impossible to occur should still be held against an individual as a crime.

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"...but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom." - De Tocqueville

It indicates that I agree that if a person thinks a certain set of facts exist, and acts on those, and that act would be criminal if he were correct, the fact that he turned out to be incorrect should not be a defense.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."