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is it a crime to talk to minors online or via text?

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skates459

New member
arizona,tucson

not sure if im allowed to post this here but here goes
asking this for a friend i have a 42 year old friend with autism a.d.d and bipolar who lives in arizona. they met a 13 year old girl on facebook and exchanged a few emails and text messages via the textfree app between sept 26th to october 28th. from what my friend tells me he sent no naked photos and no naked videos to this girl. he tells me the worst he did was ask a few sexual questions such as does she masturbate, would she be willing to try masturbating if she had never done it, he asked her several times over text what color her panties were that was about the extent of there sexual conversations via email and text.
my friend also tells me he had no phone sex with said 13 year old girl, nor did he have any intentions of meeting her in person. my friend also tells me he made no mention via email or text that he planned to meet her in person. also i spoke to my friends mom who knows more about his gognitive disabilities than anyone, and she even told he hed never ever meet a minor in person its just not who he is he just simply made a mistake or however you word it.
my friend was diagnosed in 1981 with some cognitive impairments not sure if it matters. he has told me as well as his mom that he regrets the situation and has learned from it. and that all he wants to do now is move past it and seek professional help so it doesnt happen again.
anyhow the girl turned out to be a decoy, by a man and two women who are not the police nor are they federal agents from any govt agency. they are just 3 people who travel across the country, using the girls as decoys to entrap predators. then once they arrive at the persons home, they film/live stream the entire encounter without the persons permission or knowledge they are being filmed while waiting for the cops to arrive.
my friend says the cops arrived read him his rights, asked him some questions which my friend claims he answered honestly. he then signed a consent for allowing the police to take his cellphones which he swears has no naked videos or pictures of any minors on it at all. the police had a female dective come to his house to search his computer, and aside from some adult porn videos he downloaded from pronhub. there was no criminal evidence no naked photos or videos of any minors he hasnt heard from the police since they left on monday.
my friend also tells me he had no phone sex with said 13 year old girl, nor did he have any intentions of meeting her in person. my friend also tells me he made no mention via email or text that he planned to meet her in person .
my friend wants to know since this is his first offense, and also since he has no prior criminal record. both his mom and aunt think the cops have no case due to the potential lack of evidence, seeing as how my friend never met said decoy in person, never had phone sex with her, never implied he wanted to or was going to meet her in person. and also never sent this decoy any naked photos or videos of himself. i know my friend well enough over these past 12 years, to know if he wanted phone sex that bad he would just pay for it on a phone sex web site he wouldnt do it with a minor its not his character.
when questioned by his aunt he made it clear to his aunt hes not sexually attracted to minors, its simply that when he speaks to minors online as a friend, he can relate to them on both a maturity level as well as mental level. he said its sorta like when a 13 year old girl would say my moms mad at me for xyz i hate it here mentally he relates to a point where its almost as if hes been in there shoes
my friend has already deleted his facebook. and has also spoken to his therapist about the issue, and he and his therapist have started to come up with a plan to fix/work on this issue so it doesnt happen again. my friend cant afford a lawyer hes on disability benefits due to his autim he also goes to a mental health clinic if it matters
do you think the police might have a case against my friend? and also do you think he might go to jail or get charged with a crime, not sure how the law works in arizona but im under the impresson that since he did not meet nor have sex with the minor even tho it turned out to be an adult decoy and that since he didnt send naked videos or pictures of him self and also that this is his first offense with no prior criminal record. that the cops have no case
one last thing before i end this long post before the police left one of the officers said to me friend hey you made some mistakes and said and asked some things via email and text you shouldn't have said. when my friend told me that that was what the police officer told him right before the cops left his house i took it to mean that that was the cops way of saying hey you messed up and made a mistake but i dont think your gonna be in much trouble, lastly as far as the detective goes she didnt say anything outside of asking where he got the porn vids from to which he replied porn hub
thanks for your time and sorry for the long wall of text
 


quincy

Senior Member
arizona,tucson

not sure if im allowed to post this here but here goes
asking this for a friend i have a 42 year old friend with autism a.d.d and bipolar who lives in arizona. they met a 13 year old girl on facebook and exchanged a few emails and text messages via the textfree app between sept 26th to october 28th. from what my friend tells me he sent no naked photos and no naked videos to this girl. he tells me the worst he did was ask a few sexual questions such as does she masturbate, would she be willing to try masturbating if she had never done it, he asked her several times over text what color her panties were that was about the extent of there sexual conversations via email and text.
my friend also tells me he had no phone sex with said 13 year old girl, nor did he have any intentions of meeting her in person. my friend also tells me he made no mention via email or text that he planned to meet her in person. also i spoke to my friends mom who knows more about his gognitive disabilities than anyone, and she even told he hed never ever meet a minor in person its just not who he is he just simply made a mistake or however you word it.
my friend was diagnosed in 1981 with some cognitive impairments not sure if it matters. he has told me as well as his mom that he regrets the situation and has learned from it. and that all he wants to do now is move past it and seek professional help so it doesnt happen again.
anyhow the girl turned out to be a decoy, by a man and two women who are not the police nor are they federal agents from any govt agency. they are just 3 people who travel across the country, using the girls as decoys to entrap predators. then once they arrive at the persons home, they film/live stream the entire encounter without the persons permission or knowledge they are being filmed while waiting for the cops to arrive.
my friend says the cops arrived read him his rights, asked him some questions which my friend claims he answered honestly. he then signed a consent for allowing the police to take his cellphones which he swears has no naked videos or pictures of any minors on it at all. the police had a female dective come to his house to search his computer, and aside from some adult porn videos he downloaded from pronhub. there was no criminal evidence no naked photos or videos of any minors he hasnt heard from the police since they left on monday.
my friend also tells me he had no phone sex with said 13 year old girl, nor did he have any intentions of meeting her in person. my friend also tells me he made no mention via email or text that he planned to meet her in person .
my friend wants to know since this is his first offense, and also since he has no prior criminal record. both his mom and aunt think the cops have no case due to the potential lack of evidence, seeing as how my friend never met said decoy in person, never had phone sex with her, never implied he wanted to or was going to meet her in person. and also never sent this decoy any naked photos or videos of himself. i know my friend well enough over these past 12 years, to know if he wanted phone sex that bad he would just pay for it on a phone sex web site he wouldnt do it with a minor its not his character.
when questioned by his aunt he made it clear to his aunt hes not sexually attracted to minors, its simply that when he speaks to minors online as a friend, he can relate to them on both a maturity level as well as mental level. he said its sorta like when a 13 year old girl would say my moms mad at me for xyz i hate it here mentally he relates to a point where its almost as if hes been in there shoes
my friend has already deleted his facebook. and has also spoken to his therapist about the issue, and he and his therapist have started to come up with a plan to fix/work on this issue so it doesnt happen again. my friend cant afford a lawyer hes on disability benefits due to his autim he also goes to a mental health clinic if it matters
do you think the police might have a case against my friend? and also do you think he might go to jail or get charged with a crime, not sure how the law works in arizona but im under the impresson that since he did not meet nor have sex with the minor even tho it turned out to be an adult decoy and that since he didnt send naked videos or pictures of him self and also that this is his first offense with no prior criminal record. that the cops have no case
one last thing before i end this long post before the police left one of the officers said to me friend hey you made some mistakes and said and asked some things via email and text you shouldn't have said. when my friend told me that that was what the police officer told him right before the cops left his house i took it to mean that that was the cops way of saying hey you messed up and made a mistake but i dont think your gonna be in much trouble, lastly as far as the detective goes she didnt say anything outside of asking where he got the porn vids from to which he replied porn hub
thanks for your time and sorry for the long wall of text
Your friend should have never spoken with the police. He should never have turned over his electronic equipment or allowed any of his devices to be searched without a warrant. And he should have found an attorney as soon as he was contacted by law enforcement. These were big mistakes.

Anything your friend said then, and anything he says now - to you or his family members or to detectives or police or anyone else - can be used against him should any charges result from his online activities. You can be used by law enforcement as a witness against him.

No one here can tell you if your friend will be charged with a crime. It’s a possibility. It’s also possible that nothing will come from your friend’s online activities and texting. For now, all you can do is to tell your friend that he needs an attorney before he says or does anything else that could harm him legally. You could help him with the cost of the attorney.

And you could tell your friend to stay off the internet and to stop with the texting and to stop talking about what he did. He needs to continue seeing his therapist.
 

not2cleverRed

Obvious Observer
from what my friend tells me he sent no naked photos and no naked videos to this girl. he tells me the worst he did was ask a few sexual questions such as does she masturbate, would she be willing to try masturbating if she had never done it, he asked her several times over text what color her panties were that was about the extent of there sexual conversations via email and text.
Sounds like "child enticement" to me.

And you're still "friends"?

also i spoke to my friends mom who knows more about his gognitive disabilities than anyone, and she even told he hed never ever meet a minor in person its just not who he is he just simply made a mistake or however you word it.
She's neither a mind reader nor a fortune teller; her judgement on this subject is too biased.

he has told me as well as his mom that he regrets the situation and has learned from it. and that all he wants to do now is move past it and seek professional help so it doesnt happen again.
That's a start.

Yes, your friend can be charged with "child enticement". What matters is that his intent was to have such communications with a minor, not the actual age of rando online person that he was communicating with.

Furthermore, you can say that this isn't in his character... but how do you know that he's being fully honest?
 

quincy

Senior Member
The post is on three sites this morning.
Skates459 is not doing his friend any favors by publicizing his friend’s potential crimes to a wide audience. His friend already has said too much. He definitely should not have said anything to Skates459. Together these two are likely to talk his friend right into a criminal charge that even an attorney will struggle to defend him against.
 

not2cleverRed

Obvious Observer
Skates459 is not doing his friend any favors by publicizing his friend’s potential crimes to a wide audience. His friend already has said too much. He definitely should not have said anything to Skates459. Together these two are likely to talk his friend right into a criminal charge that even an attorney will struggle to defend him against.
I'm okay with that.
 

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