Yes and no. I haven't seen the whole video, so I'd really have to know what their procedure was for engaging (suspects/victims/potential predators, depending on one's [apparently wide-ranging in this thread ;) ] view). "She said she was 10 but she looked 18" isn't really a tenable defense, as far as I'm aware.
In every US jurisdiction I'm familiar with, at least, if the honeypot declares "I'm 10 years old," that's it. Game over if the predator continues to engage sexually; the honeypot's face-value declaration of age is enough to get the predator on the hook for intent.
FYI, while Sweetie is a next step in that it has an audio-visual component, the standard operating procedure in text-only fora for years has been adult male F.B.I. agents roleplaying as a young male or female child to nab predators. The declaration of age is part of that standard operating procedure to make it easy to prove intent ("the chatter even said he was 10 and the perpetrator still went on with it!").
I'm not saying it's a defense - it's clearly not. There just seems to be something creepy about using a representation that looks older and calling it a younger age.
In every US jurisdiction I'm familiar with, at least, if the honeypot declares "I'm 10 years old," that's it. Game over if the predator continues to engage sexually; the honeypot's face-value declaration of age is enough to get the predator on the hook for intent.
FYI, while Sweetie is a next step in that it has an audio-visual component, the standard operating procedure in text-only fora for years has been adult male F.B.I. agents roleplaying as a young male or female child to nab predators. The declaration of age is part of that standard operating procedure to make it easy to prove intent ("the chatter even said he was 10 and the perpetrator still went on with it!").