First, did you bring this up because there was another Dateline "To Catch a Predator" show I missed? I'm still hoping they'll repeat the one I missed. They recently showed a couple, but both were ones I'd seen (I still watched them, though). Or did you bring it up, just in general? I hope the latter, because I like watching these shows, and would hate to think I missed another one.

As for the shows themselves, I know they edit parts, but from what I've seen, they mostly wait for the guy to bring up sex first. I think it's intentionally done that way so the men can't claim entrapment. And the Perverted-Justice.com people don't really talk "nasty sex talk" with the men. The men bring it up and ask the "girls" if they can do this or that, or tell them what they'll do. Nevertheless, if P-J did engage these men in nasty sex talk and the guys went along with it, I'd still blame the guys. They're adults. They're responsible for their actions. Teens are still learning to be adults, so it's up to the adult to be in charge.

Yes, there are teens who will be sexual online without prompting from other people. Part of this may be exploring, but when teens do this, it's often because they're not getting something--attention, love, security--at home.

P-J doesn't just pretend to be girls; they also pretend to be teen boys, because some pedophiles seek boys. Another thing you have to remember is, most of these men seem to lie about their age; certainly, many do. So, the kids may not be seeking a 30-40-year-old, but online, they can't tell how old someone really is.

I remember a news show doing a "sting" like this a few years ago. When some of the people in the neighborhood where they did the sting found out, they were upset, and understandably so: The show lured dangerous men to their neighborhood. I get that. But the reality is, men like you see on Dateline are probably in your neighborhood already.

The men that Dateline catches are the stupid ones, the ones who know Dateline does this, but they show up, anyway. The ones who don't use their heads about meeting someone online (you never know if a person, even a teen, is who s/he says s/he is). The ones who think a 14-year-old won't wonder why they look older than they said they were when they show up. It's the smarter ones that we really need to worry about. They know not to visit someone online in the spur of the moment. They know to plan. They know to be careful.

Frankly, I was thinking Dateline should make its predator-catching show a weekly thing.