age verification

Yes, in the US, police actions in web chat rooms are organized around setting up a sting. Talking really dirty to a kid may be reprehensible (though these days the kids can probably talk dirtier to the adults than the adults can to the kids O.O), but it is not something the police can work with. There are cops working full-time pretending to be 13- and 14-year-olds, recording the chat and other online exchanges. When they get a predator, they need him to exhibit intent to sexually assault a minor in RL. So they set up a "meeting," often in a shopping mall within reach of the predator. When he shows up at the appointed time and place exhibiting the agreed-upon dress or other signals, they have an actionable crime to prosecute.

Which works for me.

Let me just add that the reason they record the chat isn't that the chat itself is criminal, but rather that it is evidence that the adult believed the other person was a minor. It's the exact opposite of the sort of situation people worry about here.

Well that actually isn't entrapment because the people in the car, assuming they are drunk, are stuck. If they drive, they will be committing DUI, and if they walk around they are going to be drunk in public. Entrapment is when you are otherwise not going to commit a crime, but the police encourage you to do something that would not have crossed your mind but for their suggestion -- not really the case when no matter what you do, you're committing a crime because you are drunk. Basically in the US in many states it's illegal to be drunk outside of your house. The law is not enforced very often, but in DUI cases it is enforced (sometimes) to punish the passengers who allowed their drunk friend to drive.

Applied to these kinds of cases, it's hard to see an entrapment angle. Police officers posing in chatrooms (or even in SL) as minors are not considered entrapment, because the person was looking to commit a crime anyway (ie, he was looking to hook up with a minor). Presumably the same logic would apply to that kind of thing taking place on SL -- the important thing being that the police are only going to bust you if you are talking about meeting the person for sex in real life. That's where the crime element creeps in.

This is true.

In the Case of SL ..

The minor lied to use the service, and surely lied to the adult about their RL age (at least in general terms)

They can, however, sit in the car - not driving - and call a repair service to come drive them home. (Certainly some UK repair services offer that option, although at a high fee - if USA ones don't I can understand it more.)

Or call a cab

Not true in many parts of the USA. If you are in control of a car, having the keys in easy access. You can and will be charged with DUI. Doesn't even matter if the car will not run, it will be assumed that you drove it under the influence before it quit. You can even be charged with DUI for driving drunk on your own property in an empty farm field.

Of course, but the second they leave the car they are drunk in public.

I'd hate to be the guy that got a DUI for being responsible and pulling over when I realized that I was not capable of safely driving.. seriously.. that cop would suck >.< (More responsible than continuing I mean)

Make a tunnel out of cardboard between the cab and the car, so you aren't publicly visible?

Also you don't actually need to be sitting in the car or driving it, in many states. If you put the key in the doorlock, they can bust you from that point forward for DUI. If you are not driving and are making out with someone in your car, and are drunk, you can get busted, etc. The law is pretty widely construed in many places.

Possible in theory, but most drunk people don't have the presence of mind (or the materials) to do something like that: they're drunk, it's 2am, their friend was just taken away in handcuffs, and when the officer comes and asks them to leave the car, they usually comply. It isn't entrapment though, because outside of the space shuttle docking scenario, they have no real way of not breaking the law, and the police officers aren't the ones who got them drunk (presumably). If the police officers were sitting undercover in the bar and buying the group free drinks and then turned around and busted them for being drunk in public when they left the bar, that would be closer to having been entrapped.

Think maybe our laws are just a little bit too over-reaching sometimes?

Personally, I would repeal every law passed since 1900.

That is insanity.

So presumably if the checkout person at the supermarket is under 21 and helps the disabled customer carry her shopping to the car, and that shopping includes a bottle of wine, they both go to jail?

And I thought freedom in OUR country (UK) was being restricted! Wow!

It sounds like a case where the cop had a grudge, perhaps a personal grudge, against the people he busted. (Sometimes cops will use petty overenforcement like this to drive petty criminals and undesirables out of an area, but I'll presume the poster's relative was not such a person.) This is one reason why there are courts, and judges and juries, to guard against official abuse - not to mention the occasional rational prosecutors with enough on their plates sensibly declining to prosecute nonsensical cases.

actually in the US we have this crazy legacy notion called "States Rights" and different states have different rules about alcohol, drinking ages, and cases like you described.

Indeed, and in some states it's also different by county, as Michelle Shocked recounted in her memorable song "Making the Run to Gladewater" about her younger years in East Texas:

Good i'm glad to hear it, it's about time the kids were kicked off the grid, i've run into loads of them in my time on the grid and A.R'd every single one of them. Theres a reason the teen grid exsists. Go play there and leave us to our ADULT things. Dont like it, then log off cancel your account and come back when your old enough. SL gets enough bad press as it is without some stupid kid getting into trouble and bringing the game into further disrepute.

I can drive 50 feet in the same county and go from a wet area to a dry one.

Bathroom vs Outhouse?

Able to buy or sell booze vs. prohibition.

In the City of Bristol, the state line runs right down the middle of the main street. The Virginia side is wet, the Tennessee side is dry. Makes for some interesting stories...

The bootleggers and the fundamentalists in the area cooperate to help keep it that way. The fundamentalists to combat demon run, and the bootleggers to protect their business running booze into the dry area...

/me giggles. I actually remember when I visited my brother in Texas one summer. He told me how one town could be dry, one would only sell beer in supermarkets, no hard liquor at all, and some would have full liquor sales all in the same area. Some would have regular bars, and some would only have "Private Bars". You had to buy a Club Card, usually like $5 a year. He'd buy all the booze he could at the Base Exchange and sell it to the locals, at quite a profit.