I’ll never understand how trying to meet up with children is a misdemeanor.
Because there's no actual victim. A police decoy creates an imaginary victim. The stings are great at identifying pedos but until the guy is caught trying to meet a real underage victim there's not much the courts can do.
When they do finally get caught trying to meet a real victim they tend to do time though. But who knows how many times they get away with it before they get caught.