Greetings in that Divine and Most Precious Name of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!
So, because most countries have gone crazy, we should, too? Although, since about WWI it's usually more along the lines of us starting the crazy laws and the rest of the world following suit. Regardless- attempting any physically violent act against a person that does not exist would under any other circumstances constitute insanity.
I am not quite sure I understand you, I can only hope you mean well. How exactly have other nations gone crazy in enforcing and targeting sexual predators? Let me explain, nobody is more sympathetic to criminals than myself. Further, I wholly agree with the Gospel message of Matthew 25 to visit, console, and comfort prisoners, all the more especially the guilty. However, this does not exonerate their guilt, neither does this sympathy and concern null the need for punishment. I also firmly believe in "innocent until proven guilty" and I am well aware of the witch-hunts which occur in American legal system and the hundreds of completely and absolutely innocent people doing a lot of time. A dude in Long Beach just got out after serving 10 years in prison for a rape he never committed, the women completely lied and it finally came out under oath elsewhere and the guy was released. It is a statistical reality that when people serve more than 5 years in prison, essentially their life if forever destroyed. However, this priest pleaded guilty. I am also aware of the pressures which the legal system places on people to take plea bargains, the LA Men's Central Country Jail is quite literally a dungeon, it is the single largest prison-facility in the WORLD, and it is a hell-hole. The County does this on purpose, to encourage people to take the plea-bargain, because if they fight the case it make take several years, and they will serve the entirety of that process in that same County Jail dungeon. Again though, in this instance a priest confessed, and considering that child molestation is both the most despicable crime in America and that in prison it is essentially a death sentence by other inmates, I think that in this instance the priest would hardly have fessed up if we was truly innocent. Wouldn't he have faith in God? Perhaps not if he knew he was guilty 
stay blessed,
habte selassie
Habte- as I seem to be repeating myself here, let me just say that I am in no way defending the priest or his crime. I AM amused at the idea of being charged with "attempting" a physical act against thin air- it just paints a funny mental image for me.
As far as crazy laws re: sexual predators (the other crazy laws I briefly referenced would be our War on Drugs- drugs are bad, m'kay, but prohibition is worse), yes, the world has gone slightly crazy. In every other instance of the punishment of criminals we strive to make the punishment fit the crime. Say a first time offender tries to rob a liquor store, he gets a few years. If he does it with a gun he gets ten or twenty. If he kills someone in the commission he gets even more. A murderer can get anywhere from twenty to life or even the death penalty.
These days, someone charged with a crime of a sexual nature- whether minors were involved or not, whether actual sex was involved or not- is not only given a prison sentence, but has to spend the rest of their life (or at least a few decades) checking in with the local PD, notifying the local PD if they are going on vacation, they spend the rest of their life on a registry, and can never again live within
x000 ft of a school or any area where "children may gather". This has led to a huge homeless population in Miami who are homeless only due to the fact that they cannot legally live
anywhere. Not all these people were offenders against children- not all these people committed a sexual offense at
all. A guy might have had to relieve himself while on a road trip but between rest stops and is charged with Indecent Exposure- bam, registry.
The definition of child pornography has been stretched to such an extent that no actual children need to have been involved- Bart Simpson getting it on with Wendy from South Park nowadays constitutes. Creepy? Yes. Disgusting? Definitely. Should it be illegal? Perhaps. Should it have the same penalty as actually making two children undress and perform sexual acts on each other? I don't think so.