Hahaha, love that last sentence. The serious tone in it makes me laugh out loud.

You know, I can understand guys who see a 16 or 17 year old and think 'looks nice...'. This probably has happened to me before and wel yeah, who gives a ****. But apart from thinking so, I never tried anything. But actual kids? Even if you do have these desires... Why destroy someone's life? It seems so egoistic.

I think I can agree the most with the udea of making them repress their sexual urges. Something like a sexual preference is ridiculously difficult (arguably impossible) to rewrite, but in the big indoctrination we call life, sex drives don't quite share the same untouchable status. You could probably convince a paedophile that his rape fantasies should never become reality with far greater ease than you could convice him that children aren't attractive.

But where do you draw the line?
At people who actually raped a kid? At people who watch that sort of porn? At people who have at some point in their live admitted they are interested in kids in that way?

People who are guilty of rape, across any age and any gender, are despicable and should receive the full punitive action of society and the law.

People who are guilty of possession of child pornography, or who admit to an attraction to children, but who have never acted upon their desires, should be monitored, and provided psychological aid.

The issue with child porn isn't so much with the people that watch it but rather how it got out there, at least in my opinion. In a perfect world there would be no child porn out there, so people wouldn't be allowed to watch it, but at least watching it is better than actually physically acting upon their urges. To have those thoughts in your head is abnormal but I don't see any issue in them having those thoughts. They can't help it. They should be helped though. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, drugs to decrease sex drive, etc.

16 or 17 is a different story entirely...it might be "wrong" in the lawful sense but it doesn't represent anywhere near the same magnitude of sexual corruption as being attracted to children who haven't achieved puberty yet.

I think for some men, there might even be a certain mysticism about the pubescent female -- look no further than Nabokov's Lolita for evidence of that.

Pedophilia and ephebophilia are sexual preferences, just as homosexuality and heterosexuality are sexual preferences. Pedophiles do not "develop" an attraction to minors just as homosexuals do not "develop" an attraction to the same sex; it's an inborn trait that cannot be changed. In that sense, there is nothing morally wrong with being sexually attracted to minors because it's not something that you actively choose.

What IS morally reprehensible is when you choose to engage in inappropriate actions with someone who is too young to consent/understand the full consequences of their actions.

I think it's just a sucky truth that pedophiles can't help the way they feel but are hatred with vitrol by most of society anyway.

Hopefully though, we're all aware of the fact that teenagers don't know **** about their sexuality, and that's the primary reason we shouldn't be bonking them. :laughing:

I'll stick to bonking middle aged women.

16 or 17 is a completely different story, yeah. If they have the qualities of an older woman that you find attractive, then you're attracted to them, which is fine if you don't act on it. this isn't usually an issue, because most just opt to go for older women as it's socially acceptable.

There is of course being attracted to the idea of someone being underage though. I know there's a paraphilia where people are attracted specifically to people that are right around the age of consent, can't remember the name though.