Age of consent, paedophilia, NAMBLA etc.

[megumidesu]

Just like most homosexuals don't seek help on how to rid their homosexuality.

innocent people do not get hurt by homosexuality.
there is every possibility that innocent people will be hurt by pedophilia.

[KingOfSnakes20]

The brass taxes are pedophilia is wrong. A child under the age of 15 is in no way developed enough to make that kind of decision and is most of the time encouraged by the older party.

Personally I believe that pedophilia is a act of lustful greed and should be punished more harshly than it is.

[megumidesu]

i think people sometimes forget that not all child abusers are pedophiles .
someone who rapes a child doesn't always do it because of sexual lust . rape is about power and control , not physical / sexual attraction .

(obviously some pedophiles do molest children , but i'm just saying not all abusers are pedophiles.)

[KingOfSnakes20]

I believe that Pedophilia is child abuse. It's obvious some don't see it that way and no offense to those but that's just my take on it.

[nfisher1226]

It's offensive that people continue to draw comparisons between being attracted to the same gender and being attracted to children. They're not the same thing. The comparisons have been historically used against gays to great effect. They still are.

For the sake of yourselves and the rest of us, please stop linking the two concepts. You're helping out those who want to oppress all of us, as in those on this forum and those substantially like us in terms of sexual orientation.

If you haven't heard the arguments or seen the crappy logic, go research it a little. Apparently allowing gays to openly love each other will lead in short order to polygamous marriage, incest, bestiality, pedophaelia, and cats sleeping with dogs.

Stop propagating this. Please. There is quite a lot more difference between two men being in love (or two women being in love) and an adult having relations with a child than just the age issue. It's just not a comparison that's going to do any of us any good.

[nu2this]

So, I was rewatching one of the older South Park episodes (don't judge me) and couldn't help but do some research on NAMBLA; The North American Man/Boy Love Association.

This is basically an organization that questions the stigmatisation of paedophilia and argues that sexual relationships between adults and younger children can be harmless and even beneficial as long as there's mutual consent. They wish to undermine the notion that children and teenagers are incapable of making their own decisions and sexually liberate themselves.

I for one, believe that the general attitude towards paedophilia is very harmful. Much like none of us chose to be LGBT, I'm under the very firm impression that people who are attracted to prepubescent children are equally unable to choose or control their inclination. It's not all that unusual for citizens, especially in smaller towns, to react violently towards people they (sometimes falsely) suspect to be paedophiles. I remember, at one point I spotted a woman in my own town handing out papers accompanied by a picture of a man and a textual description of his criminal history which invlolved sexual child abuse, for which he was sentenced to many years in prison. Apparently he had moved to our town and she wanted to raise awareness. I asked her where she had gotten the information from, to which she replied "my sister heard of it from some of her friends". I was shocked by the way people trusted the paper with absolutely no reasonable evidence provided.

If you believe our attractions are beyond our control, it's obvious that there's nothing inherently wrong with being attracted to something criminal. Therefore it makes no sense to prosecute people of a certain inclination. Some urges, however, obviously can't be acted out upon, for the safety of others in mind. To me paedophilia is one of them. I'm very open for a debate in regards to age of consent laws, but I stand by the limit propagated by my own country, which is 15. The reason for this is that I simply don't believe children younger than that can be expected to make benevolent decisions and evaluate their different choices properly. Do you agree or disagree? Do you support NAMBLA's rights to advocate such taboo opinions and what's your take on paedophilia as a whole? No attacks in this thread please, I find this genuinely interesting to talk about!

It needs to be talked about, I feel that an adult can sometimes *impress* a younger child, and convince them to participate that the child might later regret, or aint mature enough to make the right decision yet

[nu2this]

I can see this discussion opening a can of worms, nothing brings out the passion in people like a discussion of paedophilia.

NAMBLA is wrong, its a very small group of people that are effectively fighting for their own rights to seek sexual gratification in an immoral manner.

While a child may be aroused by sexual contact or the prospect of sexual contact giving the predator of that child the justification 'They wanted it' and 'They consented', they are not emotionally developed to understand the consequences of consenting to such an act so in essence any adult coercing a child for sex is taking advantage of the situation and abusing the child.

15-16 years old I feel is a reasonable age of consent as by that age most would be able to make an informed decision that those younger could not make, but having said that there should still be constraints, and I believe in many cases there are, like limiting the age difference between the consenting couple to 5 years.

10, 11, 12 year old boys and girls are going to experiment with their sexuality, some adult know that and are willing to take advantage of that, but children experimenting with their sexuality should be left to experiment with each other.

Paedophiles themselves I don't understand so I can't say that they can't choose or control their inclination to take sexual advantage of someone that is vulnerable. I believe as an adult we make choices and even a paedophile is capable of making choices and deciding what is right and wrong and doing what ever they have to do that remove the temptation to commit a sexual offense against a child.

Very well said my friend, exept I think 18 should be the mimimum age

[shymeeee]

I won't ever condone adults having sex children. So what is it called when a man prefers just young ADULT men or women...18 and up? Do we also have a mental condition?

[Pix]

I won't ever condone adults having sex children. So what is it called when a man prefers just young ADULT men or women...18 and up? Do we also have a mental condition?

Depends on the age of the man. But yeah, if some 50-year-old can only be attracted to some 19-year-old it probably does reflect a mental or emotional problem of some kind, shallowness and/or immaturity at best. Especially if he snatches one up and discards after a few years for a new model.

[skijor]

I too am opposed to men liking kids (that is sick) but it was very common in Roman and Greek cultures way back when for an older man to have a younger man on the side even if the older man was married. I disagree that an attraction to 20 something men is mental. look at how many straight older men are attracted to younger women. Playboy would go out of business if they didn't publish pics of younger women.