Attraction to minors.

“Minor-attracted person”, or “MAP”, refers to adults who are sexually or romantically attracted to children or adolescents and also refers to adolescents who are attracted to children. This concept overlaps with others, such as pedophilia and hebephilia. However, this category is fairly new and most people don’t see the difference between attraction to minors and rape. Because of that, the self-esteem of minor-attracted people is threatened, they hide and develop self-hatred. But it’s important for the minor-attracted person to understand that they are not a threat to minors, that their attraction is fine in other cultures and that, putting things that way, attraction to minors isn’t a disorder in itself, but is made such by society. That should help minor-attracted people to accept themselves wholeheartedly, to see cultural phenomena as passive of change, to improve understanding of themselves and point to help (although not to a “cure”), if such is needed.

The problem.

Try looking up the word “pedophilia” online right now. What you will likely see is a number of news articles about child rape, molestation or worse. However, some people, that is a very narrow picture. I am talking about minor-attracted people. Those people acknowledge that they have feelings for minors, so they are in position to evaluate what people say about them. And for many minor-attracted people, the news do not reflect who they truly are.

The phenomenon of attraction to minors is too diverse to be adequately described by media, always compromised with their audience. There are minor-attracted people who are pedophiles (attracted to prepubescent children), but there’s also nepiophiles (attracted to babies) and hebephiles (attracted to pubescents). There are minor-attracted people who feel that what they desire does not need to be illegal, but others prefer things to stay the way they are. And most interestingly, there are minors who are attracted to much younger minors, not to mention minors who are attracted to same-age peers. Is this looking confusing already? Hopefully, everything will be cleared out soon. For now, what is important to know is that attraction to minors is a diverse phenomenon, both in terms of age of attraction and in terms of contact ethics.

The problem is that media, by spreading misinformation, makes many minor-attracted people feel isolated. They do not see themselves reflected in the monsters portrayed in the news. So, if you are law-abiding and attracted to minors, you might think that you are one of a few or that you would soon end up acting illegally. That causes feelings of despair. Yet, that despair is grounded on a false assumption: that all minor-attracted people are active or potential criminals. It is not like that for many and does not have to be like that for you.

That being said, looking up information about attraction to minors in general and pedophilia in particular can be a very painful effort. The goal of this text is to provide information about attraction to minors to minor-attracted people themselves, in order to make them feel more at an ease. The first section tries to define attraction to minors, the second tries to explain the difference between thoughts and actions. Hopefully, after reading this, you will be able to sleep well. Because the text has minor-attracted people as audience, I will write using the second person.

Before going any further, I need to state that this guide will not teach you how to break the law: there is no information on grooming, sharing of child pornography or anything like that. If you came to this page expecting any of such tips, I fear you will be disappointed. The text is introductory and should not be seen as a scientific report. Please, check the reading list at the end of this text for further information.

Attraction to minors.

Being attracted to minors is having an erotic attachment to people who are not adults. Because “minor” is a legal term, not a biological one, such as “child”, there’s no universal age for one to be called a “minor”, even though, in most Western societies, you are only an adult when you hit the age of 18. Attraction to babies is called nepiophilia, attraction to prepubescent children is called pedophilia, attraction to pubescent children and adolescents is called hebephilia, attraction to postpubescent adolescents is called ephebophilia. It is important to stress that those terms imply a preferential attraction: if you felt sexually attracted to a child once, but it was an one-time occurence or if your desire for adults is higher, you are not a pedophile. Out of those, only pedophilia and, by extension, nepiophilia are considered mental disorders, according to the International Classification of Diseases and the Diagnostic and Statistic Manual of Mental Disorders, but only as long as the pedophile is markedly distressed by the feelings or if he has acted according to the impulse. That being said, a pedophile is not necessarily mentally ill (those manuals describe a condition called “pedophilic disorder”, setting apart pedophiles can be considered ill from those who can be considered healthy), depending on how well the pedophile deals with his feelings. The reason why hebephilia and ephebophilia are not considered disorders, even when the impulse meets proper satisfaction, is because they are far too common to be considered such. Plus, the pathologization of hebephilia would have undesired effects in the forensic field.

It’s also worth noting that minor-attracted people aren’t always adults: according to one of B4U-ACT’s surveys, most minor-attracted people feel their first attraction to an younger child at age 12 and notice that such attraction is preferential at age 14. That means that there are adolescents who are attracted to children, for example. How would a person who hates minor-attracted people as a consequence of their desire to protect children respond to this? Protecting children implies protecting minor-attracted children too. So, hating minor-attracted people in general is not something that can be conciliated with the desire to protect children in general.

While minor-attracted people differ in “ages of attraction”, they also differ in political position. The age of consent is a law. Positioning yourself as favorable or against a law is a political position. There are pedophiles who are favorable to age of consent reform and there are those who are not. The set of beliefs concerning the age of consent, if it needs or not to be reformed, is called “contact ethics” and is personal: some want the age of consent to be abolished entirely, others want the age of consent to be lower, others want the age of consent to stay the way it is and some even want it to be higher. Those ideals are not indicative of offender status: a person can be “pro-reform” (also known as “pro-contact” or “pro-C”) and law-abiding. Being law-abiding is often called being “non-offending”. None of such ideals imply a position on child pornography: there are pro-reform minor-attracted people who would not want the legalization of child pornography, while some anti-reform (also known as “anti-contact” or “anti-C”) could want the legalization at least of cartoon child pornography, while being against the legalization of child pornography featuring real children. But it does not mean you have to conform to a certain set of legal beliefs. It all depends on how you see yourself and how you judge your desires.

Arguments for or against age of consent reform vary. Those who are pro-reform argue that some adult-child relationships, sexual or not, are harmless or even beneficial, in a way that it would be more fair if those relationships were judged on a case-by-case basis, and those who are anti-reform argue that harm could still happen, that such harm could be devastating or that, even if those relationships could be harmless and positively recalled, they are still immoral, as the consent given by the child can always be called into question. The mere fact that such debate exists within minor-attracted communities should serve to dispel the prejudice that people who are sexually attracted to minors are always unethical. Also, it is unlikely that you would defend either position disregarding children’s safety and feelings. Since sexuality includes several interpersonal elements and a dynamic between the person who desires and the desired person, something that is observed even in adolescents, then it’s safe to say that sexual attraction is a feature of a wider erotic response that includes feelings of love.

Causes.

The causes of attraction to minors are not clear. It seems to be first noticed in adolescence and is resistant to change. Considering that even people under the age of 12 are sexual beings and that some even have sexual play with each other, one could think that the problem regarding attraction to minors resides in the fact that the person never “outgrew” their own child sexuality, but it is not always like that: some people notice that they are preferably attracted to children late in life.

But is it innate or learned? For a while, it was thought that having sexual contacts with an adult would cause the child to grow as a pedophile. That line of thought is called “abused-abuser cycle” and is currently being contested. There seems to be no necessary link between having sexual contacts in childhood and growing up attracted to children, specially if such contact is regarded as negative. Current opinion in academia is that this kind of feeling is innate. You don’t learn to be attracted to children. So, there is no “becoming” when it comes to attraction to minors: you are or you are not. However, one can speak of “discovery”. You discover yourself as a minor-attracted person, but you can not say that a specific event “taught” you the attraction.

Attraction to minors in general and pedophilia in particular are not choices, with a handful of researchers claiming that pedophilia could be a sexual orientation. If attraction to minors happens to be a sexual orientation, an analogy with homosexuality is possible: nothing can “turn you gay”, you either are gay or are not. But you can say that you “discover yourself gay”. While that does not warrant that adult-child sex should be legal, that does mean that, if pedophiles do not choose their condition and that changing such condition is not possible, hating them for that alone is unfair. You are not responsible for the feelings you have, but only for your actions. More on that later.

Characteristics.

Minor-attracted people notice their first attraction to children around the age of 12. Contrary to popular belief, it is not an exclusively male phenomenon: women and girls can be attracted to people much younger than themselves as well. The feelings you might have come in three levels: caring, romantic and sexual. In the first level, you may have urges to care for the young, offer guidance, protect and be available for their needs. That would help to explain why so many sex scandals involve people in positions of guidance, such as priests or teachers. On the second level, the urge is to have emotional bonding, physical contact (hugging, kissing) and things alike. On the third level, the desires are geared towards what we would call “molestation”, in legal terms: touching, caressing, fondling, acts that are more often centered on the child. It has been pointed in literature that, at least when it comes to pedophiles (not including hebephiles or ephebophiles), penetration is a rare feature of sexual contact with children. Considering that those sexual feelings may coexist with loving feelings, it seems natural that pedophiles, as people attracted to prepubescent children, would refrain from penetrative activity, as it would be both painful and probably degrading for the child. An immature child experiencing penetration is unlikely to enjoy it: losing the virginity can be a painful experience for older girls and even women, let alone for a small child. A child should never be submitted to anything beyond their level of maturity.

However, as implied by the two first attraction tiers (care and romance), you probably would not feel gratification if the child or adolescent is unwilling. The laymen could then ask “what about the cases of child rape that we see on television?” It is now known that most people arrested for sex with minors do not fulfill the diagnostic criteria for pedophilia. There are several reasons for a person to have sex with minors and pedophilia is just one of them. The person could have sex with a minor for experimentation, revenge, desire to cause pain, intoxication, jailbaiting, mental disorder or, in extreme, rare cases, minor-on-adult rape. If only a minority of those people on television are diagnosed pedophiles, laymen are supposed to be more worried about “normal” people abusing their children. If an abuser really could be “anyone”, it’s now known that it seldom is a true pedophile, according to the medical definition of the term. In fact, there is a large figure that is very seldom discussed: many people who have illegal sexual contacts with children may very well also be children, who might have such contacts in a harmless and willing way.

Finally, considering the social impact of those relationships and the caring and romantic feelings that coexist with the sexual feelings, it is not a surprise that many minor-attracted people choose to remain celibate towards children and adolescents. In fact, even among those who espouse a pro-reform view, having a sexual relationship with a minor in the current climate of illegality is viewed as unethical, as it can expose both the adult and the minor to the tribulations of societal intervention. So, pedophiles who have sincere feelings of love for children should remain celibate, even if they mean no harm, at least until the climate becomes more accepting of those relationships. This, of course, does not rule out activism to change the laws. More on that later as well.

Is there a treatment or cure?

Whether attraction to minors is a sexual orientation or a disorder, it is resistant to change. We know that aversion therapy, once used as an attempt to change homosexual attraction into a heterosexual one, does not work. Such punishment (as it can’t be called therapy at all) is still applied on people with problematic sexual attractions. Aversion therapy techniques include electric shock, vomit induction, high-frequency buzzing noises and other unpleasant stimuli while, at same time, it is also given to the subject something that sexually arouses them.

If attraction to minors can not be changed, the best we can do in the current climate is to help minor-attracted people to stay law-abiding while improving the quality of their life. I’m not kidding. When you are isolated or has the feeling of “having nothing to lose”, you are more prone to offend. That means that isolating minor-attracted people from society is not helpful to the goals of society, nor to your goals of staying non-offending. With that in mind, the therapeutic group B4U-ACT does not advocate treatment that aims to “cure” you, especially because B4U-ACT does not see attraction to minors as an illness. Therapists who work with B4U-ACT are supposed to stick to humane treatment, focused on your well-being, which does lessen the chances of offense.

Feelings and actions.

Feeling attraction to minors is different from acting on such attraction. To make an analogy, several people have urges to do illegal things: to murder or beat up a person they dislike, to experiment with illicit drugs or playing illicit games. However, having those feelings do not guarantee that a person would act on those urges. Nonetheless, people are entitled to their fantasies. Same goes to you.

In Japan, cartoon child pornography, in the form of lolicon/shotacon manga, is tolerated. But the availability of such pornography (as with any pornography) does not seem to increase Japan’s rates of illegal sexual contacts with children at all. According to the news outlet International Business Times, both United States and United Kingdom, two territories that are very invested in fighting pedophilia, appear in the list of the five countries with highest rates of child sexual abuse. It is important to remind you that the information comes from a news outlet and that the definition of “child” in the article is not given. But lets suppose that the list is accurate. If it is, how can we explain such fact?

In a study about the presence of pornography and it’s correlation with sex crime rates in Czech Republic, we read that there is a correlation between the presence of legal child pornography and the reduction of illegal sexual contacts between adults and children. While that does not warrant that child pornography should be legal, that could mean that the presence of child pornography makes pedophiles in particular less prone to seek encounters with real children. That could help to explain why the rates of child sexual abuse are low in Japan, but high in United States: Japan allows pedophiles to have an outlet for their feelings, giving them safe discharge, in the form of fantasy, such as games, manga and anime. Provided that such outlet is fantasy, real children do not have to participate in the production at all. Because of that, there is some research being done in the subject of virtual reality child pornography, which would serve the same purpose. While evidence showing that child pornography makes pedophiles less prone to offend is inconclusive, investigating the use of child pornography with no real children as a coping mechanism is still worth a try. So, if you are against any modification on the age of consent laws, this possibility is something you should consider. In the age of artificial intelligence, we could be missing a good opportunity.

Even if no outlet is given, no one can take away their right to fantasize. It’s not possible to make thoughts and feelings illegal. As long as you find a way to have legal sexual relief, the proneness to break the law would be lower. Also, there are other forms of expression that are not sexually explicit. For example, a “boy love” novel was published on in 2018. It was not the first book of it’s kind and probably will not be last. The existence of legal fiction works with such themes shows that sublimation of the desire through artistic work is also possible and it can also be done in an acceptable, legal and even profitable way.

In short, you don’t have to fear your urges, but to respect them and respond to them constructively, seeking alternative relief through fantasy and using your inclinations as an artistic inspiration source. Try it out next time you feel bored.

Age of consent and culture.

The volatility of laws makes them unsuitable for defining what is sick and what is not, even though they can dictate what is socially acceptable and what is not. This is an important issue to touch for the well-being of minor-attracted people, because part of the shame they feel over their feelings comes from the fact that many forms of expression of their attraction are illegal in their territory.

Age of consent varies across cultures, that is, across time and place. The first ages of consent were very low. Such low ages of consent reflect the fact that, historically, sexual relationships between adults and people who would today classify as minors used to be common. This fact is understudied nowadays. In United States, for example, the age of consent used to be 7 in Delaware. Societal movements, especially feminism, played a role in changing that picture, even though some women’s rights circles are more sexually liberal nowadays. Even today, ages of consent can be very low in some places: the age of consent in Brazil is 14 nationwide and it is 12 in Angola. The case of Brazil is specially interesting because the age of consent in Brazil was 16 in 1920, it is currently 14 and there was a proposal to lower it to 12 in 2011, following, among other things, the discovery that it was interfering with teenage romances. So, Brazil shows a tendency to lower it’s age of consent as time passes by. Peru also lowered it’s age of consent from 16 to 14 in the previous decade. There are also countries with no age of consent, but have minimum age limits for marriage, which also can be pretty low. Those countries frequently impose constraints on sexual activity in order to keep it inside marriage. So, in some countries, if you are married, age disparity does not matter. Last, in indigenous isolated cultures, such law is probably absent. That means that having romantic or sexual affairs with minors is not always illegal, depending on your cultural context. If you were born in the right place, at the right time, your attraction would be tolerated, accepted or even cherished. It is not like you are sick; you were just born in the wrong culture.

After this, one could wonder why the age of consent in United Kingdom and United States, for example, is so high. One of the arguments for keeping a high age of consent is that children mature at different paces: a 15-year-old could behave as if they were 12, despite another 15-year-old being capable of behaving as if they were 18. So, setting the bar high could ensure that no underdeveloped child or adolescent would consent to something they don’t actually understand.

Statistics and anecdotes.

But lower ages of consent imply that relationships at a certain age may not be violent. That prompts the question about whether sexual contact before the age of consent is always harmful or not. Can relationships between adults and children ever work? Are there children who want to be involved with adults?

Statistical and anecdotal evidence shows that intergenerational relationships are not consistently harmful. Some studies that could be used to prove the existence of non-violent intergenerational relationships are out there. Check the reading list at the end of this text for more information on that subject.

It is also worth mentioning that none of those studies that point to the existence of harmless adult/child sex take a definite pro-legalization position and the existence of such studies should never say that such relationships are always harmless (relationships with adults are not always positive either). But maybe the existence of conflicting studies in this matter suggests that age is not what we should be looking at, but individual readiness, willingness and absence of coercion (this gives traction to the pro-reform argument that such relationships should be evaluated in a case-by-case basis). If precocious sexual contact is always harmful, why the age of consent varies so much across the globe, even with countries lowering it? Plus, if harm is always a consequence, the age of consent would be a much older law, like the laws against murder, violence, rape and robbery, which are always harmful.

Now, even if we concede that adult/child sexual relationships can be harmless, can we presume that they can also be positively recalled? Can a minor desire it, let alone like it? Yes: many of such relationships are recalled as positive, desired and willingly engaged in by the minors themselves. One of the books used as reference for this text is Rivas’ Positive Memories, which compiles anecdotes of positively recalled, voluntary sexual contacts between minors no older than 15 with adults no younger than 18. Those anecdotes were extracted from other works, such as biographies, news articles, scientific papers and others and all of them involve willingness on the part o the minor (many minors are attracted to adults). The sources can be found in the book’s bibliography. Other compilations are available elsewhere.

The consideration of positively recalled precocious sexual contact would not be included in this document if it was not recorded in literature that knowing of such information could improve your self-esteem. But a discussion about positively experienced adult-child sexual intimacy can not be done without considering the reasons for the prohibition. If intergenerational relationships can have genuine affection between the parties, why is adult/child sexual contact still illegal? The answer relies on informed consent. The belief that children can not consent seems to be the only reason why those contacts are still considered always abuse. But what does it mean “to consent” in this context, as many of those contacts are regarded as “voluntary” by the presumed victim?

Informed consent is needed when risk is present: whenever you are about to do something dangerous, you need to be aware of the consequences of an act and must be able to take a free decision on whether to take the risk or not. Sex is regarded as risky, in the sense of potentially harmful. If sex is potentially harmful, everyone who engages in sexual practices must give informed consent, that is, must be aware of the consequences and be able to take a free stance on accepting the risk or not. The problem with adult/child sexual contact is that, while some adults are not fully aware of the consequences of their acts and while power imbalance is inherent to human relationships, children are both ignorant of the consequences and in a position of disadvantage towards the entire society. Informed consent is based either on information or favorable power dynamics and neither thing is present for the child in such a relationship. And that also explains why the age of consent varies across cultures: different countries have different attitudes towards sex, more or less informed youth, wider or narrower extent of children’s rights, at different given historical contexts. The first of these, the attitudes towards sex, determines whether sex is sufficiently risky to require informed consent and the other two, information and children’s rights, determine at what age one can give such informed consent if it’s decided that informed consent is needed. So, when someone says “children can not consent”, what they are saying is:

• children are not informed enough to give a valid consent to sexual relationships that are inherently unequal, and;
• this issue is important because sex is risky, that is, potentially harmful.

It doesn’t matter if the child said yes: if their consent is invalid, the act is equivalent to rape, even if just in purely legal terms (hence the term “statutory rape”). That is the rationale behind informed consent and the reason why adult/child sexual contact remains illegal. Even if the act was genuinely and freely engaged in and even if no harm, but only benefit, resulted from the act, it was still immoral.

For many things, parents and guardians consent for their children. So, when it comes to sexual matters, even if the age of consent were to be abolished, that does not equal full child liberation. The child would still be cared for and nurtured by their parents, who would be responsible for them and held accountable for the harm that the child could suffer from anything, sexual or not. Because of that, many parents would not accept their children getting into such adventures, even if the child attains the right to legally voice their desire to participate.

In any case, children have their own maturing pace and each individual child develops differently. They are supposed to learn about their sexuality in their own way. This is a very tricky situation, because the introduction of adult elements in a sexuality that is still developing could disturb the development of said sexuality, which could result in frustration for the child after they grow up or even immediately. We still would have to consider the possibility of selfish adults tricking or manipulating the child or otherwise trying to make their interest prevail over the child’s interest. If that’s a possibility, legalization remains an subject to be debated. I am sure that you can be a loving person, but a few others may not be as much. And finally, a child and an adult in a sexual relationship could be looking for different things: the adult could be looking for physical intimacy and emotional bonding, while the child would be motivated by curiosity and pleasure. If the motivations are different, the relationship might not be fulfilling for either (although evidence suggests that yes, it can).

Plus, even if there is positively recalled adult/child sexual contact and even if anecdotal evidence shows that there are minors craving such encounters, the act, when discovered, will cause damage to both parties of the relationship, due to the judicial proceeding and probably therapy afterwards. I reiterate that acting on those desires in a cultural context that is disapproving of such conduct is a display of irresponsibility. Pro-reform minor-attracted people are interested in changing the laws, but should not be interested in acting illegally, not only because of their own safety, but also because of how the child might respond to the intervention.

Recommendations.

If you will not necessarily commit any crime, if most people who perpetrate sexual offenses against children are not pedophiles in the first place and if such attractions have been, are and could be acceptable depending on cultural context, then you have no reason to feel ill. If that is all that you needed to read, you could drop the issue altogether and stop caring about it, as it is the load that is attributed to the feelings, rather than the feelings themselves, that cause the shame and the guilt. Society makes you feel ill, not the feelings that are present in you.

If that is the case, you could use some company to at least cope with the feeling of isolation. There are legal communities online and offline that minor-attracted people can rely on, to exchange experiences and have guidance from people who share the attraction. Of course, you are also encouraged to avoid illegal communities. B4U-ACT has a peer support group, for example. Other communities such as Boychat, Girlchat, Virtuous Pedophiles and the JORis groups of NVSH (this last one in the Netherlands) are also options. Out of those, only Virtuous Pedophiles has strict requirements for membership, as the person who joins their group needs to not advocate for law reform. I should remind the reader that anti-reform and pro-reform are not indicative of offender status. B4U-ACT, Boychat, Girlchat and the JORis groups of NVSH do not have such requirement. As B4U-ACT wants to reach as many minor-attracted people as possible, it makes sense that it would not push any particular view on the contact issue: when the Paedophile Information Exchange operated in the United Kingdom, it’s pro-reform activism pushed some members away. When it comes to age of consent reform, support groups and political activism are tough to conciliate, if not impossible. That being said, if a support group for minor-attracted people wants to reach as many people as possible, it must avoid any definitive position on the age of consent, which would encourage participation by both pro-reform and anti-reform minor-attracted people. Such attitude would also keep the organization itself safe. The JORis groups and B4U-ACT also hold real life meetings on occasion, but, while the JORis groups tries to be a support group where people can introduce themselves and talk about their struggles to receive peer support, the real life meetings held by B4U-ACT are academic in nature and researchers also participate. While people attend to B4U-ACT’s meetings on their own, some people are referred to the JORis groups by the justice system.

Not viewing attraction to minors as something negative and having others who understand and listen is crucial for the well-being of minor-attracted people, avoiding a dreaded mindset of “having nothing else to lose”, which would make the minor-attracted person prone to desperate actions, such as suicide. If you don’t commit any crimes, then you are not worth hating. In fact, if you are non-offending, you pass as perfectly “normal”. A lot of people are probably friends with at least one person like you.

To dispel the prejudices that exist regarding minor-attracted people, the best solution would be the coming out. It is much safer to “come out” online, in dedicated accounts, and many have done so on Facebook, X, Youtube, WordPress, Tumblr, Medium and so on. Freedom of speech is a human right and freedom of thought is something that can not be taken from you. No petition can change that. If you can come out online, especially if you know how to separate your public, real life identity from a dedicated online account identity, it is already helpful. The prejudice against minor-attracted people only exists because people can say whatever they wish about a silent minority. How many minor-attracted people are out there? The lowest guess, according to B4U-ACT’s facts page, is 600.000 adults, only counting United States. How many exist in other countries? Are all those people bad?

Reading list.

Here are some things you may want to read if you are feeling bored or if you want to learn more about attraction to minors in general or pedophilia in particular. Most of the sources below are available online, but others might require you to buy some books or papers. If you just want free stuff, there are two good places to go:

B4U-ACT’s Research Summary. https://www.b4uact.org/know-the-facts/
Ipce’s Library 4. https://www.ipce.info/library

There’s also the stuff below, which might be of your interest. They may or may not be free.

Age of consent around the world. https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/age-of-consent-around-the-world.html

Age of consent in European & American history. https://discover-the-truth.com/2013/09/09/age-of-consent-in-european-american-history/

A meta-analytic examination of assumed properties of child sexual abuse using college samples. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9670820/

A meta‐analytic review of findings from national samples on psychological correlates of child sexual abuse. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3813384

A rapid review of sexual pleasure in first sexual experience(s). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33871295/

Aversion therapy – punishment as treatment and treatment as cruel and unusual punishment. https://www.ncjrs.gov/App/publications/Abstract.aspx?id=35461

Beyond gay and straight: new paper says sexual orientation is much more complicated. https://reason.com/blog/2016/08/24/beyond-gay-straight-sexual-orientation

Boys on their contacts with men: a study of sexually expressed friendships. https://books.google.com/books/about/Boys_on_Their_Contacts_with_Men.html?id=jxibswEACAAJ

Cases in the research. http://www.consentingjuveniles.com/cases

Childhood sexual abuse and the sociocultural context of sexual risk among adult latino gay and bisexual men. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19372522/

Childhood sexual experiences and adult health sequelae among gay and bisexual men: defining childhood sexual abuse. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18686153/

Childhood Sexual Experiences: Problems and Issues in Studying Long-Range Effects. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3812590

Childhood sexual experiences with an older partner among men who have sex with men in Buenos Aires, Argentina. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24210270/

Children’s disclosures of sexual abuse in a population-based sample. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29096161/

Child sexual abuse: A Replication of the Meta-analytic Examination of Child Sexual Abuse by Rind, Tromovitch, and Bauserman (1998). https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Child-sexual-abuse%3A-A-replication-of-the-of-child-Ulrich-Randolph/63b7e34204dace9a74beaddc2a552510a788d485

Child sexual abuse: top 5 countries with the highest rates. https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/child-sexual-abuse-top-5-countries-highest-rates-1436162

Contesting the Dominant Discourse of Child Sexual Abuse: Sexual Subjects, Agency, and Ethics. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12119-018-9506-6

Could sex robots and virtual reality treat paedophilia? https://www.newscientist.com/article/2099607-could-sex-robots-and-virtual-reality-treat-paedophilia/

Recalled Sexual Experiences in Childhood with Older Partners: A Study of Brazilian Men Who Have Sex with Men and Male-to-Female Transgender Persons. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21484505/

Does sexual abuse cause pedophilia? https://clresearchblog.wordpress.com/2017/07/08/does-sexual-abuse-cause-pedophilia/

Early, late and non-participants in sexual intercourse: a profile of black South African first-year university students. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00114783

Enjoyment and Emotionally Negative Reactions in Minor–Adult Versus Minor–Peer and Adult–Adult First Postpubescent Coitus: A Secondary Analysis of the Kinsey Data. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24233327/

Ethics and intimacy in intergenerational relationships: “first do no harm”. https://www.ipce.info/ipceweb/Statements/ethics.htm

FAQ for MAPs. http://www.b4uact.org/attracted-to-minors/faq-for-maps/

F. A. Q. https://virped.org/f-a-q.html

FAQ. http://www.b4uact.org/know-the-facts/faq/#faqaccord6

Feminist declaration on the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women. https://www.ywca.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/2020_Beijing-25-Feminist-declaration.pdf

First sexual intercourse in the Irish study of sexual health and relationships: current functioning in relation to age at time of experience and partner age. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32430871/

Gay and Bisexual Adolescent Boys’ Sexual Experiences With Men: An Empirical Examination of Psychological Correlates in a Nonclinical Sample. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1010210630788

Handbook of Child and Adolescent Sexuality: Developmental and Forensic Psychology. https://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Child-Adolescent-Sexuality-Developmental/dp/0123877598

Hebephilia is not a mental disorder in DSM-IV-TR and should not become one in DSM-5. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21389170/

Helping people in the Netherlands with paedophilic feelings. https://tomocarroll.wordpress.com/2018/07/09/mutual-support-aimed-at-self-acceptance/

Highest and lowest ages of consent. https://www.ageofconsent.net/highest-and-lowest

“I didn’t know how to deal with it”: young people speak out about their sexual contacts with adults. http://www.humanbeing.demon.nl/humanbeingsweb/Library/I_DIDNT_KNOW_HOW.html

I Love You, Daddy review – Louis CK’s brazen comedy is a screwball success. https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/sep/09/i-love-you-daddy-review-louis-ck-toronto-film-festival-tiff

‘I’m in love with an older man’: reasons for intergenerational sexual relationships among young women in South Africa. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30345897/

Immediate demands. http://cpgb.org.uk/pages/programme/3-immediate-demands/

International classification of diseases, 11th edition. https://icd.who.int/browse11/l-m/en#/http%3a%2f%2fid.who.int%2ficd%2fentity%2f517058174

Learn. http://www.b4uact.org/know-the-facts/

Child sex abuse doesn’t create paedophiles. https://theconversation.com/child-sex-abuse-doesnt-create-paedophiles-60373

Minor-attracted figures in history. https://philiaresearch.wordpress.com/2015/02/09/minor-attracted-figures-in-history/

Most child sex abusers are not pedophiles, expert says. https://broadly.vice.com/en_us/article/mgmzwn/most-child-sex-abusers-are-not-pedophiles-expert-says

Paedophilia: bringing dark desires to light. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/jan/03/paedophilia-bringing-dark-desires-light

Paedophilia: the radical case. https://www.amazon.com/Paedophilia-Radical-Case-Tom-OCarroll/dp/B00DY8CZY4

Parameters of sexual contact of boys with women. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3689106/

Past workshops and symposiums. http://www.b4uact.org/events-timeline/workshops/

Pedophilia as Age Sexual Orientation: Supporting Seto’s (2012) Conceptualization. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/345918300_Pedophilia_as_Age_Sexual_Orientation_Supporting_Seto%27s_2012_Conceptualization

Pedophilia as a sexual orientation. https://clresearchblog.wordpress.com/2017/07/08/pedophilia-is-a-sexual-orientation/

Peer support. http://www.b4uact.org/attracted-to-minors/peer-support/

Physical and Emotional Satisfaction at First Same-Sex Anal Sex in Young Gay and Bisexual Men. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32472239/

Pornography and sex crimes in Czech Republic. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10508-010-9696-y

Pornography, rape and sex crimes in Japan. https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/pornography-rape-and-sex-crimes-japan

Positive memories: cases of positive memories of erotic and platonic relationships and contacts of children with adults, as seen from the perspective of the former minor. https://docslib.org/doc/3859481/positive-memories-harmless-by-the-former-child

Prevalence and Patterns of Child Sexual Abuse and Victim–Perpetrator Relationship Among Secondary School Students in the Northern Province (South Africa). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11330120/

Psychological Correlates of Male Child and Adolescent Sexual Experiences with Adults: A Review of the Nonclinical Literature. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9101030/

Reactions to First Postpubertal Female Same-Sex Sexual Experience in the Kinsey Sample: A Comparison of Minors with Peers, Minors with Adults, and Adults with Adults. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27783171/

Reactions to First Postpubertal Male Same-Sex Sexual Experience in the Kinsey Sample: A Comparison of Minors With Peers, Minors With Adults, and Adults With Adults. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27178172/

Reactions to Minor-Older and Minor-Peer Sex as a Function of Personal and Situational Variables in a Finnish Nationally Representative Student Sample. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35018515/

Relationship of Child Sexual Abuse Survivor Self-Perception of Consent to Current Functioning. https://nsuworks.nova.edu/cps_stuetd/136/

Research ethos. http://www.b4uact.org/about-us/statements-and-policies/research-ethos/

Self-identifications, sexual development and well-being in minor-attracted people: an exploratory study. https://www.ipce.info/library_3/files/brian_cash_thesis.htm

Sex and the age of consent: the ethical issues. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23171750

Sex in pedophiliac relationships: an empirical investigation among a nonrepresentative group of boys. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1985-06396-001

Staff member at prestigious school had sex with boys “under duress”, court hears. https://www.theage.com.au/national/nsw/armidale-school-sex-boys-court-teacher-20180907-p502hr.html

Student, 14, raped and killed his maths teacher before disposing her body in a wheelie bin. https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/real-life-stories/student-14-raped-killed-maths-7672822

Subjective reactions to first coitus in relation to participant sex, partner age, and context in a German nationally representative sample of adolescents and young adults. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37286764/

Teenage girls want relationships with older men – that’s why it’s men’s responsibility to say no. https://metro.co.uk/2017/10/27/teenage-girls-want-relationships-with-older-men-thats-why-its-their-responsibility-to-say-no-7032490/

Teen girls crave older male partners – an uncomfortable truth British society ignores. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/11794721/Teen-girls-sexually-crave-older-partners-an-uncomfortable-truth.html

The elephant in the room: youth sexuality. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10508-023-02624-4

The male adolescent involved with a pederast becomes an adult. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/670688/

The problem of modern pederasty in queer history: a case study of Norman Douglas. https://www.berghahnjournals.com/view/journals/historical-reflections/46/1/hrrh460104.xml?rskey=KL6hWG&result=7

The sexual interest of the pedophile. https://www.newgon.net/prd/pedo/interest.html

“The Unorthodox Thing About Love, a novel”, by Jonas Boehm. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41152583-the-unorthodox-thing-about-love

Tribunais absolvem acusados de sexo com menor apesar de nova lei. http://g1.globo.com/brasil/noticia/2012/05/tribunais-absolvem-acusados-de-sexo-com-menor-apesar-de-nova-lei.html

What if the child appears to enjoy it? Moral attitudes towards adult-child sex among men with and without pedohebephilia. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28139141/

What’s wrong with adult-child sex (Finkelhor). https://www.mhamic.org/sources/finkelhor.htm

When a boy goes with a man… https://jumima.net/en/

“Will there always be this dark side?” Gay teenage boys’ sexual experiences with adult men. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0190740923005340?via%3Dihub

Woman, 22, who had “sexual contact” three times with a boy, 14, who she met on the Internet avoids jail after judge says “there was genuine affection” between the pair. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8477231/Woman-22-sexual-contact-three-times-boy-14-avoids-jail.html

World Conference on Women. https://iwhc.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Beijing-25-Feminist-declaration.pdf

Youth, suicidality, and seeking care. http://www.b4uact.org/research/survey-results/youth-suicidality-and-seeking-care/