chris - nothing in your post refutes what I wrote

I guess I was tired enough that I wasn't very concise. Basically the head of the nail as far as I'm concerned was already hit. We, as a society, tend to shun those with a mental illness. It seems to be the intangible that we have a problem grasping. What I mean is, if we see someone come walking into a bar missing an arm, we don't shun him, it's something we can grasp. But I've noticed that as soon as someone brings up depression, or bipolar, or whatever people tend to give them a wide berth.

What's sad about this is that it makes things even harder for the person with the illness to seek treatment. The rejection actually encourages them not to share with others. I feel that as a society, if we would encourage people to seek treatment before it gets out of hand that would be better.

For instance, take a look through most of the books for health classes in general for k-12. You'll find topics about first aid, concussions, broken bones, even S.T.D.s, something a fifth grader shouldn't even have to worry about.

However, you will not often find a section dealing with mental health unless your in a psych. class. It's like it's almost taboo for the teachers to touch. I think that at the younger ages is where we should encourage kids and tell them that it's ok and to seek help.

Anyways, I've already blabbed more than I was planning.

Good Post Charlie.

What, society doesn't teach people that intense sexual attraction to kids is abnormal? That this is something to seek help on? If not, we should be teaching this.

And I think Charlie is right. We need to talk to people, listen to what they say, and if needed, encourage them to seek help.

Charlie,

I'm terribly sad to hear that your children went through that. I hope that you got them counseling so that they do not spend their lives blaming themselves.

I think that being attracted to children is SICK, but not necessarily an issue of right or wrong. Child molestation is DEFINITELY wrong.

Actually, you bring up a good point. There should be treatment centers that are available to PROACTIVELY treat potential child molestors before they hurt anyone.

The only problem is, as I understand it, the success rate is fairly low.

Not sure what to do about this, but it's worth discusion.

Of course it's wrong - but some of the comments in here show that there are huge cultural differences in what we *mean* by paedophilia. Tadpole said "Surely a 16 year old would be less damaged than a 4 year old, but that certainly does not make it right" - but a 16 year old having sex is perfectly legal in most European countries (certainly in the UK); indeed, 16 year olds can get married in the UK (with parental consent).

In Spain, under General Franco, it was legal to marry off your daughter at 12 - and that applied up to the 1970s.

The problem with defining paedophilia by age alone is that it can end up with ludicrous cases. If two 15 year olds have sex with each other, are they paedophiles? I can see a big difference between a 15 year old girl having an 18 year old boyfriend, and a 15 year old girl having a 48 year old boyfriend - both in terms of social acceptance and in terms of the power relationship between them. I think it's the Netherlands that have a rule that if sex occurs between two people and one of them is under age (i.e. under 16), then no criminal act has taken place if the age difference between them is less than five years. That seems to make more sense to me.

The other issue is that medically, paedophilia is surely people who are attracted to pre-pubescent children? A heterosexual man is likely to be attracted to a physically fertile and attractive woman; are we saying if he finds a young woman physically attractive the day before her eighteenth birthday then he's a paedophile, but the day after he won't be? In nature's terms, once mammals start producing sex hormones, they have the possibility of being sexually active, and are therefore designed to be sexually attractive - and humans are mammals. Ethically, it would be wrong to act on those impulses, because relationships are about far more than simple procreation, and it's perfectly possible for 15 year olds, 18 year olds and even 25 year olds to be emotionally damaged by being cajoled into sexual relationships.

I agree with Fluff. It also has me bring up the issue with the 5th graders having sex in class when a teacher never showed up. Are now those kids perminatly labeled as peds for their actions in the eyes of the US people?

I just now started to read in this thread, and got to that which you share Tristan. You darned right that is not even a positive statement. Cos even if there would be any kind of "feel good" physical arousal for the child, that only adds to the confusion and misplaced guilt.

OD

Hmmm, I think that the porn industry carries a lot of the responsibility for this. Once someone relinquishes another valuable life to so much meat for one's frenzied pleasure, there has been a serious breach of dignity for life and respect for others.
Perhaps it works two ways though and the women and men IN the porn business devalue the lives of those who they service too.

All the same, pornagraphy is at the root of all this "mental illness"...

OD