Type of site | Internet Forum |
---|---|
Available in | English |
Founded | June 2012 |
Founder(s) | Ethan Edwards Nick Devin |
URL | virped |
Users | 8730 |
Current status | Alive |
Virtuous Pedophiles is an Internet-based mutual support and public awareness group for pedophiles who acknowledge having a sexual attraction to children but want to lead normal productive lives without abusing children. [1] [2] The two founders of the group, who operate under the pseudonyms Ethan Edwards and Nick Devin, have stated that the initial goal of the group was to improve the "public relations" of pedophiles "to help people see that we're not all molesters" and to help other pedophiles. [3]
Virtuous Pedophiles was founded in June 2012 by Nick Devin and Ethan Edwards as a spinoff of B4U-ACT's support group. According to the organization, its intent is to provide support and resources to people who are attracted to minors so they "remain law-abiding, and lead happy, productive lives". Its website provides individual informational pages over multiple topics, including advice "for young pedophiles", "for partners" and "for therapists". It has also gathered some media attention and became a place where journalists seek people to interview on the subject of pedophilia. [4] [3]
As of 2016, it had over 1,000 members and averaged over 3,000 monthly posts. Unlike other pedophilia-themed websites, Virtuous Pedophiles cautions men not to have sex with minors. It states on its website that "we believe that sexual activity between adults and children is wrong". Even with these warnings, users are more likely to offend than adult attracted adults. [5]
The group also operates a peer support group, founded in 2013. As of 2018, it had reached 2,500 registered users, most being in their 20's and approximately 90% male. The group has also allowed researchers and mental health professionals to join, and has been used by researchers to find samples of non-offending people who are attracted to minors. [4]
The group's efforts have been discussed by human sexuality experts, such as Jesse Bering. [6] Local executive director of the Exploited Child Division of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children John Shehan has argued the group may be a cover for pedophiles that wish to share strategies for grooming children, stating that "while on the cover you think there may be legitimate reasons and purposes, not everybody who joins those groups has an altruistic motive". [3]
In 2017, Alexander McBride of Vice News wrote: "many of these claims [of not offending] cannot be verified. Perhaps some are using VirPed as a cover-up; perhaps some, who were even more daring, saw my photo story as a way to prove they had nothing to hide. I cannot guarantee that this is not the case and I can understand why many would be suspicious." [7]
Hebephilia is the strong, persistent sexual interest by adults in pubescent children who are in early adolescence, typically ages 11–14 and showing Tanner stages 2 to 3 of physical development. It differs from pedophilia, and from ephebophilia. While individuals with a sexual preference for adults may have some sexual interest in pubescent-aged individuals, researchers and clinical diagnoses have proposed that hebephilia is characterized by a sexual preference for pubescent rather than adult partners.
The Rind et al. controversy was a debate in the scientific literature, public media, and government legislatures in the United States regarding a 1998 peer reviewed meta-analysis of the self-reported harm caused by child sexual abuse (CSA). The debate resulted in the unprecedented condemnation of the paper by both chambers of the United States Congress. The social science research community was concerned that the condemnation by government legislatures might have a chilling effect on the future publication of controversial research results.
Paul Drummond Cameron is an American psychologist. While employed at various institutions, including the University of Nebraska, he conducted research on passive smoking, but he is best known today for his claims about homosexuality. After a successful 1982 campaign against a gay rights proposal in Lincoln, Nebraska, he established the Institute for the Scientific Investigation of Sexuality (ISIS), now known as the Family Research Institute (FRI). As FRI's chairman, Cameron has written contentious papers asserting unproven associations between homosexuality and the perpetration of child sexual abuse and reduced life expectancy. These have been heavily criticized and frequently discredited by others in the field.
Sexual grooming is the action or behavior used to establish an emotional connection with a minor under the age of consent, and sometimes the child's family, to lower the child's inhibitions with the objective of sexual abuse. It can occur in various settings, including online, in person, and through other means of communication. Children who are groomed may experience mental health issues, including "anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress, and suicidal thoughts."
Pedophilia is a psychiatric disorder in which an adult or older adolescent experiences a primary or exclusive sexual attraction to prepubescent children. Although girls typically begin the process of puberty at age 10 or 11, and boys at age 11 or 12, psychiatric diagnostic criteria for pedophilia extend the cut-off point for prepubescence to age 13. People with the disorder are often referred to as pedophiles.
Sexual abuse or sex abuse is abusive sexual behavior by one person upon another. It is often perpetrated using physical force, or by taking advantage of another. Sexual abuse is a term used for a persistent pattern of sexual assaults. The offender is referred to as a sexual abuser. Live streaming sexual abuse involves trafficking and coerced sexual acts, and/or rape, in real time on webcam.
Anti-pedophile activism encompasses social actions against pedophiles. It also includes acts of anti-pedophile citizen vigilantism conducted by vigilante groups, some of which have operated alongside government agencies in countries such as the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.
The North American Man/Boy Love Association is a pedophilia and pederasty advocacy organization in the United States. It works to abolish age-of-consent laws criminalizing adult sexual involvement with minors and campaigns for the release of men who have been jailed for sexual contacts with minors that did not involve what it considers coercion.
Child sexual abuse (CSA), also called child molestation, is a form of child abuse in which an adult or older adolescent uses a child for sexual stimulation. Forms of child sexual abuse include engaging in sexual activities with a child, indecent exposure, child grooming, and child sexual exploitation, such as using a child to produce child pornography.
Simulated child pornography is child pornography depicting what appear to be minors but which is produced without their direct involvement.
A range of research has been conducted examining the link between viewing child pornography and perpetration of child sexual abuse, and much disagreement persists regarding whether a causal connection has been established. Perspectives fall into one of three positions:
The debate on the causes of clerical child abuse is a major aspect of the academic literature surrounding Catholic sex abuse cases.
Child pornography is erotic material that depicts persons under the designated age of majority. The precise characteristics of what constitutes child pornography varies by criminal jurisdiction.
James M. Cantor is an American-Canadian clinical psychologist and sexologist specializing in hypersexuality and paraphilias.
The Prevention Project Dunkelfeld (PPD) is an effort founded in Germany to provide clinical and support services to people who are sexually attracted to children and want help controlling their sexual urges, but are otherwise unknown to the legal authorities. The term Dunkelfeld is German for dark figure of crime. It was named that way because its goal is to reduce the amount of unknown cases of child sexual abuse. The project began in Berlin in June 2005 with a large media campaign to contact pedophiles and hebephiles who wanted help from clinicians to manage their paraphilia. The campaign pledged medically confidential treatment free-of-charge. It was initially funded by the Volkswagen Foundation, and has been financially supported by the German government since 2008. The project's slogan is "You are not guilty because of your sexual desire, but you are responsible for your sexual behavior. There is help! Don't become an offender!"
Are All Men Pedophiles? is a 2012 documentary film by Rwandan-Dutch media producer Jan-Willem Breure. Presented by 14-year-old model Savannah van Zweeden and covering the topics of pedophilia and hebephilia, the entire film was financed privately, mainly by the 23-year-old Breure. Are All Men Pedophiles? had its world premiere at the Queens World Film Festival in New York City on March 2, 2012 and has been screened at a number of film festivals.
Michael Chikong Seto is a Canadian forensic psychologist, sexologist, and author. He is director of Forensic Rehabilitation Research at the Royal Ottawa Health Care Group, where his research focuses on pedophilia, sexual offenses committed against children, child pornography, risk assessment, offenders with mental disorders, psychopathy, and program evaluation.
Pedophile advocacy groups are organizations that advocate for the abolishment or lowering of the age of consent and the normalization of adult sexual relations with children. Such groups have existed dating back to 1962 in multiple countries including the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Norway, Germany and the Netherlands.
Helmut Kentler was a German psychologist, sexologist, pedophile apologist, and professor of social education at the University of Hannover. From the late 1960s until the early 1990s, with the authorization and financial support of the Berlin Senate, Kentler placed several neglected youth aged 13 to 15 as foster children in the homes of single pedophile fathers. Kentler believed pedophiles would make suitable foster parents, and that any sexual contact would be relatively harmless, if not physically forced. This project was later dubbed the "Kentler Experiment" or the "Kentler Project." Kentler later changed his mind on pedophiles having sexual contact with children, and described pedophilia as a "sexual disorder".
A Long, Dark Shadow: Minor-Attracted People and Their Pursuit of Dignity is a book by Allyn Walker, then Assistant Professor of Sociology and Criminal Justice at Old Dominion University. The book’s first edition was published by the University of California Press in June 2021 as Walker's doctoral research. In the book, Walker conducted interviews with a total of 42 pedophiles who claimed to have never physically acted upon their sexual urges toward minors, although some did admit to consuming child pornography. These participants were sourced from the online forums B4U-ACT and Virtuous Pedophiles. Walker's primary emphasis lies in policy development and distinguishing between individuals with pedophilic tendencies who have not engaged in harmful behaviors as opposed to those classified as sex offenders.