Diane Robertson
This is not a topic I like to read about, talk about, or even think about. I did not want to write about it. Yet pedophilia is quietly being normalized. Responsible adults need to understand what is happening in order to act to protect children. Here are a few examples of how pedophilia is becoming normalized.
1. The October 2013, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V) by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) changed pedophilia from a disorder to an orientation.
In the new diagnostic manual, “Pedophilia” would no longer refer to a person who sexually abuses children but rather it would refer “to a sexual orientation or profession of sexual preference devoid of consummation, whereas pedophilic disorder is defined as a compulsion and is used in reference to individuals who act on their sexuality.” The APA is saying fantasizing over children is an orientation which only becomes a disorder when acted upon.
Behind the push to make these changes is a pedophilia advocacy group, B4U-ACT that is “working towards de-stigmatizing the mental health community.”
Fortunately, the APA retracted this change in classification calling it a mistake and promising to revise the online addition of the manual.
2. There are continual efforts to lower the age of consent. Last spring, a British lawyer, Barbara Hewson, publicly claimed the age of consent in Britain should be lowered to 13 in order to stop the “persecution of old men”. As outrageous as her comments sound, she is not alone.
In 2010 the Huffington Post published an article on why the age of consent needs to be dropped to as low as 14. The author argues that teenagers need to be having sex with each other and even encouraged to do so. The argument that teen sex should be legal ignores the reason the laws were made. Age of consent laws protect children and teens from adults who would coerce them into sexual relationships. Lowering the age of consent ignores the fact that children and teens brains are not developed enough to consent. Nor are teens and children developed enough to handle the emotional and physical consequences of intimate relationships.
Lowering the age of consent will protect pedophiles and harm children.
3. Governments are sponsoring research and pamphlets that encourage children to explore sex at young ages. Recently in Prince Edward Island, the provincial government printed a pamphlet telling parents that it is “natural and healthy” for young children to “touch the ‘private parts’ of familiar adults” and to look at “nude pictures on the Internet, videos, magazines”. These guidelines are similar to some of Planned Parenthood’s comprehensive sexual education guidelines.
In 2007, the German government published a pamphlet that encouraged fathers to rub the genitals of their daughters aged 1 to 3.
Quietly government agencies and private groups are trying to break down the barriers that criminalize sexual acts on children. Brick by brick, as these barriers are removed, pedophilia may no longer be viewed as a gross disorder and crime against children. If responsible citizens around the world do not act to stop this erosion, in another 20 to 30 years adults having sexual relationships with minors may be considered normal, consensual sexual relationships.
To further understand the history behind lowering the age of consent and normalizing pedophilia, go here…