yeah, so can the local mall, theater, CD shop, etc, etc.

This part is completely false. It is such BS that it makes the rest of the article hard to read:

The internet, pictures, video, heck actual live children prancing around in their underwear can't create a sexual attraction to children.

Being sexually attractive to children and I am talking about children, not some 16 year old that looks and talks like she is 23 year old porn star, is a psychological disorder. It isn't caused by seeing images.

If that is the case female gymnastics should be outlawed.

That would be like seeing pictures of naked men will make guys gay.

Or perhaps the opposite. If seeing naked children turns you into pedophile, than perhaps seeing naked adults will cure a pedophile?

I disagree, I think that it can change your perception. If you have always thought of children and innocent and cute then that sticks with yout, but after seeing some XXX porn with a 10yr old certain individuals might become turned on by normal children because of that association.

Who find porn with a 10 year old in it by looking at the internet? You have to look for something like that. and if you find it by accident I'm pretty sure it's so disturbing you report it to the police or some such. This might work for schoolgirl uniforms or something but not prepubescent girls.

I am assuming you have never downloaded a mislabeled file on Kazaa, Limewire, bit torrent or the such.

You can disagree, but I feel that disagreement is based on the understandable disgust over such people and such pornography. It isn't based on any scientific data. What turns on a person is hard-wired at an early age. It is very deep.

Your belief doesn't change the fact that being a pedophile is not a choice. It is a disorder, a brain screw-up. One doesn't say oh what the heck, I am going to be only turned on by pre-pubescent children. Seeing images won't make someone become a pedophile. Perhaps if some psycho took a young person and showed them nothing but such images 24/7 and used other "brainwashing" techniques, a tendency to be a pedophile might exist, but that isn't what is being discussed.

It just doesn't work that way. Do you also feel that if you saw enough pictures of naked women you would turn gay? Not turn into someone who tries it out just for fun, but into a full lesbian who is no longer turned on by men?

What about the opposite. Will seeing enough pictures of naked adults cure a pedophile?

Will watching girl gymnastics turn a person into a pedophile? They aren't naked, but they are a turn-on for pedophiles, especially with the clothing that is worn.

Will watching movies about pychopaths turn you into a psychopath?

Will seeing images of bestiality make one sexually attracted to animals?

Substitute that question for every other psychological disorder. Do you really think that seeing images of _____ will make you a _______?

While I agree with your point 2many, I do see what gammerus is saying. There are certain types of girls I like that stem from seeing really hot actresses of that type (think Evangeline Lilly making me like chicks with green eyes). Now, that's an innate attraction that's being triggered. I suppose it's possible the internet could have the same effect on pedophiles if they stumble across child pornography...

But i'm getting seriously creeped out talking about this.

I do not sympathize with pedophiles, nor do I believe any pictures can turn you into one. But I do think such a things can have an influence one someone who had had thoughts like this in the back of their heads.

Same thing goes for video games and TV, they may not make you into a bad person, but they can give you ideas that tipped you over the edge. I will not defend anyone who sexually assaults a child, in fact I would probably be the first to condemn them… but there is nothing wrong discussing the hows and whys of pedophelia.

I didn't say you sympathized, nor did I say it was wrong to discuss the hows and whys of pedophilia. I certainly didn't say I sympathized them

I do condemn them in the most strongest terms.



I said seeing images won't turn you into a pedophile.

You said:
I took that to mean that you disagreed with my statement and that you felt that it could change a person's perception on what is sexually attractive.


This last statement of yours is a 180 from the above. You now seem to agree that seeing images won't turn you into a pedophile, it just may tip a latent pedophile into an active one. Well that is of course true. But, than again so will just about anything with a child. Real life or not, seeing a child clothed or not, may be enough to make the pedophile finally fall to the temptation.

The internet is hardly alone in this or even a primary cause for the pedophile to make the final step. Some would argue (not me, personally I am not sure about this) that seeing images of naked children might be a release valve for the pedophile, something that will help him resist the desire to fulfill his fantasies.

As I said, I don't know if that is true, it may or may not. Either way it doesn't matter a child is still being exploited in the most horrific manner.

I guess I don't explain myself very clearly :/ I didn't meen either. I was refering to somone that isn't a pedophile but has it in the back of his head the way normal hetrosexuals think about homosexuality.

The internet just makes it easier to find anything and everything without trying. It isn't a cause, just another way to access such things. I'm not sure that pornagraphy would ever work as a substitute for any horny guy, pedophile or not.


Indeed, there are few things that bother me like the abuse of a child (physically or mentally) and I really wish that we had tighter laws against this sort of thing.

So what is up with the kittens thread? :p

Too much opinion and not enough data.

I can't offer any solid data here either but there is some common sense that might be applied.

I doubt that many people really believe that simply seeing a naked picture of a child will turn you into a pedophile. However, you can't argue that is has no effect on anyone with any assurance whatsoever. Minds with a latent sexual proclivity towards children might be triggered or at least add stimulous for an eventual criminal act.

Serial killers, rapists and sexual deviants don't necessarily exhibit these exact tendencies at an early age. I don't believe science/psychiatry yet understands all the elements and influences leading up to the final release of inhibitions. The fact is we just don't know.

Yes, lots of ordinary exposure can contribute as much as the internet can but there never has been such easy access to nudity, including child nudity and sex and sexual activity in every conceivable form from almost about every country on earth. I don't believe that we can effectively prevent children from access to anything on the internet.

I do not advocate censorship in any form. But I don't understand the unreasonable denial of cause and effect when it comes to the internet, internet games, movies and music.

When there is lack of hard evidence in other subjects we feel it's reasonable to apply some deduction or cause and effect using as much logic as can be mustered. There actually is some data, if one accepts it, of copycat crimes, criminals stating they were influenced by some movie or song. Why we ever think the internet, which is a huge source of information, would be exempt?

Step out of the US. There are lots of countries where nudity is NOT a big deal, where there isn't anything sexual about bare skin. Places where sex occurs between consenting adults in front of children (who are in their own bed/space, but not visually blocked) without increased levels of pedophiles. The kids don't participate because cultural mores say it's WRONG. You don't have to go too far back in our collective history to find very adult roles being filled by children, including reproduction. The definition of 'child' is not something biologically based, but rather a cultural standard.

I don't approve of the behavior, but let's be honest about what it's violating.

I don't doubt for a moment that there are cultural differences in different parts of the world, many of them I consider superior. But we ARE talking about the US here.

We have copycat school shootings. Teens imitating
questionable "heroes" from the movies, games and TV shows. Street gangs that find support and legitimacy in dramas that were actually intended to criminalize them.

I don't know what's happening in your part of the world, it may be an exception to what's happening elsewhere, it certainly seems to be compared to here.

Increased information in todays world is a two sided coin. Undoubtably a huge percentage of this access to instant information: war images, sex, and all of the fantastic things we never had the opportunity to see before in magnificent resolution is creating a better and more informed society.

However, we are ALL biological creatures and as such our brains as well as our bodies are subject to the minute birth flaws that are common in all creatures. Culture is just an extension of the common ground each of us experienced, it does not always overcome nature

To deny that some of us can be influenced by things that we see and hear does not make sense to me. The Puritanical culture that has pervaded the US and still does today may well contribute to the warped responses a few of the population exhibit.

Brilliant.

Which says that the reaction is culturally rooted, rather than anything to do with the images, yes?