[SLOW DRAMATIC MUSIC]
- Studies have shown that teen sex
is the most searched form of sex on the internet.
But this is not surprising,
because the age at which you find other people attractive,
does not change, instead it expands.
When we are young we find children
of our own age attractive,
but as we grow older, children under the age of 18,
do not become less attractive.
But pedophiles also find children
under the age of 18 attractive.
So what is the difference between you and pedophiles?
[SLOW DRAMATIC MUSIC]
[AMBIENT ELECTRONIC MUSIC]
- MAN: Here's the damn thing about it,
being a pedophile is wrong.
- And more details about the Canadian man
who's now at the heart of a global manhunt,
including who he is, his alleged crimes,
and how he spent his time half a world away.
- A New York congressman says,
"Michael Jackson was a pedophile
"who doesn't deserve all the attention he's getting."
[SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
- When is it considered pedophilia?
Under the age of 16, 14, 12?
- I think somebody's a pedophile
when he's attracted to somebody who's under 18.
- NEWS REPORTER: The billionaire PM,
faces trial on charges of paying for sex
with Ruby when she was just 17.
- It's a diseased, psychotic person.
It's not even a human being.
I don't think it's a human being.
- When an adult has sex with a child,
it's called statutory rape. - He was not charged.
- It's not called anything else but rape.
- Pedophiles are men older than 30 who abuse our children.
- Online he calls himself mannbay2004.
He makes a date for sex with a girl he believes to be 13.
Makes it sound like you would do that with a 13-year-old.
- No, I wouldn't.
I wouldn't do that.
I wouldn't do that to her, only unless if she was 18.
Or you know?
- A pedophile is somebody who's older than 21,
and who feels attracted to somebody who's younger than 15.
- I think somebody who's 21,
goes with somebody who's 15 or 16.
It's not the best thing, but if somebody's 30
and he goes with somebody who's 15, I think it's wrong.
- It is time now for another chapter in the tawdry tale
titled the Pope and Pedophile Priests.
- Somebody who just likes children.
- A pedophile is an older man.
- Disgusting.
- It's an illness.
- Pervert.
- Something like priests.
- Mentally ill.
- Criminal.
- Psycho.
- Insane.
- Crazy.
NARRATOR: There is no standard definition for pedophilia,
because the world cannot agree on one definition.
The most confusing factor is the major difference
in the legal age of consent.
The minimum age at which a person
is considered legal for sexual acts,
varies from nine years to 20 years.
[DRAMATIC ELECTRONIC MUSIC]
Some countries such as Saudi Arabia and Oman,
do not even have a legal age of consent.
But to fully understand this,
we need to go back to the beginning.
We need to go back in time to the Stone Age.
[GENTLE ORCHESTRAL MUSIC]
Life was not easy in the Stone Age.
Due to the harsh environments in the Paleolithic Era,
men and women did not live long.
The average lifespan for the first modern humans was 33.
In fact, in the Neolithic Era,
between the Stone Age and the Bronze Age,
the average life expectancy for the first modern humans,
was as low as 20 years.
This meant that early modern humans
did not have the luxury to postpone having babies
like we have today.
Even though the life expectancy of humans
has doubled since the Stone Age,
natural selection favors early reproduction,
because it is not logical for humans to delay maturity.
Young females usually reach sexual maturity at age 16,
and up to this very day,
this biological process on average has not been delayed.
Anthropological studies conducted by
Napoleon Chagnon, on primitive societies,
suggest that the average man
find females around the age of 16,
sexually the most attractive.
Males have an instinctive attraction towards females
who are at the earlier stages of sexual maturity.
From an evolutionary standpoint, this makes perfect sense.
A male who can gain access to young virgin females,
can maximize his own reproductive potential.
Males who evolved an attraction to young females,
who were not already pregnant,
would have more offspring than other male competitors.
[BABIES CRYING]
There has always been a biological preference
towards pubescent children and young adults,
and as time progressed, certain societies
would take this to the extreme.
[SLOW DRAMATIC MUSIC]
- The word pedophilia is composed of two Greek words.
On the one hand, Pais, which means child,
or generally youthful person, dependent person even.
And Philia which means love, closeness,
being one's own.
So generally you could say it is
the love of children, or a child.
The Greeks and Romans practiced pederasty.
And that means that there was an erotic relationship
between an adolescent boy and an older man.
Pederasty did not only occur between men and boys.
It was also well known between women and girls.
Nonetheless, I think we can safely say
that most people associate with pederasty,
the relationship between older men and boys.
Pederasty was not just widely practiced,
it was also widely recognized,
in particular in Ancient Greece, as a very normal,
and even commendable social institution.
It was not odd, it was not wrong,
it was something that was part of social life, more broadly.
Pederasty has existed in many cultures.
The ancient Greek case is I think the best known,
but nonetheless, it was practiced and normal
in many other cultures too.
For instance, in the Middle East and Asia.
[SLOW GENTLE MUSIC]
- If you look at the church in the Middle Ages,
if you look at its view on sexuality,
that was quite conservative.
It hadn't always been that way from the beginning.
Considering the practice of celibacy,
that wasn't there when the church started.
Popes, priests, they had their wives,
they had their children.
It's only when celibacy was introduced in the Middle Ages
that it sparked an immense increase
of homosexuality in the church.
Catholic priests who molested adults and boys,
were not homosexual by nature.
But as you know, place any men in an environment
that is deprived of women, and what will happen?
You will most likely see homosexual activity.
Priests, right?
They are spiritual, yes.
But they are human as well.
And as humans, they are sexual beings.
Studies even have shown that the sexual abuse of children
is not limited to the Catholic church.
Other churches and religions
are just as likely to abuse children.
NARRATOR: The majority of priests who abuse children
cannot be diagnosed with true pedophilia.
Rather their actions involve hebophilia.
Hebophilia is defined as an attraction
towards adolescent children.
In technical terms, they are called offending hebophiles.
If sex that involves adolescent children is a moral issue,
then why is it common in religion?
Various religions contain sexual activities with children.
Christianity, Islam, and Judaism are no exception.
- Mary was at the age of 12 or 15
when she got her baby, Jesus Christ.
- Aisha was married with the prophet at six,
and consummated the marriage at nine.
NARRATOR: Furthermore, Bar Mitzvah is when
Jewish boys turn 13 and are seen as men.
Jewish girls have Bat Mitzvah.
When they turn 12, they are seen as women.
[GENTLE MUSIC]
Looking back in history, one can see a sexual pattern.
The average age of pregnancy were 13,
and only in recent years has that age gone up,
especially in western society.
Currently in western society,
the average age of pregnancy is between 21 and 23.
- Okay, overall you can see that girls
start their puberty around age 10,
and finish around age 16.
Boys, they start their puberty somewhat later,
and consequently also finish their puberty somewhat later.
[GENTLE ORCHESTRAL MUSIC]
NARRATOR: Western society has chosen 18
as the legal age at which we become adults.
Despite the fact that women
usually reach maturity at age 16,
the legal age for western society is 18.
This was an obvious choice,
because at 18 men reach maturity.
To fully understand this choice we must understand
the evolutionary differences between men and women.
Women have many requirements for their ideal man.
One of the most valued requirements
is that their ideal man is tall.
This is not a superficial choice.
Instead this is actually a logical and instinctive decision.
Back in the Stone Age a simple law applied.
Survival of the fittest.
This meant that only the strongest humans survived.
Women preferred men who were big and tall.
Larger men could provide more food
and better protection than smaller weaker men.
Natural selection favored bigger men.
That is why most men are taller than women.
But this extended growth came at a price.
In order to become taller than women,
men needed two years extra to grow taller.
The extra energy put into growing,
also affected men's mental growth.
Instead of becoming physically mature at age 16,
men are physically mature at age 18.
And are also later in their mental maturity.
Today if you compare 16-year-old girls to boys,
you will realize that 16-year-old girls
are sexually and mentally far more mature
than 16-year-old boys.
Girls even start puberty earlier than boys,
and therefore usually have sex earlier.
That is why girls are more likely to want older partners.
Growing up they realize that boys their own age
lag behind in maturity, and keep this mindset.
That is why the average woman
is younger than her male partner.
Biologically, humans start experimenting
with sexual intercourse in puberty.
This usually begins around the age of 13.
However, western society has pushed the legal age
of sexual maturity several years beyond
the physical age of sexual maturity,
and regards sex normal,
when humans reach the legal age of 18.
This choice is not based on morals.
Instead this choice is mainly based on education.
Western society is fortunate enough
to offer most children an education.
High school education usually ends at 18.
That is why western society does not favor underage sex.
Because it interferes with education.
Doe to the increased education,
the age of pregnancy has risen in recent years.
[AMBIENT ELECTRONIC MUSIC]
- Being a mom is hard at any age, believe me I know,
but imagine being a mom twice before the age of 19.
A new study says that's the story
for one in five teenage girls in America.
- I think I was 12 when I first started thinking about sex.
- More shocking still, fully half of girls
between 14 and 19 say they've had sex.
- I guess when I was 11 or 12,
I was starting to think about sex, you know?
- Parents out there,
there's a worrisome trend we need to tell you about.
More than 20% of teenagers admit to sending
naked photos of themselves to other teens.
- I was around 11 when I started thinking about sex.
- And teens and preteens are engaging
in sexual behavior at much earlier ages.
- Between the age of five and seven years.
- I was seven years old.
- Age of eight.
- Was eight or nine years.
- At the age of 11.
- About 12, 13 years.
- I was 11 or 12 when I first started thinking about sex.
- I guess all the,
everybody gasps when they hear the 13-year-olds say
they're having sex, or the 12-year-olds,
but I guess we have removed ourselves
from what the world was like when we were coming up.
- At age 16 most girls are physically mature.
However that does not mean that
they're mentally ready to have sex.
And of course all sex should be consensual.
[PEOPLE CHATTERING]
[AMBIENT ELECTRONIC MUSIC]
NARRATOR: Child sexuality is very
prominent in western media.
The age of 16 is embedded in our society.
Because at that age every man knows
that females are sexually mature.
[CAT CALL WHISTLE]
We do not need biology to tell us that 16-year-olds
are portrayed in the media as sexual beings.
Just look at MTV.
16 and Pregnant, Teen Moms, or My Super Sweet 16,
form the fact that average age of a fashion model is 16.
Western society considers this behavior normal.
- If a girl wants to start her high-fashion
modeling career at the age of 19,
I think that's a little bit too old
for most modeling agencies.
NARRATOR: However not every culture
has adopted the western views on child sexuality.
Traditional cultures which have had
very little contact with western ideology,
still marry and bear children in early puberty.
[AMBIENT ELECTRONIC MUSIC]
There are also many modern societies
that differ from the West.
In Japanese society, the attraction to young teenage girls
is a widespread cultural phenomenon.
The term lolicon describes an attraction to underage girls
or individuals with such an attraction.
Lolicon is very popular in Japanese media and fashion.
Outside Japan, lolicon mainly refers to a genre
of Japanese comics and animations
that depict girls sexually.
What makes lolicon so controversial
are the art forms, anime and manga.
Lolicon art has no actual age.
Just like the Disney characters Peter Pan and Tinkerbell.
Nobody knows their real age.
The attraction to children can be found in many societies,
but there is a limit.
There is no society in the world
that encourages sex with children before puberty.
- My abuse started when I was about five by my father.
He was never nice.
I have pictures of me as a baby,
and him holding me and I'm screaming.
I knew. I knew then that he wasn't very nice.
I can remember the first time
that I remember him ever touching me.
He had me in his bed with him,
and I thought he was sleeping,
he just reached over and started touching my chest.
I was shocked and made the excuse for him that it was okay,
that he just must have thought that I was my mom,
but now I think about that, and I think,
why would that be my first thought,
and not please stop or leave me alone?
I laid there until he was done
and left his bed and went into my own room.
But soon touching wasn't enough and he moved on to oral sex.
At the time my parents had a water bed,
and he would straddle my little neck
and make me do these awful adult things,
and I couldn't understand.
He'd kick me out of bed and tell me
that I'd better not get sick,
and I'd better not make a mess on the carpet.
In the same year, those things still were not enough,
and he moved on to actually raping me.
I can remember waking up with him on top of me,
and my legs were asleep and hips hurt,
and he was making me hold his cross necklace,
so that it didn't make any noise.
All these things happened almost every night.
I got a break every now and then,
when my grandmother came into town,
or he went out of town for business.
My life was doing all these things that my father wanted.
I became great at hiding,
and learning how to cover things up.
I can remember sneaking the bloody underwear
to the trash in the morning.
I can still feel the cold ground on my bare feet,
and I would just hope that the door wouldn't make anybody,
wouldn't make noise and wake anybody up.
The same year, a neighbor started abusing me.
Looking back I think my father may have known
or even set it up, but at this point,
I'm not sure that it matters,
or if I'll ever know for sure.
The neighbor had this big red van,
and he was always taking us somewhere on the weekends,
and we were at this little park.
I was collecting little tadpoles and having so much fun.
It was beautiful outside.
He called me over to the van and took off my shorts,
and he raped me in the back of the van on the beanbags.
I can remember looking out the window
and seeing the beautiful sky, and this huge tree,
big beautiful tree swaying in the breeze,
and I couldn't understand why this was happening
on such a beautiful day.
He was done.
He told me to get dressed and he just left.
I put my clothes on and went back to the table
to get my bucket of tadpoles,
and he kicked them over and started stepping on them.
Saying that next time I wouldn't fight.
My entire life I felt guilty
that I couldn't pick them up fast enough.
That I couldn't save them.
I didn't care about me, but I couldn't save those tadpoles.
He was, when I think about it,
he was in his early 20s and I was five.
How much could I have really fought him?
Finally when I myself was in my early 20s,
I pressed charges on my father.
It was one of the hardest things I've ever done in my life.
But at least it kept his stepdaughter safe.
He took a plea bargain,
but still couldn't follow the rules,
so he spent almost a year in jail.
Not near enough for all that he did to me.
But I didn't do it for me.
I just did it to keep others safe.
I'm trying not to let my past define me.
Some days I lose, but I'm winning more days than ever.
And soon I will be okay.
I'll find my way out of this,
and be the person that I was meant to be.
[AMBIENT PIANO MUSIC]
- There is a difference between
the general public term of pedophilia
and the professional definition.
The public usually associates pedophilia with someone
who is sexually attracted to a human being
below the legal age of the majority.
However, the clinical term specifies the definition as
"A sexual preference for children,
"usually of pre-pubertal or early pubertal age.
"And that for six months or more
"that person has acted on these urges,
"or suffers from distress as a result
"of having these feelings.
"The individual must also be at least 16 years of age,
"and at least five years older than the juvenile involved,"
to meet criteria for pedophilia.
NARRATOR: Pedophiles can be divided
into two main categories.
Exclusive pedophiles and non-exclusive pedophiles.
Exclusive pedophiles are only attracted to children,
and non-exclusive pedophiles
are attracted to children and adults.
Exclusive pedophiles are sometimes
referred to as true pedophiles.
They're only attracted to children.
Pedophiles are usually attracted to a particular age range.
If the child is younger than four years,
it is called infantophilia,
usually zero to three years on average.
If the child is pre-pubertal or early pubertal,
it is called pedophilia,
13 and younger on average.
If the child is adolescent, it is called hebophilia,
roughly 12 to 16 years.
Even though there are differences
between the sexual attraction to minors,
only one term is mainly used by the media,
the word, pedophilia.
- Professionally, there's more difference
between an active pedophile,
or an active offending pedophile,
and a non offender,
a pedophile who has sexual feelings for children,
but who doesn't engage in sexual activities with children,
because he knows, or she knows, it's wrong.
- Why do I think I'm a pedophile?
Well, I don't think it's really a choice,
because I think you are born like that,
but on the other hand,
I think a lot of people have those feelings
and they don't accept them, they suppress them.
[BICYCLE BELL RINGS]
- We are one of a kind! [LAUGHING]
- Firstly, I don't see myself as 100% pedophile.
I also like people who are above 18 years old.
And
I think that sexuality of
every human,
is a mix.
I'm a non-offending pedophile.
And the difference between offending
and non-offending is obvious.
People who are offending, they are breaking the law.
[CHILDREN LAUGHING]
Well, about child pornography,
you have virtual child pornography,
manga and so on,
and sometimes I think that's attractive.
And it's not illegal, drawings,
but real child pornography is illegal,
and I am not watching that.
[SOMBER AMBIENT MUSIC]
- What I'm about to share with you is startling.
A Delaware pediatrician is accused
of molesting his own patients.
Children, right there in his office.
Doctor Earl Bradley is accused of molesting in fact
more than a hundred children in his office,
some as young as three months old.
- He possibly is the nation's worst
sex offender, sex molester, in the history.
That's according to documents,
when you look at some of the numbers here.
Here's his picture, just take a look at this guy.
- Just that everything has to be consensual.
[CROWD JEERING] No coercion.
- Children cannot be consensual.
Do you understand that?
- Personally, I wouldn't do it.
I mean, I wouldn't go all the way to sex.
- How can a three-year-old be consensual?
- AUDIENCE MEMBER: Right.
- Tell me that.
NARRATOR: There is a difference between a pedophile
who is attracted to 13-year-olds,
and a pedophile who is attracted to babies.
Pedophiles who are attracted to babies
are called infantophiles.
Infantophilia is a subcategory of pedophilia.
Infantophiles are usually attracted
to infants age zero to three.
Infantophilia is the most extreme form of pedophilia.
[BABY COOING]
Very little is known about them,
because they are a minority amongst pedophiles.
- I don't think I'm a pedophile, I know I am.
Whenever I see young children, gender is irrelevant,
especially in vulnerable situations.
I feel more emotional.
I physically feel hotter.
I want to get intimate with them.
I want to know them on a personal level.
I want them.
It has really taken any kind of love out of my life.
I can't be with the people that I love.
However, I'm happily married to a man.
There's no passion in the marriage,
but we do share a special bond.
It's like being best friends, but closer.
So being a pedophile is not to say
that I cannot have a proper relationship, with an adult,
but what saddens me is that I cannot imagine myself
ever having kids of my own.
I used to spend a lot of time sitting at the playground
or in the bleachers at the pool,
and just watch children.
Eventually I asked myself,
do I really wanna do this the rest of my life?
The answer was obvious.
I had to find something else to occupy my time.
And that is when I took up cooking.
Whenever I feel an urge coming, I cook.
My husband loves my food,
so there's always somewhere to dump my urges away.
He's a huge source of support to me.
I'm also a head chief at a popular restaurant.
Every last Tuesday of the month,
we have a make-your-own-pizza night.
And there's always a large amount of kids that come.
That is the day that I look forward to the most each month.
For me personally, I feel that my life
is not much different from other adults,
apart from the fact that I cannot
love another person my age.
I am able to control my urges by cooking.
Those who cook well have lots of friends,
and many of my friends have children.
I invite them over for dinner all the time.
I know it's customary for guests
to bring something like a bottle of wine,
but I tell my guests not to.
Unknowingly, what they are bringing are their kids.
I feed them good food.
They bring their kids to play.
It's a fair trade to me.
Have I ever been in a relationship with a minor as an adult?
Relationship? No.
But I do have a story.
This was several years ago.
A friend brought her daughter over for lunch.
In the middle of our meal, her daughter started bleeding.
So she ran to her car to get some napkins
while I took the girl to the bathroom.
There I took off her skirt and her panties,
then I quickly took some towels and started wiping up.
Eventually I summed up the courage to put my finger in,
saying, "this will help you stop the bleeding."
She nodded her head and I squirmed around.
I heard footsteps nearing behind me,
so I took my finger out and continued wiping.
My friend stood in the doorway and said,
"Sorry for the mess."
Oh, no problem. No problem at all.
- So a new school year begins
and your teenager comes home talking about
how much he likes one of his teachers.
Your first thought might be,
good, I hope he learns something.
But the parents of one 14-year-old in Florida
were not happy about what their son was learning
from a teacher in his school.
Her name was Debra Lafave,
and she's one in a string of female teachers
who've admitted having sex with underage male students.
- I don't believe that female pedophiles exist,
because women have a less aggressive sex drive.
- Does society treat this differently?
I mean, if this was a man doing this to a boy,
or a man doing this to a girl,
would it be thought of in the same way?
Would the word relationship even be used?
- That's right. I mean, sometimes I get confused.
Is it a crime story, is it a love story?
Was it consensual, was it a rape?
All of that seems to be fodder for discussion.
We really don't know.
- I think female pedophiles exist,
because you have the classic stories
of a high school teacher that having
affair with boy student.
- 39-year-Old Anne Knopf denied allegations
that she had sex with her daughter's ex
in the basement of her home,
while her husband and children slept upstairs.
- You would have maybe fantasies
of you doing it with some hot soccer mom,
who was way older than you,
because, you know, she's fully developed.
And you'd be like, oh, yeah, I would hit that.
NARRATOR: Females are generally not associated
with pedophilia in the eyes of modern society.
Women are seen as nurturing and caring,
and would never harm children.
If a man hugs a strange child,
people would generally think he is a pervert.
But if a woman hugs a strange child,
people would think she is kind,
and even nurtures children that are not her own.
There is a clear double standard
when it comes to pedophilia between men and women.
This double standard has allowed many
offending female pedophiles to go undetected.
Roughly 80% of the victims of female pedophiles
are not believed.
Furthermore, boys are less likely to report sexual abuse.
The media mainly talks about female high school teachers
when it comes to female pedophilia.
However, high school teachers who have
sexual activities with teenagers, are not pedophiles.
[SOMBER AMBIENT MUSIC]
If the child is in puberty it is called hebophilia.
This means that most high school teachers
who have sex with children, are offending hebophiles.
People who are attracted to adults are called teleiophiles.
However, sexuality is not bound by boxes.
In reality many categories overlap.
Most humans are technically speaking,
a mix of hebophiles and teleiophiles.
Teleiophiles and hebophiles overlap.
There are 18-year-olds who look 16.
And there are 16-year-olds who look 18.
Hebophiles and pedophiles also overlap.
There are 15-year-olds who look like 13-year-olds.
And vice versa.
Even teleiophiles and pedophiles overlap.
There are 15-year-olds who look like adults.
And there are young adults who look like children.
[GLOOMY MUSIC]
- Child pornography is a visual representation
of children under the age of 18
engaged in sexual activity,
lewd conduct, or erotic behavior.
Many people believe that pedophiles
are the main cause of child pornography.
But in reality pedophiles are not
the only ones who use child pornography.
Hebophiles are the main consumers of child pornography.
Teen sex is the most searched form of sex on the internet.
But all not all teen sex is legal.
That's why child pornography has become
a three billion-dollar industry.
Three times more than the income
of all online social gaming combined.
Child pornography is not just creepy
basement videos with fat hairy men.
The statistics on child pornography
include videos, magazines, cable,
pay-per-view, CDs, and the internet.
It's also used to promote escort services,
sex clubs, merchandise, and phone sex.
Approximately 20% of all internet pornography
involves children under the age of 18.
Seeing that almost all men watch pornography,
and one-third of women, means that many of us
have not only witnessed child pornography,
but have also contributed to the industry.
For example, sending underage naked pictures
of yourself to your partner as a teenager.
The only time when it's not considered child pornography,
is when those images are used by the fashion industry.
Because when underaged fashion models
show their private parts, it's considered artistic.
- NEWS REPORTER: A 14-year-old New Jersey girl
has been accused of child pornography,
after posting nearly 30 explicit
nude pictures of herself on Myspace.com.
If convicted those charges could force her
to register as a sex offender.
- I think sexting is about sending
pictures of naked people to other people.
And I heard from a girlfriend of mine
that she got a picture also from a guy naked.
- I think we've completely lost our minds, Mike.
We're seeing an epidemic of these cases.
There's a case in Pennsylvania
of two girls at a slumber party,
teenagers in pajama bottoms and bra tops,
who took pictures of each other.
They're facing child porn charges.
Have we completely lost our minds, I mean?
- I think that they do it because they think it's funny,
or to bully somebody.
- I've got five kids, let me tell you something.
We need to protect kids from themselves too.
Not just the predators, but from themselves.
When these photographs go out,
they're out for good, and they are worldwide,
available with the push of a button.
Who likes that?
Let me tell you.
Who likes that?
The predators, - Predators, right.
- and the pornographers.
[GLOOMY AMBIENT MUSIC]
[DISTANT CHATTER]
NARRATOR: There are more phones than people in the world.
Most of us use a mobile service called SMS.
SMS stands for short message service.
The term sexting is a combination
of the words sex and texting,
and refers to a practice of sending sexually explicit
photos electronically, mainly by cellphone.
[CELLPHONE RINGS]
Roughly 20% of teenagers
in western society admit to sexting.
That is more than 50 million teenagers
in western society alone.
The problem is that all content generated by sexting
can be considered child pornography.
The teenager does not even have to be naked
for it to be considered sexting and child pornography.
Because child pornography does not require nudity,
any sexual activity, lewd conduct, or erotic behavior,
even when fully clothed,
can be considered child pornography.
The average teenager has no clue
that they're breaking the law by sexting.
But teenagers have been jailed,
given probation, and even committed suicide,
because they could not deal with
the consequences of sexting.
In America, 36% of all sex offenders
are children themselves.
Some law enforcements are easing the sentences
concerning child pornography created by minors.
But sexting cannot be fully legalized without rewriting
the entire definition of child pornography.
That however would allow adult hebophiles
and pedophiles to abuse the system.
- There are the studies showing that in pedophilia
there are a number of neurobiological differences
between pedophiles and a heterosexual.
The idea is that already when
the fetus is in the womb,
that there's certain hormonal processes
that predispose a person
to develop pedophilic sexual interests.
- I think the main causes as for
sexual orientation in general,
the interaction between sex hormones and developing brain,
which is determined both by genetic factors
and environmental factors.
- On the other hand there is the view that
pedophilia is also related to early childhood experiences
of being physically abused, and/or sexually abused.
And the idea is that if you are abused as a child,
you learn that
that is a normal way of interacting with adults.
So that's like an imprint in your mind.
You think that's normal.
So that's why that person who has those experiences
may develop sexual preferences for children
himself or herself,
and act on those.
[GENTLE AMBIENT MUSIC]
NARRATOR: All researchers agree
that true pedophilia is not a conscious choice.
Just like being homosexual or heterosexual.
The main difference of true pedophilia,
also known as exclusive pedophilia,
starts off with problems in sexual development.
Unlike most people who have a normal
sexual development into adulthood,
a pedophile's sexual development is blocked.
For example, when they are 13,
they prefer 13-year-old children.
But when they are 20,
they still prefer 13-year-old children.
And even when they are older,
they will continue to prefer 13-year-old children.
[GLOOMY PIANO MUSIC]
- There is no cure for pedophilia.
You can't change the deviant sexual preference.
What you can do, is two things.
One, you can intervene at the level of the sex drive.
So there are pharmacological
agents that really decrease
the libido of the person, so that means,
you stop their sexual activity completely,
also called chemical castration.
That's one option, but this type of treatment has many
harmful side effects.
You can think about osteoporosis,
I mean serious osteoporosis,
depression, feminization.
So in the long term this type of treatment is not an option.
The second possibility is psychological treatment.
That means you work on
the psychological problems
that actually make the person
act out their pedophilic interests.
So you can think about, maybe the person has the idea
that it's okay to have sex with children.
That children are not harmed by it.
That they actually may benefit from it.
That it's a kind of sex education.
Well, these types of cognitive distortions
need to be diminished, need to be reduced in treatment.
Also, a lot of pedophiles
lack empathy, lack insight
into what their behavior does to the children.
So I'm talking here of course about
pedophiles who act on their sexual preference.
These types of treatments are necessary,
and are generally quite effective
in reducing the risk of a pedophile,
again, abusing children.
[SOFT AMBIENT MUSIC]
- I don't think that pedophilia will become accepted,
because like I said, the public associate pedophilia
with active sexual relationships
between adults and children, and condemn this.
So I don't think it will be accepted.
- Yes, I think ultimately pedophilia will be accepted.
Maybe it'll take a hundred more years.
It's just like homosexuality.
In the DSM-II that came out in the 1950s,
homosexuality was,
was, yeah,
was like listed as a mental disorder.
Well, it's not anymore.
And I think, yeah, it can happen that
we can consider this sexual preference
as a natural variation.
And of course we still will need to make sure
that a pedophile doesn't act on those sexual preferences.
But I think the fact that the person has a preference,
I think we will arrive at a point in time
where that's just a given, considered a given.
- So at one hand I think that
pedophilia will never be accepted,
because it involves damage of children.
But we should also remember that
many of the people who are focusing
their sexual orientation towards children,
can keep their impulses in such a way
that they don't damage children.
NARRATOR: Pedophilia is an orientation not an action.
We cannot condemn an orientation,
but we can condemn an action.
Having sex with young children before puberty
will never become accepted because it damages children.
However, sexual relations between
adults and adolescent children
might become more accepted by modern society.
As strange as this may sound,
this future development is not new for western society.
If we look at the past,
we can see that western society
treated sexuality completely different.
- The Greeks and Romans practiced pederasty.
And particularly in Ancient Greece,
it was a very well known social institution.
And that would typically involve a relationship
between an older man and a younger boy.
However, a younger boy would not mean
a real child as we would understand it.
A boy in a homoerotic relationship in Ancient Greece
would be an adolescent, so in his puberty.
So if we were to translate this behavior
in Ancient Greece into modern times,
of modern sexuology,
we would rather call it hebophilia.
NARRATOR: Hebophilia is not listed as a mental disorder.
Because finding teenagers attractive is normal.
Children before puberty cannot understand lust,
but children in puberty can.
However, we must remember that teenagers
are still in sexual development.
The larger the age difference between adults and teenagers,
the more chance there is for an imbalance of power.
Sex should always be consensual, no matter what age.
[GENTLE PIANO MUSIC]
For most of us, the age of attraction does not change.
Instead it expands.
This means that the very first people
who we find attractive
will remain in our age of attraction.
Usually this begins in early puberty.
When we pass the age of 18,
we do not automatically remove children
under the age of 18 from our age of attraction.
We are not automatically programmed
to adjust our age of attraction
to fit the legal age of the majority.
Because 18 is just a number.
[SOFT SOMBER MUSIC]