TIL there is a tiny British colony in the Pacific with so many pedophiles that the no one under the age of 16 can go there without prior authorization

Besides, the fact that the natural inclination of a pedophile has to be constrained says a lot about that inclination.

Not really. The "constraint" required is no more than, say, that of a heterosexual adult who fancies their married boss.

You are comparing the oppression of the those previously mentioned groups to how pedophiles are viewed/judged/treated?

I was merely using these groups as to demonstrate that society's views can indeed be manipulated. I was not drawing any comparison between the plights of individual groups.

As far the "plight" of the paedophile, it certainly does exist.

Firstly, you clearly do not realise the negative psychological consequences of feeling like you have no defined place in society, or living in psychological isolation, hearing only negative stereotypes about people like yourself. Some people can deal with it, but this alone can drive others into depression and to self harm. For those that seek help for such issues, another problem immediately arises which is that...

...the level of prejudice that exists in society allows for unjust arrests and convictions, I suppose very analogous to treatment reported by African Americans, except possibly worse because the charges made are typically of sexual crimes against children. Until recently, there existed many online paedophile communities, where paedophiles could talk to others like themselves in a safe and entirely legal setting. As these communities took no steps to hide themselves, police forces around the world saw them as easy targets and raided the servers (This tended to be reported in the media as police "smashing paedophile rings".) Many members were arrested purely because their admitted sexual orientation cast them under suspicion. While a handful of these people were indeed convicted of serious sexual crimes against children, this certainly does not excuse the facts that 1. the majority of arrests took place with absolutely no evidence of crime (the majority were released without charge) 2. where charges were made, they tended to be tenuous "punts" of alleged child porn offences, presumably because admission to being a paedophile is simply enough evidence many jurors will need to vote guilty. (Indeed, I know for certain that one conviction was overturned when appeal judges reviewed the images and ruled that there was never a case to answer as images found on the defendant's computer simply were not child porn.)

I also have a personal anecdote. When I was at school, a boy outed himself as a paedophile. School staff got wind of this. He was subsequently banned from accessing any area of the school accessible by pupils under 16, and letters were sent to parents outlining the situation. He was later arrested in the above-mentioned raids and, despite being released without charge, ended up hospitalised on mental health grounds.

Is any of this this acceptable? I personally don't think so. It is only when society understands the facts that these effects can be mitigated.

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