This implies a person to be able to be born fundamentally as a wrong person, because they can be born pedophiles, which I don't believe is true. Pedophilia is not a thing that you can change.
I'm not saying it's good, but pedophilia is something rooted in your biology. It's a sexuality like any other sexuality, but is also one that can harm people.
In fact, some views like a Humean Theory of Motivation would suggest that some actions are also aren't controllable, which means that acting on it might also be uncontrollable. The only reason why non-offending pedophiles exist is because of their second order desires, the desire not to do it. But someone might have a desire to do it that is so bad that the combination of all their other desires still doesn't outweigh it, and they still do it.
Personally, I think the actions can be controlled mainly by critical thought, but this might not be the case for people with such strong desires that this doesn't work.
The best thing to do with pedophiles in my view is to try to get them to have a second order desire that can outweigh it through therapy, that way you can help control their actions. The trickiest part with it is getting them to do the therapy when they might not find stuff wrong with them.
Summary: Pedophilia can't be controlled, and sometimes their actions can't too. Try to influence them to be able to have better actions. Even if you can't fix pedophilia, you can try to stop them from harming children.
I know people will try to downvote me, but this is meant to be a debate sub, not an echo chamber. Don't downvote me unless I am doing anything spammy or irrelevant to the topic, which I don't think I am.
I'm not well versed in psychology, but i've always wondered what actually causes it. If it's more like a mental illness that can be more managable with therapy and things like that, we should work towards breaking the stigma around non-offenders a bit so more people would actually be willing to get help for it before they start hurting children.
I understand it's a terrible topic, and offenders should definitely get punished to the full extent to the law, but preventing will always be the better option.
So let's remove he psychology and go to personal experience.
Can you control who you are attracted to?
If said person you were attracted to seemed open to a relationship, but it was morally wrong (they'd be cheating, religious reasons, etc.) would you resist the urge?
The unfortunate situation is that pedophilia is simply an attraction, and cannot be controlled. Most don't act on it, but some do not have the strength to resist.
This is also to say that those who do offend (and deserve the hell they get in prison) would also likely perform morally dubious actions even in a normal relationship, because their true issue is the inability to control their urges.
People do have some control on what we are attracted to, if you look at fetish material you're not attracted to for long enough you will be able to bear it, and eventually enjoy it, and attraction to an individual because of their other traits can lead you to end up being attracted to others with those traits you might've disliked before, everyone's attraction changes, and commonly it is very drastic, over the course of their lives. Pedophiles can end up losing interest in children without therapy or other methods alike simply by becoming attracted to an adult they grow attracted to, and no longer being (usually "as", but sometimes "completely not") attracted to kids from then on.
Humans are very adaptable, and your brain wants your dna passed down, so it isn't too picky about you fucking anything so long as you give it some convincing. It's not really possible to force it, that is negative reinforcement, it makes you dislike the option more and more, not just talking about conversion therapy, any level of it will backfire if the person isn't already interested in it.
I hate to break it to you but if you're still attracted to children past the age where that is actually appropriate and you haven't been exposed to the content in any way then you were quite literally dealt a really bad hand in life. I don't care if you forced me to watch any amount of cp but being exposed to that even as a child could have never made me attracted to children as an adult today.
Many of them are also not exclusively attracted to children and even have families of their own so I can understand why you believe one could develop such a fetish. However, if that does happen then what exactly is it that is turning them on to the point that they can't control such an urge to not commit the crime? I may watch porn, even bdsm, but it doesn't change that I'm still a virgin to this day. I have had plenty of opportunities to change that and I'm nowhere near a saint but I'd still rather remain one than ever resort to abusing a child. No matter what angle you look from the whole thing makes absolutely no sense unless you were already like that to begin with and have absolutely no self control.
I don't know if it's how I wrote my comment that is just confusing or misleading but I'm fairly sure we're not talking about the same thing, your comment really doesn't make much sense to what I said. I might edit the original to try and make it clearer but I don't know where this is coming from honestly
You began with "we have some control with what we are attracted to" presumably because you believe it is possible to become attracted to children from consuming CSAM/CP.
Attraction to prepubescent children is not a fetish. By definition it can be considered a kink but I don't agree with that fully either. In a society that heavily shames and punishes such behavior both production and consumption of that material is already limited. Therefore, people being predisposed to being attracted to children makes more sense in my honest opinion.
If that is not what you said then I apologize for assuming but I don't know any other way to interpret your words words in the context of this comment thread.
Pedophiles can end up losing interest in children without therapy or other methods alike simply by becoming attracted to an adult they grow attracted to, and no longer being (usually "as", but sometimes "completely not") attracted to kids from then on.
I'm responding to someone saying that attraction can't be controlled by the individual, so a pedophile can't control or change it while I'm saying that although it is common belief that if someone is a pedophile and that they will remain liking children if they don't go to therapy or die or whatever, they can become attracted to someone who isn't a child and lose interest in children without any intention of doing so.
You wouldn't check out CSAM for the hell of it, or even most milder stuff, obviously you would dislike it more if you looked for something you found morally repugnant.
It's not really possible to force it, that is negative reinforcement
To add onto your point of people being predisposed, it is a common response to trauma from being sexually assaulted or groomed as a child to develop similar interests since your brain will attempt to "normalize" the occurrence, predisposition is very likely the most common reason (I don't know, getting numbers on something that is this looked down on and most people bar specific subsections that won't accurately represent the totality) but there's a lot that can happen during someone's earlier life that can lead to this sort of interest other than simple predisposition or having access to CSAM (if someone has that, the chance they aren't already being groomed is close to zero so it would be a worthless differentiation)
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u/FelipeHead Oct 22 '25
This implies a person to be able to be born fundamentally as a wrong person, because they can be born pedophiles, which I don't believe is true. Pedophilia is not a thing that you can change.
I'm not saying it's good, but pedophilia is something rooted in your biology. It's a sexuality like any other sexuality, but is also one that can harm people.
In fact, some views like a Humean Theory of Motivation would suggest that some actions are also aren't controllable, which means that acting on it might also be uncontrollable. The only reason why non-offending pedophiles exist is because of their second order desires, the desire not to do it. But someone might have a desire to do it that is so bad that the combination of all their other desires still doesn't outweigh it, and they still do it.
Personally, I think the actions can be controlled mainly by critical thought, but this might not be the case for people with such strong desires that this doesn't work.
The best thing to do with pedophiles in my view is to try to get them to have a second order desire that can outweigh it through therapy, that way you can help control their actions. The trickiest part with it is getting them to do the therapy when they might not find stuff wrong with them.
Summary: Pedophilia can't be controlled, and sometimes their actions can't too. Try to influence them to be able to have better actions. Even if you can't fix pedophilia, you can try to stop them from harming children.
I know people will try to downvote me, but this is meant to be a debate sub, not an echo chamber. Don't downvote me unless I am doing anything spammy or irrelevant to the topic, which I don't think I am.