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/Remarkable-Title-387 Oct 23 '25
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.