singletonaccnt

To be clear, I meant other reasons than having a persistent sexual attraction towards children. Those other reasons can be: wanting to see physical abuse, seeing how abuse happens, finding a thrill in seeing something illegal, trying to see what gets you aroused, and many other reasons.

The Dutch rapporteur for sexual abuse summarized that it is estimated that about 20% of the people caught for possessing child pornography are actual pedophiles, meaning people with a persistent sexual attraction towards children: http://www.nationaalrapporteur.nl/Images/nationaal-rapporteu...

So the headline uses the word "pedophiles", but in the article the word is nowhere to be found. Maybe that's because this sting isn't necessarily about pedophiles, but about people watching and trading child pornography. Using "pedophiles" only serves to reinforce the stigma of a already heavily stigmatized minority.

The word "pedophile" should be defined as someone with a sexual attraction towards children. It doesn't describe behavior: people can choose to not act on the attraction, and many, invisible as they are, in fact do not. Also, the people operating and visiting that hidden service could have had other reasons for visiting. They are not necessarily all pedophiles.

Yes, I also find this really concerning.. I use Blendle to look up articles relating to pedophilia, to see how it's portrayed in the media. Now Blendle is giving away €2,50 on signup, so I can create new accounts as I go along... but I really wouldn't want to connect my regular account with it, and I would for my usage, but there really is no way to do it.

If you're wondering how the subject is portrayed... very badly. Almost always the molester stereotype, especially in British media. You might want to read up on these threads if you want to get a better picture:

- https://parenting.stackexchange.com/questions/18782/what-sho...

- https://www.quora.com/Pedophilia/What-does-it-feel-like-to-b...

Please don't use "pedophiles" as a synonym for "sexual predator". It's not the same, and it's very stigmatizing for people who are attracted to children but decide to not act on their feelings.

Here is a great thread on the parenting Stack Exchange that explains the issue: https://parenting.stackexchange.com/questions/18782/what-sho...