A non-offending self-confessed paedophile is trying to raise awareness and revolutionise the public’s understanding of underage attraction.
Nickerson, from Tennessee, USA wants to encourage paedophiles to seek help and get support for their sexual inclinations. Nick sees this as a sexual orientation, but knows and understands it is unethical to act on it. The 43 year old works on the online forum ‘VirPed’ which is short for virtuous paedophiles; also known as ethical paedophiles.
Can the community see these non-offending paedophiles the same as it sees any other sexual orientation? Because variance of sexual orientation has been accepted more these days, can we also accept non-offending self-confessed paedophile as a form of sexual orientation? Like anything we can adapt to society’s needs and wants but there needs to be trust in place.
The VirPed forum is only for people who are attracted to prepubescent children, but completely control their urges and refrain from watching child pornography or any physical contact with minors. The forum has thousands of members and they pride themselves on encouraging paedophiles to never offend and to mentally extinguish any thoughts or inclination to offend.
If we cannot eradicate such behaviour, then education and support may be the most cogent way to stop offences.