Michael Abrahams | The push to normalise paedophilia

Recently, a friend sent me a video she thought would interest me. In the clip, a young woman with a European accent is seen giving what appears to be a TED Talk to a live audience. During her monologue, she said, “It is our responsibility to reflect and to overcome our negative feelings about paedophiles and treat them with the same respect we treat other people,” adding, “We should accept that paedophilia is a sexual preference.”

I have become wary of commenting on snippets of videos without seeing what came before or after the clip I watch, as the context may be lost when I see only a fraction of a talk or an event. So, I searched the Internet and found the original video. The speaker was Mirjam Heine, a German medical student, and she was delivering a TEDxTalk at the University of Würzburg in Germany titled ‘Why our perception of paedophilia has to change’. During her talk, she claims that paedophilia is simply another sexual orientation. To be clear, Heine does not condone adults having sexual contact with children. Indeed, she argues, “The difference between paedophilia and other sexual orientations is that living out this sexual orientation will end in a disaster.”

SEXUAL ORIENTATION

I get her argument about paedophilia being a sexual orientation. I also get the point that orientation does not equate to actions. For example, there are heterosexuals, lesbians and gay men who have died virgins. My issue, however, is that claiming paedophilia is merely an orientation and is deserving of de-stigmatisation leads us down a slippery slope to normalising it; and there is a push to do so. According to Carson Holloway, a political science professor at the University of Nebraska and a leading analyst of cultural trends, “A trend towards normalizing paedophilia is the latest manifestation of a dangerous understanding of human sexuality that has become more prevalent over the last 30 years.”

There is evidence to support Holloway’s statement. In July of 1998, Psychological Bulletin, an American academic psychology journal published by the American Psychological Association, carried an article examining all the research studying the harm done by childhood sexual abuse. The researchers concluded that, on average, psychological harm from this activity was minimal, and that some of the harm was not due to the experience itself, but the social and cultural taboos associated with the practice. The authors of the article suggested that psychologists stop using judgemental terms like ‘child abuse’, ‘molestation’, and ‘victims’. Instead, neutral words such as ‘adult-child sex’ were to be used.

Many scientists and researchers subsequently criticised the study because its methodology and conclusions were poorly designed and statistically flawed. Numerous research studies, as well as expert opinion in the field of psychology, both before and after the abovementioned publication, have long supported the stance that children cannot consent to sexual activity, and that child and adolescent sexual abuse causes harm. There is much research showing the adverse effects of child sexual abuse, from mental disorders such as depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and eating disorders to sexual dysfunction, suicidal ideation and substance abuse, to even physical illnesses such as endometriosis and autoimmune diseases.

CONCERTED EFFORTS

More than two decades later, concerted efforts are still being made to normalise sexual relations between adults and children. One of the most recent cases involves the United Nations’ International Committee of Jurists (ICJ), the intergovernmental organisation’s principal judicial organ. In 2023, the committee unveiled a new set of proposals for legal principles. The document states, in part, “Moreover, sexual conduct involving persons below the domestically prescribed minimum age of consent to sex may be consensual in fact, if not in law. In this context, the enforcement of criminal law should reflect the rights and capacity of persons under 18 years of age to make decisions about engaging in consensual sexual conduct and their right to be heard in matters concerning them.” The report sets no age at which a child cannot consent to sex. If its recommendations are implemented, these would presumably discard regulations on minimum age requirements for sexual relations and pave the way for the decriminalisation of adults engaging in sexual activity with minors.

What is also disturbing is the fact that several organisations exist that are dedicated to the advocacy of sexual relations between adults and minors. These include the North American Man/Boy Love Association, Ipce (formerly International Pedophile and Child Emancipation) and Newgon Organization, an online group that advocates for “paedophile rights”.

There is a word for sex between an adult and a child, and the word is ‘rape’. There are also words for other types of sexual contact between them, and these are ‘molestation’ and ‘abuse’. A child is unable to give consent for such activity. We must all be vigilant and resolute, and not allow individuals or organisations to redefine what type of activities our children should be allowed to engage in. Paedophiles are not ‘minor-attracted persons’, as some would have us call them. They are disturbed individuals who need help, which should be provided for them. But we must also shield and protect our children from them and adopt a zero-tolerance approach to child sexual abuse.

Michael Abrahams is an obstetrician and gynaecologist, social commentator and human-rights advocate. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and michabe_1999@hotmail.com, or follow him on X , formerly Twitter, @mikeyabrahams.