What Are Your Views on the Legal and Illegal Material That Pedophiles Often Use?

We believe child pornography is wrong when a real child is involved because the child can be seriously harmed. This harm can happen at the time the images are made and also because the images are distributed.

There are many kinds of CSAM (child sexual abuse material) and CSEM (child sexual exploitation material) ranging from extreme kinds depicting very small children being horribly abused to material that teenagers have made themselves but which gets circulated widely. Overall, we think pedophiles should stay away from all such material.

Nowadays, there is also AI-generated material, which is usually trained on images of real children, either CSAM or otherwise. When this material is photorealistic, it is hard to tell from CSAM and CSEM, both by pedophiles and prosecutors. It’s impossible to know if it’s been made ethically, and again we advise pedophiles to stay away from it.

When no child is involved in the production of fantasy material, it is less clear who gets harmed (or whether the terms ‘abuse’ and ‘exploitation’ are appropriate). These kinds of material include erotic fiction, child sex dolls, or loli and shota cartoons.

However, it is currently illegal to possess much of this material, though the details vary depending on where you live. We advise pedophiles to understand the law in their country or state, and stay away if the material is illegal.

We are aware that many pedophiles can get interested in any of the above even if they never try to be sexual with a child in person or online. We are also aware that, in recent years, the amount and availability of this material has only increased, in spite of efforts by law enforcement.

Many professionals are trying to help pedophiles develop strategies to avoid using illegal material. See the links below.