My Experience Discussing Pedophilia with the Media

“We have no problem” with misleading the audience … and that is a huge problem.

Craig Harper
Craig Harper Essays

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Photo by Icons8 team on Unsplash

That topic again…

Pedophilia is an issue that courts controversy and a range of opinions. Most of the academic work that I have conducted has looked at how this topic (and sexual offending more broadly) is reported in the media, and the downstream effects of these reporting styles on social attitudes.

I’ve also written on Medium before about the stigmatization of people with pedophilic sexual interests — particularly on social media sites like Twitter and Tumblr, where accounts have been temporarily and permanently suspended. My most-read post on this subject is below, and ironically has been demonetized by Medium without an explanation as to why.

The motivation behind communicating about this is simple, and goes something like this:

  1. There are people with pedophilic sexual interests in society;
  2. Some (maybe most — we simply do not know) will…

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Craig Harper
Craig Harper Essays

Social psychologist and researcher interested in sexuality and political issues. Posts about psychology, science, and education. Twitter: @CraigHarper19