this post was submitted on 29 Jul 2025
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A survey found 1 in 6 men admit sexual feelings for children. So is paedophilia increasing? (2023, linked study is worth a read). (theconversation.com)
submitted 4 days ago by naevaTheRat@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/news@aussie.zone
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I came across this after someone I know made some claims about pedophilia prevalence I found unbelievable. Leading me to the survey.

Surveys are hard, there's always some percentage of people that say strange things, and self reports could be over or underestimates of prevalence.

I think that the way the results bundle 19 year old who watch a porn video that had a 17 year old in it, and 50 year old that watched a porn video of a 5 year old together is needlessly inflammatory. While neither is good I think culturally we are generally vastly more worried about what leads to the second, or even what makes the 50 year old look for 17 year olds (i.e. cases where the 19 year old didn't grow out of it).

Still, some of these stats are extremely troubling to me, and I'm interested in what people make of it.

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[–] appetizer@lemmy.today 11 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Given the age of consent is 16, it's a bit stupid to include 17 year olds as children.

[–] naevaTheRat@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

You should read the study if you want to know why it was done the way it was done. Scientists are very good at explaining why the criteria they selected are the criteria they selected.

From the summary report

This report is part of an international survey that included men in Australia, the US and the UK, where the age of consent varies from 16 – 18 depending on the region and the offense. Accordingly, we used 18 as the age of consent for all sexual offences, although the age of consent for sexual activity is 16 in Australia. Therefore, some of what is noted as sexual contact with a child in our findings may be consensual activity (for instance, a 19 year old having sex with a 17 year old), which is a limitation of the survey. However, it is unlikely that our contact offense findings were significantly impacted by this limitation due to the following factors

Our survey included a question on whether participants had intentionally viewed “pornographic material” containing people under the age of 18 (that is, child sexual abuse material). Participants could answer whether they had never done so, had done so when they were under 18, or had done so when they were over 18. Since this was a forced option, those who accessed child sexual abuse material as a child, but continued offending as adults, may not have been included in the adult offending analysis. As a result, our data on child sexual abuse material offending may be an under-estimation.

[–] JasSmith@sh.itjust.works 5 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

That is very different to the headline, which is about feelings, which is what the top comment is referring to. The statistic you are referring to was 2.5% of respondents, not 1 in 6.

[–] appetizer@lemmy.today 3 points 4 days ago (1 children)

100% this. The headline was deceptive and used the wrong figure. I have no issue with the study itself.

[–] naevaTheRat@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 4 days ago

They headline is the summation of the distinct people that answered at least one question in the grouping: "Men who have sexual feelings towards children" with an affirmative response

[–] eureka@aussie.zone 2 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

Given the age of consent is 16

Generally true for most states, a couple are 17 and there are various special cases. I didn't realise how different it is between states and about authority rules (e.g. in some states, a person has a higher AoC for a guardian or teacher).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_consent_in_Oceania#Australia

I also didn't know how recently some states ended anti-homosexuality laws, esp Tasmania.

And I also didn't know that the federal 16 minimum age applies to Australians while outside of Australia. (Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth) Division 272 )

[–] appetizer@lemmy.today 2 points 4 days ago

That's interesting! I didn't know that SA and TAS had separate ages.