Ethan Edwards is a pseudonym. I am a pedophile, always celibate, and I have never seen child pornography. My attraction is strongest to girls around 4 years old, but I am also attracted to girls and women up through their 30s or beyond. Now in my late 60s, I'm divorced and living alone. I was married for over 10 years and was heavily involved with raising my 3 daughters. For most of my career I was a successful software engineer. I am very unusual for a pedophile in that I didn't realize that I was one until I was in my 50s -- but it was there all along. I am angry that we all must remain silent or risk losing everything. That was my mindset when I co-founded Virtuous Pedophiles in 2012. I soon learned of the the terror of the typical pedophile who realizes as a teenager that his attraction isn't going to go away, who has nowhere to turn for help. The injustice I am most passionate about is the harsh legal penalties imposed on pedophiles who passively view illegal images of children. I stepped down from my role as a director of Virtuous Pedophiles early in 2024 and am delighted to pass the mantle on to a younger generation.

Ethan Edwards is a pseudonym. I am a pedophile, always celibate, and I have never seen child pornography. My attraction is strongest to girls around 4 years old, but I am also attracted to girls and women up through their 30s or beyond. Now in my late 60s, I'm divorced and living alone. I was married for over 10 years and was heavily involved with raising my 3 daughters. For most of my career I was a successful software engineer. I am very unusual for a pedophile in that I didn't realize that I was one until I was in my 50s -- but it was there all along. I am angry that we all must remain silent or risk losing everything. That was my mindset when I co-founded Virtuous Pedophiles in 2012. I soon learned of the the terror of the typical pedophile who realizes as a teenager that his attraction isn't going to go away, who has nowhere to turn for help. The injustice I am most passionate about is the harsh legal penalties imposed on pedophiles who passively view illegal images of children. I stepped down from my role as a director of Virtuous Pedophiles early in 2024 and am delighted to pass the mantle on to a younger generation.

27 July 2020

lessons from reviewing books on pedophilia
ethan edwards

I have been reviewing books about pedophiles off and on since I began this blog six years ago. Today I am going to look at them all together, in search of patterns.

14 December 2019

men not attracted to 13yo girls? ha!
ethan edwards

Pedophilia as the scientists use the term is an attraction to prepubescent children. It is rare. Most straight men see a 6-year-old girl and do not feel any significant sexual interest.

14 June 2018

pedophilia as a minor secret from your partner
ethan edwards

This post is directed at pedophiles who have some attraction to adults and would like to have a relationship with an adult. (I'll focus on men attracted to women, but all other gender combinations are also possible).

I have been reviewing books about pedophiles off and on since I began this blog six years ago. Today I am going to look at them all together, in search of patterns.

Pedophilia as the scientists use the term is an attraction to prepubescent children. It is rare. Most straight men see a 6-year-old girl and do not feel any significant sexual interest.

This post is directed at pedophiles who have some attraction to adults and would like to have a relationship with an adult. (I'll focus on men attracted to women, but all other gender combinations are also possible).

Research on pedophiles has suggested that we differ from ordinary peoplein a variety of non-flattering ways . The implications of being short or left-handed are obvious and not very serious for a person's self-concept. But IQ is more central to a person's self-worth, and the claimed deficit bothers...

A loud feminist complaint in society is that men objectify women and view them as sex objects. Women want instead to be treated as full people with talents, opinions, and aspirations, just like men. I believe that in general men will instinctively evaluate women with regard to their attractiveness regardless...

I got to thinking about this issue when a radio show host was saying that adult male attraction to 16-year-olds was positively sick and perverted. He presented it as something obvious — not a controversial conclusion he had reached that might need some support.

I have written a lot about CP, but in this post I'd like to focus on the person (usually a man) who is actually watching the CP. What's going through his head, in general and at the time? This is based to some extent on reports from real pedophiles who have been in this position.

This post contains the heart of my anti-contact argument.

The received wisdom for some time has been that looking at CP makes it more likely that a pedophile will offend against a child. When men who have committed a contact offense are interviewed, they often describe CP viewing as part of the process that led up to the offense. But there is no evidence of...

Should pedophiles become parents? I imagine many readers will have a passionately negative reaction

What evidence could anyone possibly marshal to conclude that all the members of a group — one defined by their thoughts and not their actions — are sex offenders if they are undetected by anyone?

7 December 2024

at peace with my pedophilia
ethan edwards

Since I sought with passion the sort of partner that society approved of, there was little impetus to look at whether I had any other attractions.

11 April 2023

fantasies of adult-child sex disgust even the sex-positive public
ethan edwards

What are the limits pedophiles should self-impose on their sexual fantasies?

11 April 2023

how can you want to keep an attraction you can never act on?
ethan edwards

Given that we are for moral reasons totally unable to express our sexuality with children, our right to private sexual fantasy would seem imore important.

23 August 2022

professionals might be won over even if public is not
ethan edwards

My hope for changing public opinion is very low. But how can things get better?

30 June 2022

taxonomy of pedophiles and public
ethan edwards

After 10 years of Virtuous Pedophiles, what has it revealed about different attitudes toward pedophilia?

2 April 2022

one group of sympathetic pedophiles might be enough?
ethan edwards

Improving our situation requires changing minds of a range of non-pedophiles.

18 January 2022

the chasm between celibate pedophiles and acceptance
ethan edwards

This may be a bleak picture, but we need to understand the reality gap we face.

7 June 2021

counting the distressed cp victims
ethan edwards

How do we come up with measured public policy on this?

29 May 2021

anti-pedophile restrictions — attitudes or technology?
ethan edwards

The public has also become less and less tolerant of pedophilia since 2012. Laws reflect this.

7 May 2021

accepting law-abiding pedophiles: five stages of grief
ethan edwards

The process that a typical non-pedophile goes through when coming to accept realistic and tolerant ideas about pedophiles.

24 March 2021

taking stock of progress by anti-legalization pedophiles
ethan edwards

In June of 2012, nearly 9 years ago, Nick Devin and I launched the website Virtuous Pedophiles. We got some interest from media and progressive scientists who study pedophilia. The interest has lessened along with the novelty, but it has not disappeared. They perceived us as something new. We were pedophiles...

13 March 2021

the pluses of denial of pedophilia
ethan edwards

Virtuous Pedophiles... Surely our message is: Come forward! Don't be ashamed of who you are! Let the hidden pedophiles know there are others like them so they too can come forward!

3 September 2020

private sexual thoughts do not violate a child's rights
ethan edwards

Just about everyone agrees that the making of CP is a terrible thing and rightly classified as a serious crime.

15 August 2020

critique of a podcast: the worst epidemic
ethan edwards

It's as if you said, Lawbreakers! Disgusting people! An epidemic of vast proportions! Some of them murder and torture people! That's true. But there are other lawbreakers who park in no parking zones or let the time expire on their meters.

3 August 2020

my boyfriend's a pedophile, version 2
ethan edwards

I made a post with this title in 2018. This is an update, two years later.

27 July 2020

lessons from reviewing books on pedophilia
ethan edwards

I have been reviewing books about pedophiles off and on since I began this blog six years ago. Today I am going to look at them all together, in search of patterns.

26 July 2020

review: dream children
ethan edwards

This book by A.N. Wilson has an "old" style that is rare in the modern novels I read — an intricate use of language. I had to slow down to read it, and I can find a certain pleasure in the style. As for deeper connections, I'm the sort of guy who got Bs and Cs in literature courses, and leave it to...

18 July 2020

review: my dark vanessa
ethan edwards

The defining event of this book is an affair that the protagonist Vanessa enters into with her 42-year-old English teacher (Mr. Strane) when she is 15 years old. The rest of the book describes how this plays out in her life in a destructive way. He kills himself near the end of the book, when she is...

7 June 2020

pedophilia-be-gone pill
ethan edwards

An ongoing poll in the Virtuous Pedophiles support group is about a hypothetical "pedophilia-be-gone" pill. Below are the results as of today. This is not limited to exclusive pedophiles, but is limited to those who do consider themselves pedophiles or MAPs. Obviously the listed options don't cover all...

16 May 2020

a new online course for young pedophiles
ethan edwards

A new resource for young pedophiles from The Moor Center

13 May 2020

science proves you like sex just as much with a condom
ethan edwards

(In case there is any doubt, the title is sarcastic).

9 May 2020

the iwf: comparing harm from viewing to other harms
ethan edwards

4 of 4. Considering narratives from the IWF about whether types of harm from CSEM can be different.

8 May 2020

the iwf: what are the viewers thinking?
ethan edwards

3 of 4. Looking at the IWF's possible attitudes to the intentions of viewers of CSEM.

7 May 2020

the iwf: young teens
ethan edwards

2 of 4. Looking at the issue of self-made images of teens in the light of IWF statements.

6 May 2020

the iwf: pixels from a crime scene
ethan edwards

1 of 4. A review of the Pixels from a Crime Scene podcast from the Internet Watch Foundation.

1 March 2020

bailey's middle path
ethan edwards

Mike Bailey has given his view of the age of consent question and shared it with me.

13 January 2020

holden caulfield: pedophile, yes. monster, no.
ethan edwards

Salinger's Holden Caulfield is a decent pedophile. So was Salinger.

14 December 2019

not attracted to 13-year-olds? the ultimate challenge
ethan edwards

Perhaps some straight male readers will scoff at the idea that they have any attraction at all to 13-year-old girls. Warning: various people might find this post to have arousing elements to it. For my purposes, this is unavoidable.

14 December 2019

men not attracted to 13yo girls? ha!
ethan edwards

Pedophilia as the scientists use the term is an attraction to prepubescent children. It is rare. Most straight men see a 6-year-old girl and do not feel any significant sexual interest.

12 December 2019

the parallel between hiv and pedophilia
ethan edwards

Is CSAM use a public health issue akin to other illnesses?

27 November 2019

houston police: be afraid for no good reason
ethan edwards

The holidays are coming. People will be taking family pictures, including ones of children. The Houston police would like to [warn parents against posting them online](https://www.khou.com/article/news/crime/pedophiles-are-looking-for-photos-of-your-kids-on-social-media/285-c69166b1-7387-48ac-ae6d-cb53d907562a),...

8 November 2019

funding to reduce csa is never specifically to catch passive cp viewers
ethan edwards

Occasionally a wealthy individual wants to donate some money with the goal of stamping out child sex abuse. It is a noble goal. Part of that problem is the child sex abuse that happens in front of a camera that is subsequently spread around the entire internet. Another problem is the people looking at...

8 October 2019

regret among cp viewers
ethan edwards

The law in many western countries calls for very harsh penalties for possession of CP (even without making it, paying for it, or distributing it).

1 October 2019

hysteria vs analysis regarding cp images online
ethan edwards

On Sunday, September 29, the lead article in the New York Times was titled The Internet Is Overrun With Images of Child Sexual Abuse. What Went Wrong? I have a critique.

11 September 2019

the two morally distinct classes of cp viewers
ethan edwards

Most people in society seem to think that all pedophiles are child molesters. This is not true. Many people who feel a sexual attraction to children who never act on it.

28 August 2019

teen-teen attraction as opportunistic
ethan edwards

Suppose we start with the assumption that a person's fundamental sexual attraction is unchanging.

Since I sought with passion the sort of partner that society approved of, there was little impetus to look at whether I had any other attractions.

What are the limits pedophiles should self-impose on their sexual fantasies?

Given that we are for moral reasons totally unable to express our sexuality with children, our right to private sexual fantasy would seem imore important.

My hope for changing public opinion is very low. But how can things get better?

After 10 years of Virtuous Pedophiles, what has it revealed about different attitudes toward pedophilia?

Improving our situation requires changing minds of a range of non-pedophiles.

This may be a bleak picture, but we need to understand the reality gap we face.

How do we come up with measured public policy on this?

The public has also become less and less tolerant of pedophilia since 2012. Laws reflect this.

The process that a typical non-pedophile goes through when coming to accept realistic and tolerant ideas about pedophiles.

In June of 2012, nearly 9 years ago, Nick Devin and I launched the website Virtuous Pedophiles. We got some interest from media and progressive scientists who study pedophilia. The interest has lessened along with the novelty, but it has not disappeared. They perceived us as something new. We were pedophiles...

Virtuous Pedophiles... Surely our message is: Come forward! Don't be ashamed of who you are! Let the hidden pedophiles know there are others like them so they too can come forward!

Just about everyone agrees that the making of CP is a terrible thing and rightly classified as a serious crime.

It's as if you said, Lawbreakers! Disgusting people! An epidemic of vast proportions! Some of them murder and torture people! That's true. But there are other lawbreakers who park in no parking zones or let the time expire on their meters.

I made a post with this title in 2018. This is an update, two years later.

I have been reviewing books about pedophiles off and on since I began this blog six years ago. Today I am going to look at them all together, in search of patterns.

This book by A.N. Wilson has an "old" style that is rare in the modern novels I read — an intricate use of language. I had to slow down to read it, and I can find a certain pleasure in the style. As for deeper connections, I'm the sort of guy who got Bs and Cs in literature courses, and leave it to...

The defining event of this book is an affair that the protagonist Vanessa enters into with her 42-year-old English teacher (Mr. Strane) when she is 15 years old. The rest of the book describes how this plays out in her life in a destructive way. He kills himself near the end of the book, when she is...

An ongoing poll in the Virtuous Pedophiles support group is about a hypothetical "pedophilia-be-gone" pill. Below are the results as of today. This is not limited to exclusive pedophiles, but is limited to those who do consider themselves pedophiles or MAPs. Obviously the listed options don't cover all...

A new resource for young pedophiles from The Moor Center

(In case there is any doubt, the title is sarcastic).

4 of 4. Considering narratives from the IWF about whether types of harm from CSEM can be different.

3 of 4. Looking at the IWF's possible attitudes to the intentions of viewers of CSEM.

2 of 4. Looking at the issue of self-made images of teens in the light of IWF statements.

1 of 4. A review of the Pixels from a Crime Scene podcast from the Internet Watch Foundation.

Mike Bailey has given his view of the age of consent question and shared it with me.

Salinger's Holden Caulfield is a decent pedophile. So was Salinger.

Perhaps some straight male readers will scoff at the idea that they have any attraction at all to 13-year-old girls. Warning: various people might find this post to have arousing elements to it. For my purposes, this is unavoidable.

Pedophilia as the scientists use the term is an attraction to prepubescent children. It is rare. Most straight men see a 6-year-old girl and do not feel any significant sexual interest.

Is CSAM use a public health issue akin to other illnesses?

The holidays are coming. People will be taking family pictures, including ones of children. The Houston police would like to [warn parents against posting them online](https://www.khou.com/article/news/crime/pedophiles-are-looking-for-photos-of-your-kids-on-social-media/285-c69166b1-7387-48ac-ae6d-cb53d907562a),...

Occasionally a wealthy individual wants to donate some money with the goal of stamping out child sex abuse. It is a noble goal. Part of that problem is the child sex abuse that happens in front of a camera that is subsequently spread around the entire internet. Another problem is the people looking at...

The law in many western countries calls for very harsh penalties for possession of CP (even without making it, paying for it, or distributing it).

On Sunday, September 29, the lead article in the New York Times was titled The Internet Is Overrun With Images of Child Sexual Abuse. What Went Wrong? I have a critique.

Most people in society seem to think that all pedophiles are child molesters. This is not true. Many people who feel a sexual attraction to children who never act on it.

Suppose we start with the assumption that a person's fundamental sexual attraction is unchanging.

the p word is a collection of 256 articles, blogs and podcasts in the voices of pedophiles and others who oppose adult child sexual contact and sexual exploitation of children. Despite our mainstream views, this content is frequently removed from mainstream social media or blog sites because openly discussing pedophile attractions or avowing them are not tolerated. Our side of the conversation continues here.

editor at the p word net

All images are AI and do not depict real people.

the p word is a collection of 256 articles, blogs and podcasts in the voices of pedophiles and others who oppose adult child sexual contact and sexual exploitation of children. Despite our mainstream views, this content is frequently removed from mainstream social media or blog sites because openly discussing pedophile attractions or avowing them are not tolerated. Our side of the conversation continues here.

editor at the p word net

All images are AI and do not depict real people.