I spend some time talking to people on Twitter and other places about what it’s like being a non-offending paedophile. Mostly I am trying to reach out to other paedophiles, but I talk to other people too.

Sometimes it seems like everything I say is put through a filter. Maybe they think everything I say is a lie, that I am really trying to advocate for lowering age-of-consent laws, but trying to sell that I’m a non-offending paedophile. Or maybe they think I’m a child molester. Anyway, by the time my words get filtered into their brains and they respond, I have trouble making any sense of their response.

When a telemarketer gets you on the phone, if you even bother listening, I imagine you put what they say through the “this person is trying to sell me something” filter. I certainly do.

I suppose what people imagine it’s like to be a paedophile colours their thinking too. They have preconceived notions that it’s a fetish or an addiction or that we became this way through obsessive behaviours. Or even that we’re demon-possessed. Challenging people’s preconceived notions is not an easy thing to do.

I have gotten to know myself quite well, with a little help from therapy. I am almost exclusively attracted to children. I will never act on that attraction. I want to reach out to other people like me for mutual support. If I can convince a few non-paedophiles that we’re not all monsters, that is nice too, but it’s not my primary focus.