I have to admit that I am not completely objective about this whole subject, because I am well aware that having met my boyfriend at the age of 14, I (who was 17 at that time) might myself be guilty of paedophilia in the eyes of some people.

Personally, I never felt like I was doing something wrong. Can't say I ever had an interest in 'young kids' or the likes either. To me he seemed more mature then me, and I didn't find out about his age later. Back on topic however.

For me the most difficult issue with this is what would exactly be defined as a paedophile, and exactly when you can say for sure the child is too immature to make their own decisions. I guess paedophilia is largely defined by the 'child’s' maturity in a possible (non sexual) relationship. I do agree that an eight-year-old can't possibly at that time think about the consequences of dating a, let's say, eighteen-year-old person. However, I do believe that when people reach puberty (13, 14 years old) they become more aware of what relationships mean.

Let me sketch out a stereo-typical example here. A friend of mine lost her virginity when she was just 13 years old, to a guy who was 18 at that time. She was pretty mature for her age I should add, and frequently went to bars with a faked ID (around here, The Netherlands, there are some bars that allow people to enter at 16, which is the legal drinking age for most alcoholic drinks). She didn't mind it happening either >> ; She didn't look her age at all, and I can understand if the guy thought she was 16. Would he be considered a paedophile?

Off course, rape is wrong in many ways, and in my eyes the worst thing that can happen to anyone. However, I'm against the dead penalty suggested by some here (well, they suggested it in some ways anyway). Anger and rage are understandable, and being the hypocrite that I am I must admit that I too would be very temped to bash skulls if someone touched my siblings in a way like that.. However, who are we to decide whether someone should die or not? In my opinion it makes us no better then the one committing the crimes. Medical castration is a better option in my opinion, resulting in being taken into custody when not taking the medications.

However, everybody should be offered an opportunity to prove themselves. Like pointed out before, when someone is a paedophile doesn't mean he sleeps with / rapes kids. These people have different sexual preferences then the majority of the crowd, and I guess in that way you CAN compare them to homophiles or bisexual people. Because a majority of the people is hetro, but that doesn't mean everybody else is.

It might be a smart action however to ask people that are paedophiles (I'm talking about all now, not just the ones committing rape) to not work at/around kindergartens / elementary schools / day-care centres and the likes, to avoid 'temptation' sort to say.