Excerpted from “Pedophiles Find a Home for Social Networking — on Facebook,” Fox News. September 28, 2010–The world’s largest pro-pedophilia advocacy group uses Facebook to connect with its members throughout the world; to find and exchange photos of children; to hone its members’ predatory behavior; and to identify, target and reel in child victims, an investigation by FoxNews.com reveals. FoxNews.com found hundreds of links to NAMBLA’s website on Facebook, which has more than half a billion users worldwide. And posts on known pedophile blogs and chat rooms show an organized effort by pedophiles to use the social networking site to prey on children.

NAMBLA’s existence as a group advocating for the legalization of sex between minors and adults isn’t illegal in itself, says Michelle Collins of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Thinking or advocating for adult-child sex is protected by the First Amendment, but committing acts of adult-child sex is illegal. “The challenge for law enforcement is identifying when something goes from free speech to a crime being committed,” said Collins, who emphasized that people who come across apparent child pornography should report it through NCMEC’s tipline. NAMBLA not only is positioning itself as a group dedicated to changing laws, it is actually using Facebook to seek out like-minded individuals to help victimize children, exchange crime scene photos and give one another advice on how to be better criminals.

Federal law requires companies like Facebook with electronic servers in the U.S. to report suspected child pornography to law enforcement through the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), which is then charged with sorting through all the tips it receives from companies like Facebook and from members of the general public. Then, if a jurisdiction can be located, NCMEC passes along the information to that branch of law enforcement.

Commentary

CMDA Member Andre’ Van Mol, MD: “’The North American Man/Boy Love Association’s targeting of Facebook is an international scandal, but the issue of pedophilia is not limited to fringe groups. A quick briefing on the subject of pedophilia can be obtained from two articles, both easily downloaded from, of course, the web.

“R. McCain’s ‘Endorsement of adult-child sex on rise’ (Washington Times, April 19, 2002) details a growing academic movement advancing the view of ‘children as the next sexual frontier.’ He lists several books, such as Judith Levine’s Not Harmful to Minors: the Perils of Protecting Kids from Sex (U. of Minnesota Press). San Francisco State U’s Gildert Herdt, co-author of Children of Horizons, is quoted in an interview with Paidika – the Dutch journal of pedophilia – as claiming, the category ‘child’ is a rhetorical device for inflaming what is really an irrational set of attitudes against sex with children. Also cited is Temple University’s Bruce Rind’s 1998 study advocating value-free language that has already taken hold – phrases such as adult-child sex, adult-nonadult sex, trans- or intergenerational love/intimacy are not difficult to find in the literature.

“The recurring theme among these scholars is that childhood sexual activity (‘expression’) is usually harmless, that prohibitions against it are damaging, and that a radical view of children’s sexual rights is in order.

“The second publication I’d recommend is by the National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH at narth.com) titled, ‘The Problem of Pedophilia.’ It presents a detailed academic paper trail, beginning with the Journal of Homosexuality’s influential 1990 double edition, ‘Male Intergenerational Intimacy.’ Startling quotes are many. Elevation of subjectivity over more evidence-based data is demonstrated; and the NARTH article finds that ‘a vast body of literature on unconscious motivation and established personality theory’ is ignored. It notes that theology, law and education are led by psychology, which has become intensely ideological about sexual issues.

“Is it different if the man-boy sex is consensual? In a private letter to NARTH, Dutch psychologist Gerard van den Aardweg noted that adult-child sex cannot be ‘non-coerced,’ as there exists an element of coercion in the misuse of both adult authority and the child’s need for affection. ‘If a researcher sees no harm, ‘it may be because he is using the wrong glasses…not because there is nothing to see.’’

“Child sexual abuse researcher, Dr. David Finkelhor, describes some of the consequences of childhood seduction: confusion of sexual identity and norms; confusing sex and love; diminished respect for adult authority; shame; depression; anxiety; drug and alcohol abuse susceptibility; age-inappropriate sexual knowledge; and sex acts sometimes reenacted with other children. As for positive testimonials of childhood sexual encounters, Dr. Finkelhor replied that some slaves experienced slavery as good, and many child sweatshop workers said as much about their work, yet ‘we know better than to conclude that either slavery or child labor are ultimately good.’

“Sexual sin carries with it a spirit of deception. We’ve heard colleagues say of their adulterous relationships, ‘I am doing nothing wrong.’ They believe it right up until their lives collapse around them. People have blind spots as big as their wounds. Pedophiles are often the most sexually wounded of people; and the deeply wounded tend to wound others deeply. We must neither be naive regarding pedophilia, nor fail to expose it.”