Paedophilia: focus on the child

What the law is purportedly intended to protect, unfortunately, is discarded like a pawn in an adult game; the child is simply forgotten. It is not the intention to recommend here that the child involved with an adult should be taken care of by psychiatrists and social workers. That would already give the child the impression that something was wrong with her. Moreover, that solution is too little, too late.

The proper objective, unfortunately distant, is to educate children about sex and love and allow for such feelings to develop spontaneously in the child. Current educational efforts about sex and the danger of sex is inadequate to allow spontaneity. Rather, such efforts are likely to cause actual psychological damage. When children are bombarded by images of "child molesters" lurking everywhere - parents, teachers, ministers, neighbors, strangers, uncles, coaches, etc., children may develop irrational fears of adults, particularly adult men, and become fixated upon sexual matters, always fearing a sexual assault. (This may result in general neurosis in developing social relationships or, paradoxically, may lead to unwanted sexual contact with an adult.)

source: Article 'Paedophilia: Focus on the Child' by Dr. Frits Bernard; Published in: Uncommon Desires (number 3) & Sexual Medizin; Uncommon Desires: Summer 1989