(CW: Child Abuse) Are we living through a moral panic about pedophilia?

I'm not talking about queer people getting called groomers. I know why that's happening. I'm referring more to a more general fear of pedophilia instead of just repackaged homophobia.

I feel like I'm hearing about it like every other week. For instance, parent bloggers noticing that their engagement skyrockets when they post their kids eating hotdogs or in swimwear. Another example is an increasing trend of people on Pinterest creating walls and albums labelled "hot kids."

I know that elite freaks are all pedos, but is pedophilia an actually growing problem among regular people? It seems to me like when suburbanites freak out about any other thing like BLM or immigrants marching through and razing their communities. Or the crime freakout in the 70s/80s.

Am I being naive and we actually need to be on high alert?

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Catch_a_Predator
this might have a bit to do with it - I haven't watched regular TV since like 2002, but I recall this show was a big deal culturally (never watched it)
it certainly had it's flaws and conflicts of interest, but the reason it was canceled is pretty wild (CW: suicide)

the abrupt ending of the show, along with the fact that the honey-pot operation was ensnaring cops and DAs - it shows that there are likely many pedos in positions of power and 'respect', but then it got shutdown - which sure could have fueled many conspiracy spirals for the 'think of the children' crowd
didn't see any mentions in the thread so thought it was worth adding
edit: oh ya and all the catholic priest stuff has been percolating for decades - there was certainly a peak of those kinds of stories in the news but I can't say when that was really
- I learned from an FBI agent friend-of-friend that pedos very commonly kill themselves within days after a raid occurs, even before any trial is started. It might be why most outed pedos are completely remorseless, as the self-aware ones took care of themselves.
  
  :fedposting:
  
  :epstein:
growing problem
I don't think so. I think there's always been a larger undercurrent of pedophilia than people realized or accepted. In many cases, it's basically "mainstream" like how a lot of female grooming (removing body hair, getting rid of wrinkles, etc) is about appearing younger and childlike.
Some of the issue is also that teens are just a bit more sexual than we want to believe too. There's a reason why "lying on the age verification of a porn site" is so common, those 15 year olds want to look at boobs just like any adult does. There's a reason why most sane societies have things like Romeo and Juliet laws and allow teens to get with other teens.
Teenagers are horny as shit and we need to stop pretending otherwise. The issue with all this stuff lies with predatory adults who come in and try to exploit them in their naivety.
There is also a lot of horny tiktok/youtube/twitch content clearly targeted at pedos. Dressing up as kids, acting childlike. There's only one audience for that.
All i have to say its weird that even with this moral panic child marriage is still legal in parts of US like Wyoming.
Also when the victims are teens especially boys it seems to be more accepted in general like :macron: who was groomed by his teacher.
I know that elite freaks are all pedos
This is literally a QAnon conspiracy theory. Ashamed to see anyone repeating these obvious lies.
- I'm being hyperbolic.
  However, people in power have greater leverage to exploit children via their institutions, from Epstein to the Catholic church. It's really no wonder we associate the two because this is the kind of shit we hear about most.
- It's not a qanon conspiracy theory it's just true lol
its quite simple. the Right uses a separate definition of pedophilia. to them, anything that can possibly compromise the dominion of the Patriarch over the sexual or even just independent lives of their children/women is pedophilia. this is why its so universally applicable for them. Sex education, probably the single most effective preventative of actual pedophilia, is itself -to the right- grooming, because it's perceived to open the possibility for the kids to have any kind of sex that isn't under the watchful eye of God and Marriage. Also when a Patriarch does actual pedophilia its fine because the victims are their property
on the Left we're at least clear on what pedophilia actually is, but because of our inherent mistrust of coercive & traditional institutions we do tend to go a little overboard. i don't think this is a huge problem when its mostly making people angry at the ruling class
- yeah, once secondary sex characteristics you can do a lot with cameras, lighting, and basic makeup.
  maybe people would be less weird about it if we didn't have decades of airbrushed 14-16 year olds on fashion magazines and 28 year olds playing highschoolers on TV
  
  I do think it's an issue that the main representation 18 year olds get in media is the hottest 26 year olds you've ever seen

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