Pedophile advocacy groups

History

In the United States, pro-pedophile groups were often inspired by European counterparts, with some being transitory and others more long-lived. The René Guyon Society, founded in 1962 by seven people who attended a conference by French jurist René Guyon, was the first such US organization. Its leader claimed 5,000 members nationwide during a 1977 subcommittee hearing. The Childhood Sensuality Circle, founded in California in 1971, advocated for adult-child sexual activities.

The North American Man/Boy Love Association (NAMBLA) was founded in 1978 after a police operation in Massachusetts. In Britain, the Paedophile Action for Liberation (PAL) was the first such group, followed by the Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE) in 1974, which collaborated with the Albany Trust and the National Council for Civil Liberties (NCCL). PIE was affiliated with the NCCL from the late 1970s to the early 1980s. News articles denouncing PIE and its leader Tom O'Carroll appeared from August to September 1977.

PIE dissolved in 1984 after its leaders were prosecuted for conspiracy to corrupt public morals. The Netherlands was a major center of pedophile activism, with a federated network of groups working within the Dutch Society for Sexual Reform in 1971. Frits Bernard and Labour Party senator Edward Brongersma founded a pro-pedophile group in the 1960s. Vereniging Martijn was founded in 1982 and later formed a political party, the Party for Neighbourly Love, Freedom, and Diversity, which was dissolved.

Characteristics

Pedophile advocacy groups support the elimination or weakening of age of consent laws and the legalization of child sexual abuse material, which many also distribute illegally. They engage in neutralizing behaviors, including denial of injury, denial of victim, and condemnation of those who oppose adult-child sexual acts. Denial of victim involves asserting that children are willing partners capable of consent, as illustrated by a NAMBLA statement that consent is critical and force is abhorrent.

Such claims contradict academic literature showing harm from these behaviors. These groups also condemn the condemners, arguing that society is hypocritical and guilty of worse victimization. This is reflected in literature stating that the protectors of children are the real perverts and abusers. Online pedophile advocacy environments also use these neutralizing behaviors and establish boundaries separating their subculture from general society.