Predatory podcast: New attempts to rebrand paedophilia as minor attracted persons emerge

More Aussie paedophiles are using a new lingo to try and excuse their behaviour. Listen to the podcast. Warning: Graphic

Activists are attempting to rebrand paedophilia under the euphemism of “minor-attracted persons” by sneaking the “P” into the LGBTQIA+ coalition umbrella.

In a move that could be co-opted by nefarious actors to defend the indefensible, a group of academics are working to “destigmatise” the public image of potential paedophiles from sexual predators to so-called “MAPs”, or “minor-attracted persons”.

While the concept dates back decades, “MAPs” emerged from the shadows of academic theory to widespread public outrage in 2021 when American university professor Allyn Walker went viral on “Libs of TikTok”.

In the video, Dr Walker said the term minor-attracted person should be used instead of a paedophile as an attraction to minors isn’t something wrong, “as long as it isn’t acted on”.

American university professor Allyn Walker.

“There is no morality or immorality attached to attraction to anyone because no one can control who they’re attracted to at all,” Dr Walker said.

“It’s not who we’re attracted to that’s either OK or not OK. It’s our behaviours in responding to that attraction that are either OK or not OK.”

Dr Walker added in the academic paper, Minor Attraction: A Queer Criminological Issue, that “the prevailing assumption is that minor-attracted persons (MAPs) are mentally ill and predatory.”

Activists are attempting to rebrand paedophilia.

“However, there exists evidence that minor attraction is a sexual orientation, and the parallels between the treatment of MAPs and LGBTQIA+ populations are striking,” Dr Walker wrote.

In Australia, however, a paedophile is still a paedophile whether they act on it or not, according to Parliamentary Joint Committee on the National Crime Authority.

The parliamentary inquiry noted the Macquarie Dictionary for its definition of the term paedophile while distinguishing those who commit crimes as “child sex offenders”.

The mental gymnastics to distinguish paedophiles as MAPs has twisted moral standards in a way that advocates child pornography as a “harm reduction technique”.

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In the 2017 academic paper, Understanding Resilience Strategies Among Minor-Attracted Individuals, Dr Walker claimed “only” 1.3 per cent of those without a prior conviction who viewed child pornography were later convicted of a “contact offence”.

“It has been argued that individuals who view child pornography are likely to later commit contact offences against children. However, these arguments regarding a link between watching child pornography and committing contact offences are based on unverified claims,” Dr Walker wrote.

The possession or transmission of child abuse material is an offence punishable by up to 15 years imprisonment in Australia.

Here is an explainer of what MAPs (minnor attracted persons) are:

WHAT ARE ‘MAPs’?

The term “MAPs”, or minor-attracted persons, emerged from the shadows of alternative academic theory to widespread public outrage in 2021 when American university professor Allyn Walker went viral on “Libs of TikTok”.

In the video, Dr Walker said the phrase “minor-attracted person” – or MAP – should be used instead of paedophile because it carried less stigma and that having an attraction to minors isn’t something wrong, “as long as it isn’t acted on”.

“From my perspective, there is no morality or immorality attached to attraction to anyone because no one can control who they’re attracted to at all,” Dr Walker said.

“In other words, it’s not who we’re attracted to that’s either OK or not OK. It’s our behaviours in responding to that attraction that are either OK or not OK.”

The “MAPS” theory has sparked worldwide outrage.

ARE THEY DIFFERENT FROM PAEDOPHILES?

No. In the 2017 academic paper, Understanding Resilience Strategies Among Minor-Attracted Individuals, Dr Walker claimed that child pornography is a “harm reduction technique, with “only” 1.3 per cent of those without a prior conviction who viewed child pornography later convicted of a “contact offence”.

“It has been argued that individuals who view child pornography are likely to later commit contact offences against children. However, these arguments regarding a link between watching child pornography and committing contact offences are based on unverified claims,” Dr Walker wrote.

In Australia, however, the possession or transmission of child abuse material is an offence punishable by up to 15 years imprisonment.

ARE AUSTRALIAN ‘MAPS’ SEEKING HELP?

The Global Prevention Project, which claims “MAP” is not an attempt to rebrand paedophiles, says on its website that it offers therapist-led weekly support groups for people in 66 countries, including Australia. But its “MAP wellness Curriculum” shut down after the “firestorm” surrounding Dr Walker’s work.

A moderator for the MAP Support Club, meanwhile, said they offer peer support groups. The Association for Sexual Abuse Prevention, which describes itself as a “support network for non-offending paedophiles”, lists nine Australian therapists in Victoria, Western Australia, New South Wales, and the ACT.

Therapy is being offered to people in Australia who say they are sexually attracted to children.

HOW ARE ‘MAPS’ TRYING TO REFORM THEIR IMAGE?

Paedophiles are attempting to sanitise their image as MAPs by claiming, like the coalition of LGBTQIA+ interest groups, that they were “born this way”.

In the paper, Minor Attraction: A Queer Criminological Issue, Dr Walker and co-author Vanessa R Panfil say that despite a cultural tendency to sexualise youth, “the prevailing assumption is that minor-attracted persons (MAPs) are mentally ill and predatory.”

“However, there exists evidence that minor attraction is a sexual orientation, and the parallels between the treatment of MAPs and LGBTQIA+ populations are striking.”

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Originally published as Predatory podcast: New attempts to rebrand paedophilia as minor attracted persons emerge