Virtuous Pedophiles, the grassroots organization behind this website, was founded in 2012 by Nick Devin and Ethan Edwards. We were the first peer-support organization for pedophiles to be clear that we are against sexual contact between adults and children, now and in the future.
For over a decade, thousands of pedophiles, their families and their friends have reached out to us for support. We have assisted with academic research and explained to the outside world that ‘pedophile’ is not a synonym for ‘abuser’ or ‘criminal’.
We want society to recognize that we are not monsters waiting to pounce on unsuspecting children. We are people who have a sexual attraction that we did not choose and cannot change, but are capable of controlling.
The original vision for Virtuous Pedophiles came from our founder Nick Devin, and the organization was founded in 2012.
We thought long and hard about what to call ourselves. Here are the reasons we went with ‘virtuous pedophiles’
Since we began this website and our community, people have reacted with surprise and gratitude that non-offending pedophiles exist, but others have expressed a lot of suspicion.
We believe child pornography is wrong when a real child is involved because the child can be seriously harmed. This harm can happen at the time the images are made and also when the images are distributed.
A variety of professionals have grasped the usefulness of Virtuous Pedophiles and spoken up in favor of what we do.
The inbox for Virtuous Pedophiles gets messages from many kinds of people. Lots of pedophiles, of course, but also journalists, therapists and people who want to share their ideas on the problem. One particularly interesting group of people who write are sexual abuse survivors. A few are hostile, but most are not.