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Sure, I would bet that there are better ways to prevent child abuse than making sure that pedophiles have access to no-children-involved virtual child porn. But

by pjscott 15y ago

Sure, I would bet that there are better ways to prevent child abuse than making sure that pedophiles have access to no-children-involved virtual child porn. But would it be an improvement over the current situation? I think it might; there are definitely a lot of anonymous posts on Reddit from pedophiles who use erotic fiction and lolicon hentai to suppress desires for anything involving actual children. The broader question is: how can we improve the pedophile situation? Banning "questionable content" is politically easy, but doesn't seem to do much to protect anyone; as long as the stuff is being produced, there will be way to obtain it. It would be nice if pedophiles could get effective counseling to minimize their chances of molesting children, but currently it's very hard for pedophiles to get any sort of counseling without being reported to the police. That hardly seems ideal. Any ideas?

Czarnian 15y ago
For starters, remove the mandatory reporting rules for psychiatrists. Currently, if a patient tells a psychiatrist that he has pedophile tendencies, the doctor is bound by law to report him to the authorities. This causes all of the pedophiles who don't want to be pedophiles to not seek treatment, increasing their risk of actually offending.
- jarin 15y ago
  That's kind of surprising to me, patient confidentiality doesn't apply for psychiatrists?
  - brntn 15y ago
    It does, but most states/countries have some exception. For example, here in Australia a psychiatrist has to report someone they think is going to cause harm to themselves or others.
  - carbocation 15y ago
    In the US, at least, see Tarasoff: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarasoff_v._Regents_of_the_University_of_California http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarasoff_v._Regents_of_the_Univ...
- SoftwareMaven 15y ago
  I don't think the mandatory reporting rules (generally) require reporting for tendencies. I think the common rule is a report has to be made if there has been contact with a child. Of course, pedophiles are so vilified that I can't imagine too many are knocking on therapists' doors asking for help. And those that do certainly aren't advertising it.

by pjscott 15y ago

Czarnian 15y ago

For starters, remove the mandatory reporting rules for psychiatrists. Currently, if a patient tells a psychiatrist that he has pedophile tendencies, the doctor is bound by law to report him to the authorities. This causes all of the pedophiles who don't want to be pedophiles to not seek treatment, increasing their risk of actually offending.

jarin 15y ago
That's kind of surprising to me, patient confidentiality doesn't apply for psychiatrists?
- brntn 15y ago
  It does, but most states/countries have some exception. For example, here in Australia a psychiatrist has to report someone they think is going to cause harm to themselves or others.
- carbocation 15y ago
  In the US, at least, see Tarasoff: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarasoff_v._Regents_of_the_University_of_California http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarasoff_v._Regents_of_the_Univ...
SoftwareMaven 15y ago
I don't think the mandatory reporting rules (generally) require reporting for tendencies. I think the common rule is a report has to be made if there has been contact with a child. Of course, pedophiles are so vilified that I can't imagine too many are knocking on therapists' doors asking for help. And those that do certainly aren't advertising it.