Pedophilia indeed is referring to sexual attraction to prepubescent children. Hebephilia refers to sexual attraction to early pubescent children. Ephebophilia

Pedophilia indeed is referring to sexual attraction to prepubescent children. Hebephilia refers to sexual attraction to early pubescent children. Ephebophilia refers to sexual attraction to mid to late puberty children. In the US, legally none of these are explicitly outlawed. There are "ages of consent" laws, which are aimed at the age of emotional maturity of the individual. Also in the US - people like to label violators of age of consent laws as 'pedophiles', because that label connotates the worst of the worst sexual impulses. But in fact, they're conflating the two things often enough - a 19 year old having sex with a 14 year old is most definitely not a pedophile, but he could be breaking the law still which makes him a criminal. But hey - let's throw in one more twist here. 100 years ago or so, said 19 year old would have been committing pedophilia, because the age of puberty has dropped drastically since then. All that said - I'm not going to die on the hill of suggesting an Ephebophile is less bad than a Pedophile. Just that most people are using the latter term incorrectly, and conflating it with an age of consent violation. ...And for the folks downvoting me: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedophilia#Misuse_of_medical_terminology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedophilia#Misuse_of_medical_t...