I think it's not as big a deal as people are making it out to be. There is a big difference between having a minor attraction & not acting on it or limiting it to things like looking at pix of underage models or watching teenaged idols on Disney & Nickelodeon; & people actually harming kids. I don't see how reclassifying it would affect laws because protecting kids would be #1. I think it might could help people with Pedophile OCD
Quote:
Pedophiles are sexually attracted to children and prefer children over age-appropriate partners. Many refuse to acknowledge that it is harmful to children and justify acting on their preference. In POCD, on the other hand, the focus is on the OCD. People with POCD are afraid they might be attracted to children, know that it is both illegal and harmful, and check and double check their own thinking to make sure they aren’t pedophiles. They become obsessed with the topic and do everything they can to prove to themselves that they are not ever going to act inappropriately.The thoughts go around and around and around, interfering with the person’s ability to be comfortably with children or to function socially. It can be so disturbing that the person withdraws from society as a way to protect both self and others from what he (usually it’s a “he” but there have been cases of “shes”) believes he might do. Having the thoughts of POCD doesn’t make a person a pedophile. Molesting children does.
Pocd-vs-Pedophilia link
Simply liking kids while not harming them in any way being more acceptable may help some with POCD feel more comfortable sense it would be considered more OK for them to have certain thoughts, feelings or getting turned on due to their hormones/bodily urges while they happen to glance at a kid or while watching a show that stars a kid. I think people with POCD are the ones who are more likely to seek psychiatric help for their condition due to their worrying about possibly harming a kid. Mentioning that they think they are a pedophile has caused some psychs to imminently start worrying that they are a potential child-molester & the psych thus tries treating them for pedophilia instead their POCD. Lots of suffers are afraid to see a psych about their POCD due to the fear that they will get branded as a future child molester.