Of course, being a pedophile is a lot more problematic than just being gay (but that depends on the society you live in). I'm not saying it's ok to act on your urges if you suffer from pedophilia. I definitely believe consent to be the most important thing when engaging in any sort of physical contact and below a certain age you simply cannot understand the concept or what it means to put yourself in such a vulnerable situation. What age exactly marks the point where you can differs from person to person and is pretty hard to pin down because it is a very gradual process, especially when nobody teaches you about consent. Some people might actually be very mature very early and arrive at that point before they're 18 but that is very rare and takes a professional to judge. I feel like most people achieve the point of understanding consent in their twenties. But the official age where you're legally allowed to make this decision is 18 in most countries so that's what we need to accept.
There are still some ways to "satisfy" your pedophilia that are entirely legal. For one, there is a lot of Hentai with teenage or even child protagonists. If that's not enough, there is always porn with adult actors and actresses that look and act like they're younger (famously: Piper Perry, but she's by far not the only one) and even sex workers who do something similar. I don't know if that's a thing but I could imagine that there might even be people who enjoy the roleplay and would be completely fine with being in a relationship with a pedophile. You might find that weird or "unhealthy" but as long as only consenting adults are involved I have no problems with any of it.
That's a bit like saying, "I don't understand why heterosexuality is a thing - when you could have a partner with experience with your sort of genitalia"... It's not a choice who you are attracted to. The only thing you can choose is if and how you act on them...
It's kinda hard to imagine what it's like to have a preference, actually... I'm afraid I don't understand why or how people can have a problem with something like this. 😕
I don't know why this would offend anyone. To me this is the most reasonable opinion you could have. People should think about exactly those points before engaging in any sexual activity. Although I personally think if everyone were pan there wouldn't be a problem at all. 🤷
