"It's illegal" ... Internet users try to "normalize" pedophilia

• Internet users are trying to “normalize” pedophilia under the hashtag #MAP, an acronym for “Minor Attracted People” (“person attracted to minors”).
• Hundreds of accounts on Twitter and Instagram thus openly evoke their paraphilia.
• "Apologizing for pedophile relationships is much more serious than having child pornography images," says Latifa Bennari, president of the L'Ange Bleu association .
• Contacted by "20 Minutes", Twitter France claims "to have zero tolerance for the promotion of the sexual exploitation of children".

"Extreme youth, that which extends from the tenth to the sixteenth year, seems to me to be the true third sex". This quote from the writer Gabriel Matzneff, at the heart of a pedophilia case that has just taken a judicial turn, today revolts a large part of society. But the speeches praising pedophilia or pedocrime have not disappeared. Many people today continue to openly defend "sexual relations" between adults and children, in defiance of the law.

In a thread published in December, internet user Anna DeWitt, who manages the Twitter account @ CtesseDeLoynes, discovered the presence of an ordinary hashtag under which a real community of pedophiles is actually hiding. "It was enough for me to simply click on #MAP [the acronym for Minor Attracted People " to find claimed pedophiles, in less than a minute, "she explains. . Hundreds of accounts on Twitter and Instagram thus freely evoke their paraphilia, arguing that "pedophilia is a normal sexual orientation", just like homosexuality.

I mentioned Instagram but these communities also exist on Twitter.

They hide and express themselves in half-words. For example the # map for "minor attracted person" which legitimizes pedophile behavior (see its subscriptions): https://t.co/MZNKSq5I2f

A real “sub-culture” that has developed on the Web

These Internet users belong to the #MAP community, which comes straight from the United States. The members of this movement, which has grown in recent months in France, use social networks to try to raise public awareness. They explain that "pedophiles are misunderstood marginalized", and that as long as their attraction to children is not "taken into account", they should not "be despised by society".

Like the other “sub-cultures” of the Web, this community has its own vocabulary to facilitate interactions on social networks. One thus finds there the NOMAP (NO is the acronym of “ non offending ”) which are pedophiles not wishing to take action. The acronyms "AoA", "AoC" refer respectively to the age targeted by pedophiles and the age of consent (which varies by country). And the “Pro-C” for “ Pro-contact” designate those who are “pedophile pro-acts”, explains @ CtesseDeLoynes.

- AoA = age of attraction (ages targeted by pedophiles)

- AoC = age of consent

- Pro-C = Pro-Contact (pedophile acts)

An example: "Pro-Contact Map, Aoa: 10-15" = pro-pedophile acts on children aged 10 to 15 years. https://t.co/IAti0YEPS9

There are also many blogs on Tumblr that support #MAP, claiming that these Minor Attracted People should be part of the LGBT community. The blog Pedophiles about Pedophilia also defends pedophiles, they are described through the numerous articles as "marginalized people", who do not want to "do harm" and who just want to be "accepted".

Pedophiles and other members of the #MAP community are the most oppressed members of modern society. Let's work to change that together. #ItsOkayToBeAMAP

Speeches to “normalize” sexual violence

This movement is essentially composed of "people who do not want to take action", but for whom "sexual attraction is not, in itself, a crime", explains Henry *, a user who says he belongs to this community . But according to @ CtesseDeLoynes, who claims to have been studying this movement for a few months, the discourse of some would today be "more and more uninhibited or trivialized". Some members openly displaying their preferences in terms of age, others sharing files written by pseudo-specialists praising the "right of children to have an active sex life". So many exchanges which aim to “normalize” sexual violence against children…

“There is a lot of talk today about the Matzneff affair, and the tolerance vis-à-vis pedocrime which reigned 30 years ago in France in the literary world. But what we forget to say is that it is still relevant today, and even more than ever with the Internet and social networks which are trying to trivialize these criminal acts, "explains Latifa Bennari, president of l 'L'Ange Bleu' association which fights against pedophilia. “These people exchanged before on forums, in very closed places, hardly accessible to the general public. Today, these ideas are spreading freely on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, platforms that are easy to access and very popular. And it's completely illegal! ".

"It is much more serious than having child pornography images"

“Proselytizing, praising pedophile relationships is much more serious, in my opinion, than having child pornography images. Some may be carried away by these speeches, which may seem pleasant, attractive (…) We arrest and punish consumers of pedophile content, but the real culprits are those who convey these ideas, who spread them on a large scale, and who can act with impunity ”, adds the president of the association“ L'Ange Bleu ”.

Since the 2018 law, having sex with a minor under the age of 15 is punishable by seven years' imprisonment. The law also punishes the corruption of minors, that is to say inciting them to sexual acts, remind the police, who have already been warned of the existence of this "community" on social media. “The problem is that the authorities, and the police, are doing little to effectively combat this. If today we really gave ourselves the means, as we did for the fight against terrorist content online, we could prevent all these ideas from being disseminated, ”specifies Latifa Bennari.

Drifts not sanctioned by Twitter?

Since the thread posted in December by @ CtesseDeLoynes, many Twitter users have asked the platform to ban accounts that say apartment to the #MAP community. "Hey @ Twitter, what are you waiting for to suspend the accounts of pedophiles who share their tips and other filth under the hashtag #MAP?" And file a complaint? Do you want help ? ", Recently tweeted a user.

Here ... here is a @TwitterFrance pic.twitter.com/66LceGEKmo

The social network has reportedly refused, on several occasions, to suspend some of these accounts. "We have examined the reported content and we have not been able to identify any violations of the rules of Twitter," Twitter reportedly said following the report of an account promoting pedophilia with the hashtag #MAP.

What @TwitterFrance thinks about it ... pic.twitter.com/un4kmJgw5S

Contacted by 20 Minutes , Twitter France claims "to have zero tolerance for the promotion of the sexual exploitation of children" and indicates "to have suspended, from January to June 2019, 244,188 accounts for violations related to the sexual exploitation of children », Of which 91% were identified by their moderation tools. "We will continue to fight vigorously against the sexual abuse of children on the Internet, as well as to invest in the technology and the tools essential to our policy of application of zero tolerance," said the social network.

* The first name has been changed.

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• Sexual assault
• By the Web
• Minor
• Instagram
• Internet users
• Twitter
• Social media
• pornography
• pedophilia