Hebephile, a newly proposed diagnostic classification in which people display a sexual preference for children at the cusp of puberty, between the ages of, roughly, 11 to 14 years of age. Pedophiles, in contrast, show a sexual preference for clearly prepubescent children. There are also ephebophiles (from ephebos, meaning “one arrived at puberty” in Greek), who are mostly attracted to 15- to 16-year-olds; teleiophiles (from teleios, meaning, “full grown” in Greek), who prefer those 17 years of age or older); and even the very rare gerontophile (from gerontos, meaning “old man” in Greek), someone whose sexual preference is for the elderly. So although child sex offenders are often lumped into the single classification of pedophilia, biologically speaking it’s a rather complicated affair. Some have even proposed an additional subcategory of pedophilia, “infantophilia,” to distinguish those individuals most intensely attracted to children below six years of age.
Based on this classification scheme of erotic age orientations, even the world’s best-known fictitious “pedophile,” Humbert Humbert from Nabokov’s masterpiece, Lolita, would more properly be considered a hebephile. (Likewise the protagonist from Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice, a work that I’ve always viewed as something of the “gay Lolita”).
Why most "pedophiles" aren’t really pedophiles, technically speaking | Scientific American
The meaning of the word "Pedophile" was manipulatively changed and distorted. Pedophile is a clearly defined scientific term meaning an adult that has attraction to pre-pubertal children.
We are discussing grammar, semantics, and politics of language manipulation here.
We are not defending or condoning pedophile activities.
Correct Terminology
Hebephiles, Ephebophiles, Teleiophile were grouped into the "pedophile" group. So a "worse label’ can be attached to a sexual offender. An "adolescent lover" who had a 17 year old girlfriend is called "child lover" (or rather, in a second step of vilification, child rapist). Sure helps to secure longer jail terms and to get the population angry. This is exactly identical to the manipulation that extended the word "child" from under 12 or under 14, to under 18, admittedly for the purpose of enforcing child protection laws for adolescents.
Additionally, child mutilators and murderers are usually called "pedophiles" in the press. Killing children has nothing to do with "child lovers" or sexual attraction for children.
Brooke Shields re-victimized constantly?
Thus someone gets arrested for possession of Brooke Shields 15 year photos , falsely called a pedophile, and the average Joe thinks he is a baby murderer. Note that the bikini photo of a 15 year-old becomes child pornography in case one collects the photo for sexual arousal (Copine level 4).
According to child porn persecution theory, "children" (under 18) get re-victimized whenever someone looks at their depictions.. We prevented the re-victimization of Brooke Shields through the first 10 year old photo by putting black bars at all private parts. Add to this the famous Brooke Shields movies (Blue Lagoon, …) , one can see that Brooke Shields constantly gets re-victimized thousands of times per day by people who watch these movies with an impure mind.
Infantophiles
Of course, Infant abusers can be labelled with a stronger label then "pedophile". Those attracted to 17 year olds are more ostracised by the incorrect application of the name "pedophile" or child lover, then by "teleiophile", late adolescent lover. To reach the maximum vilification, the word "infantophile" is now, correctly, created. It is undesirable that perverts that mess with infants can hide behind the word "pedophile", which could mean attraction to 9 year olds.
We are discussing grammar, semantics, and politics of language manipulation here. We are not defending or condoning pedophile activities.
There are also law abiding pedophiles who declaredly do not act upon their attraction. These, in spite of being accused merely of thought crimes, are in danger of being hurt by angy pedophile vigilantes.
Other Language manipulation ("rape", "consent")
Human-Stupidity has assailed the manipulative distortion of language is very common in the service of criminalizing adolescent sexuality. The meaning of "rape" and "consent" have been manipulatively changed, just like "pedophile" and "child".
A pronunciation key would be helpful.
1) The interesting article says “hebephiles” prefer 11- to 14-year-olds and “ephebophiles” 15- to 16-year-old. These age-ranges come from Ray Blanchard, Michael C. Seto and James M. Cantor who say minors in the Tanner-stages 2 and 3 are 11 to 14 years old and minors in Tanner-stage 4 are 15 to 16 year old. Nearly everybody uses these age ranges, but they are not true. According to emails from Michael C. Seto and James M. Cantor they did not do an metaanalysis to find out these age ranges. According to the mean value of 14 studies girls reach the Tanner-breast-stages with 9,7 years (stage 2), 11,2 years (3), 12,6 years (4) and 14,4 years (5). So girls are typically with 9 to 12 years in the Tanner-stages 2 and 3 and not with 11 to 14 years. Girls are typically with 12 to 14 years in Tanner-stage 4 and not with 15 to 16 years. The age range 15 to 16/17 years for “epheophilia” is an invention to fill the gap between the wrong ages of “hebephilia” (11 to 14 years) and adulthood (17/18 years).
2) These age-categories are inventions too. Tanner-stage 4 just lasts 1,5 years. This would mean “ephebophiles” have a preference for persons in this small age range. The real world is not working this way. “Pedophilia”, “hebephilia” and “ephebophilia” do not exist in reality. These are mental constructs and there are thousands of other possible ways to classify age preferences. So don´t take them too serious.
‘Pedophilia’ is the love of children in any sense, is shared by nearly all humans (and all other mammals), and is essential to basic human survival. It isn’t to be confused with ‘pederosis’, which is an erotic attraction to children.