Just wanted to take this opportunity to clarify this. A timely reminder, if you like. Re pedophiles. Those who are attracted to younger people, from teens to pre teens all the way to toddlers and babies are, to most of our disgust, much the norm and can very much rationalise as decent, civil, emotionally balanced humans. Which is why there is so much of it going on.
The majority of them live beside all of us in the community, and a percentage of them will never act on their feelings. They can be a member of your family, or a family friend, and you would never know. They may marry and have relationships in a bid to deny they are in fact attracted to children. You may never know who they are. Unless they do something and get caught, you may spend your whole life around a pedophile and not even know it.
They are no different to you and I, apart from the fact they are attracted to kids. Some say they hate themselves for it, others will embrace it, and get very good at hiding it. Some have been victims of childhood abuse themselves, and that has "normalised" it for them.
The point I am trying to make is, they could be anyone you already know! Most crimes of this nature are perpetrated by people known to the family. You would not look at these people now and decry them as monsters. You probably think they are good people. They come from all walks of life.
Our society is one that the majority of us are hard wired to protect kids. Which is a very good thing. But it is a mistake to think these people are somehow different in any visible way to us, and you would be able to pick them, because the only difference to us is where their sexual attraction lies. And that is nearly always impossible to know, until it is too late in some cases.
I have known other women who are too scared to let their kids do anything on their own outside of the house, whereas I have always given my kids a fair amount of freedom to walk to school, play in the park, ride their bikes etc. I get told I am crazy for allowing this. I tell them if anything is going to happen to their kids, it would most likely be someone they already know. They get very uncomfortable at this, and some even get mad. But it is the truth.
Pedo's aren't cruising the streets in vans waiting to snatch kids off the footpath. Sure, it has happened, but a lot less than we think, it's just the thought of it. A bit like not wanting to get eaten by a shark in the ocean, but you are statistically much more likely to be hit by a car. The majority of child sex abuse happens within someones home by someone trusted by them, and we should never forget that, and never let our kids be in that situation to begin with. A sobering thought indeed.