The radical case for paedophilia is that children like it, and if there were more of it the world would be a better place. 'Sex by eight or it's too late' - too late because the guilt is already on the gingerbread. Tom O'Carroll, prosy successor to Lewis O'Carroll and leading light of PIE, the Paedophile Information Exchange, takes the view that what is nice for him would be good for everyone. 'A climate in which children come to view all consensual sex, including consensual paedophilia, positively and without guilt may be necessary for the welfare of everyone.' 'Consensual sex', mutually agreed and mutually agreeable: is there anything unreasonable in wanting it for oneself but not for one's children - or Mr O'Carroll?

LRB 4 December 1980 | PDF Download