Basic Trope: Pedophilia causes hysteria.
- Straight: The Big Bad is known to have sexually abused prepubescent children. People keep their children well out of sight accordingly.
- Exaggerated: In this setting, even so much as looking in the general direction of a child or anyone under the age of 18 can cause the looker to be branded as a pedophile no matter the age.
- Downplayed:
- Others notice that a character is more comfortable with children than with adults and advise their own children to avoid them.
- Ephebo Hunt — that being, dealing with the topic of adults' sexual interest in post-pubescent teenagers, which is very frequently mistakenly branded as pedophilia.
- Justified:
- Children Are Innocent is an extremely important part of the culture of the time and sexual advancements toward children is seen as ruining their innocence.
- Child molestation/pornography is a genuinely sickening thing, and the characters are reacting accordingly, even if a bit over-zealously.
- Inverted:
- Sexual relationships with children are accepted, if not outright encouraged in this particular setting.
- A child rapes the Big Bad.
- Subverted: The Big Bad has no indications of pedophilic activity (e.g. child pornography, underage sexual partners, etc.), despite our heroes suspecting them of it.
- Double Subverted: But another lesser villain (maybe even one of the Big Bad 's own Mooks) does.
- Parodied:
- An otherwise sane community goes on a vigilante Pædo Hunt, and treats it like the witches' trials of Salem and Europe.
- A child doesn't want to eat their vegetables and accuses the adult who gave them the veggies of pedophilia.
- Bob is supervising his own children on the playground, and is accused of ogling children at the park.
- The cops bust down the door and arrest Bob in the middle of his 18th birthday party because his girlfriend is still only 17.Alice the Girlfriend: What are you doing?! That's my boyfriend!
Cop: Poor thing is brainwashed. Don't worry, miss, this sick pervert won't ever be able to hurt you again! - The Cops yell at a couple of a seemingly young adult man and a seemingly childlike girl, who then smugly remarks that she's Really 700 Years Old. This happens:Cop: THAT'S THE POINT! He's 16 years old!
- Zig Zagged: A culture sees nothing wrong with pedophiles... but only if they're straight... but abusive pedos are treated worse than regular abusers... but it's because they see pedophilia as this sacred thing that shouldn't be damaged by abuse...
- Averted: The topic of pedophilia simply isn't dealt with (maybe not even sex in general).
- Enforced: Socio-political commentary, especially in a case of Writer on Board.
- Lampshaded: "WE ARE THE PEDO HUNTERS!"
- Invoked: Bob is seen at the playground, sitting on the bench, watching the children play.
- Exploited:
- A politician is losing, and to make his opponent look bad, implies that the opponent is a pedophile.
- An actual pedophile who hides it under a respectable position of power accuses a perfectly innocent yet odd-seeming person of this to throw off suspicion.
- Flash, a well known Barbaric Bully (though one who wishes to reform), sees a pedophile molesting Pete the Bully Magnet, and promptly gives said pedophile a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown. He benefits from becoming a local hero, and this pushes him onto the path of redemption.
- Defied: Bob shows that he is merely supervising his own children and has no sexual interest in those kids, or any kids for that matter, and the accuser(s) lay off.
- Discussed: *sigh* "Another Pedophile Priest in the news..."
- Conversed: "Yes, sex with children (who clearly aren't ready for sex) is bad, but we shouldn't be getting so paranoid that a parent can't even supervise their children or change diapers in a public restroom without being accused of such a horrible crime."
- Deconstructed:
- Can lead to paranoia that perfectly normal activities (such as a completely innocent Intergenerational Friendship or even normal parent-child affection) could be misinterpreted as pedophilia.
- The hysteria leads to people taking the issue less seriously, making it easier for real pedophiles to get away with it.
- People get so fervent in dealing with pedophilia, that they punish everyone involved in it equally, including trying the child victims as adults for their involvement.
- Reconstructed: People are careful about how they behave towards children in public. Also, other people were instructed to look at things like "Does this child seem uncomfortable?" or "Does that display of affection look like it's more appropriate between lovers than parents and children, such as a kiss on the lips?" before jumping to conclusions.
Back to Pædo Hunt.
