YouTube Commenters’ Discourse of Paedophilia: A Qualitative Social Media Analysis

Quantitative studies have found that although most of the general public holds negative attitudes towards people with paedophilia (PWP), a range of views exist. Nevertheless, these studies provide limited insight into the specific details or variety of attitudes or emotions. This qualitative study aimed to better understand public attitudes towards PWP by exploring how the public reacts to talks about paedophilia given by credentialled experts on social media. Seven such talks, which met our specific inclusion criteria, were selected from YouTube, and public comments on these talks were analysed. The top 100 comments of each video were selected, followed by a saturation strategy. This led to 1234 comments being coded and thematically analysed. Six key themes and eight subthemes were generated, thematically grouped into Haters (sub-themes: ‘violent’ and ‘sophisticated’), Critics (sub-themes: ‘victim erasure’ and ‘not a sexual orientation’), Fence-sitters (sub-themes: ‘ambivalent’ and ‘dispassionate arguers’) and Supporters’ (sub-themes: ‘implicit confirmers’ and ‘compassionate supporters’). These themes reflected a spectrum of views. At one pole, Haters exhibited absolute abhorrence and a desire to dismiss the speaker, whilst, at the other pole, Supporters showed empathy towards non-offending PWP and endorsed the speaker’s perspective. Extremely polarised conversations, commonly evidencing anger and sarcasm and emphasis on the concept of help, were found across dissenting voices. These findings help us better understand the variety of public attitudes and responses to expert-delivered information on paedophilia. The effects of perceived social attitudes on PWP well-being and help-seeking behaviours, which can help prevent offending, require further exploration.