Pedosexual acts are forbidden because there is no possibility of free, informed, consent. There is an asymmetric power relationship between an adult and a child that the adult is probably not aware of. For this reason, and this reason alone, pedosexual acts are forbidden.
It's entirely reasonable to believe an adult and a child could have a healthy sexual relationship and some people will testify they had such relationships as children. The crucial point is that it is never possible to ascertain this was actually the case and is ever actually the case. If you are a pedophile in a sexual relationship with a child, it is entirely unreasonable to believe your relationship is a healthy one. To be on the safe side and because we cannot possibly differentiate, there is a blanket ban on such relationships.
Pedophilia is not forbidden. Like homosexuality, it is a minority sexual preference. However, unlike in the case of homosexuality, society is unlikely to ever allow relationships in which the physical acts to which this preference leads can have a place. As such pedophiles need to learn to ignore their feelings. They need help in doing that and we should support every single one that acknowledges his problem and seeks help.
Pedophiles are not people that abuse children. People that abuse children are criminals. Usually they are also pedophiles, but that doesn't mean you may interpret it the other way around. Most thieves are heterosexuals.
Now as to the issue of the Tor exit node. The fact that this instance deals with child pornography is entirely irrelevant. It may as well have been illegal medicine sales, exchanging stolen information or other illegal activities.
Coincidentally, most of opinions here are being expressed with the help of the (optional) pseudo-anonymity allowed by Hacker News. Few would be willing to have such discussions with the same level of honesty offline or on Facebook given the public's level of hysteria. It would put a person in real physical danger.
I should also note that I have personal reasons for having investigated this topic. Details are private. But I would be moderately surprised if you, for all your righteous outrage, have as much relevant background on this topic...
It doesn't make that thing wrong.
A sexual orientation is simply, "This pattern sets off the circuits in my brain telling me to get turned on." You can have an orientation that results in normal heterosexual relationships. You can have one that results in unusual relationships that harm nobody. You can have one that results in a desire to do very, very bad things.
The outcomes of those orientations are very different. But, fundamentally, they are similar feedback loops. And therefore our expectations for what causes them, and how difficult they are to change, should be similar.
Before disagreeing, review my words and find where I've said anything indicating that I consider pedophiles a "victimized group". Please don't miss the part where I said that I personally am OK with criminalizing child porn because most of the people you find consuming that material are likely to be pedophiles, who probably have offended.
I personally view pedophilia as a mental disease, but beating the shit out of them or burning them on the steak isn't going to fix anything. If people didn't react like you do when it comes to pedophilia maybe we'd have an easier time working with them to isolate what goes wrong to create this and begin to work on a fix.
Glancing up I caught the phrase "just another sexual orientation." There's no point in arguing with this crap.
You people need to get out of this virtual bubble where child pornography is somehow a divisive issue and into the real world, where real children suffer real abuse at the hands of real people so they can get their rocks off. The lack of empathy is just stunning.