PAEDOPHILES used pornography to trigger the sexual drive and the offender was willing to use anyone or anything for his sexual gratification, a conference was told at the weekend.
Access gained to potential victims was rarely by chance, an expert said.
Offenders were likely to be found in high risk situations, such as baby sitting, swimming pools, or in charge of residential homes, scout troops or choirs.
Addressing the conference, organised by the department of applied psychology at University College, Cork, and the Cork Rape Crisis Centre, Dr Fred Lowe of the Eastern Health Board said child pornography was a special area. Unlike other sexual literature and pornography, it always involved someone who was too young to give consent to the activities.
The offence of paedophilia should not be covered by a law emphasising the protection of public morals, but by a new law, seeking to protect children from being used in a degrading, aggressive and sexual way, the conference was told.
"When photographs and videos of child sex are exchanged between paedophiles, the paedophiles are learning from one another, sanctioning each other's behaviour, and most sinister of all, they are providing audio visual lessons to teach children such sexual behaviour. The offence should not be covered by a law which emphasises protecting public morals. There should be a new law which above all seeks to protect children from being used in a degrading, aggressive and sexual way.
"Deviant minds will interpret literature to suit their needs. The key emphasis here must be on making sure that their deviant needs do not lead to the exploitation of children who are too young to give informed consent, and too young to know what they are doing when they are lured into such sexual activities," Dr Lowe said.
He added that unlike rapists, where the peak age for offending was in the late teens and 20s, a lot of paedophiles continued their offences well into middle age.
The stereotype was of a person who formed intense emotional attachments to children and who was really a child who had not grown up.
However, the most recent research suggested a very different picture. Apart from a predilection for deviant sexual behaviour, sex offenders were a heterogeneous group with few shared characteristics. There was no psychological test or device that could reliably point to a potential or actual offender.
"Far from being inadequate, they have an inflated view of themselves. By trapping children, keeping them captive, inflicting numerous sexual assaults upon them, and photographing them being humiliated, these offenders are asserting their belief that they are superior to their victims," Dr Lowe said.
Ms Geraldine Moane, of the department of psychology at University College Dublin, said concerns had been expressed about the increasing depiction of children in advertising as cute, sexy, and "asking for it".
"However, it is also necessary to address the problems at the wider level of society generally. Sex education and public education generally must play a role, and the pornography and sex industries must be tackled," Ms Moane said.