No matter what, I will never ever agree that lolicons, pedos and child predators are one in the same. We can argue about morality for all I care, but there is a line between drawing a fictional child, having thoughts about sexually abusing children and ACTUALLY just straight up abusing children.

You cannot abuse or exploit a drawing. (Well, you can technically, but a drawing doesn't have the capacity to say yes OR no because it's essentially just a construct that can be moulded to your whims).

Thought crimes are not real crimes. You are not evil for having morally dubious thoughts.

Life is defined by your actions in the real world. Not by a book, or a show, or by some intrusive thought. And yes those things have the potential to influence your actions in certain ways, but there are limits and conditions which the people who assert that "fiction affects reality" conveniently forget about. (More on this later)

Some other stances I have regarding this topic:

Using "CSEM", "CSAM" or "CP" (and its 'cheese pizza' variants) to describe fictional media is abhorrent. CSEM and CSAM should only be used for content depicting real children, and CP is a term that non-predators should stop using altogether.

"Child-coded" is a meaningless word. "Adults who look like children" is a meaningless phrase. Being innocent does not make you a child. Being short does not make you a child. Being chubby does not make you a child. Having limited knowledge of the world does not make you a child. Spouting stuff like this reinforces biases against short adults, neurodivergent people, people raised in sheltered environments, etc.

Lolicons who are pedos/"NOMAPs" are not any worse than lolicons who are not.

Minors can be lolicons (not fond of them though)

Engaging in content made by/for lolicons does not make you a lolicon. People can have various different reasons for watching a show or reading a book.

Minors should NOT be engaging with lolicon content (I have a grey area for those 16+ but even then, no-one under the age of 18 should be in lolicon communities. Engage with it in private, at least.)

Now, I say all this, but lolishokos do not get my full grace either. Let's just say...I'm conflicted.

Things I don't really like:

Some lolicons are very...self-righteous? They feel like they are morally superior for liking something 'bad' (I hate the use of bad and good here because people interpret it different, but let me elaborate in a minute). I do not like the notion that anti-lolishos are "ruining the fun" or being buzzkills.

Some will just outright deny that the content they like is bad. Like it or not, a child being in a sexual relationship with an adult (or even just being sexualised in the first place) is BAD. Just because it is bad does not mean you can't enjoy it. But, when you say that it is not bad at all (ie that what is being depicted is not morally wrong), you are now contributing to a MUCH greater problem.

The general idea that fiction doesn't affect reality at all. Yes, writing a shota rape fic doesn't make you a child abuser. That does not mean that your shota rape fic cannot be critically analysed to explore the issues of child exploitation and the fetishisation of abuse. And such discussions are important to have, because it's how we learn and practice the media literacy we all love and worship. If we don't do that, we risk taking away biases from that work which (if left unchecked) can start to influence us. And if someone is sheltered and groomed the right way, those biases become propaganda tools. (That doesn't mean you should actively leave hate on every shota rape fic you find btw. "Don't Like Don't Read" still applies here.)

I still think there's a big issue with predators in lolicon communities. I mean yes there's predators in every community, but it's far easier to hide and prey on children in a community that (more or less) likes children.

I'm a minor, so naturally I don't like the idea of minors being sexualised and/or abused (yes, even in fiction)

Misc stuff

Since I mentioned this in my strawpage, and also in various posts, I might as well elaborate now. (This is also going to be put in a separate post because if I wanna make reference to it in the future I don't want people to have to scroll through 50 paragraphs)

I use lolis and shotas to cope. What does that mean?

I am, to an extent, an autoshotaloli (yes, both). I occasionally see myself as a shota/loli - specifically one that has no age. This is almost solely for coping purposes. I don't consider it agere despite it not being sexual because, well, it's specifically a lolishota. Not just a regular child. I don't know why. I didn't choose to cope like this. (I guess I could also say I'm lolishotakin/copinglink but...I don't really want to relate this experience to otherkinity)

Lolis and shotas are also relevant to my gender, but to a lesser degree. It's more so just childlike aesthetics. I guess I also get gender envy from some child characters so there's that.

I don't really ship myself with any characters, but there are a couple of child characters I would consider my "friends" if that makes sense