Childlove

Childlove is a MAP attraction to children. There are two ways to define childlove. As an attraction to children without a gender preference and as an umbrella term for girllove, boylove, and enbylove. A person experiencing such an attraction is called a childlover (commonly abbreviated as CL).

Definition
“Childlove” is a literal translation of the term “pedophilia”. A now deleted Wikipedia entry titled “Childlove movement” states that “The movement seeks to eliminate… the use of the term "pedophilia" over the relatively unknown terms childlove and childlover.” An entry “Childlover” (also deleted) describes the difference between a childlover and a pedophile as “while pedophiles are normally grouped four categories: homosexual male and female, and heterosexual male and female; childlovers identify themselves by the gender of their objects of attraction, thus homosexual male pedophiles and heterosexual female pedophiles who self-identify as childlovers are both "boylovers", while heterosexual male pedophiles and homosexual female pedophiles who self-identify as childlovers are "girllovers".”.

This term seems to have appeared both as attempt to bring the boylove and girllove communities together and to replace "pedophilia" with a less stigmatized word (which is not a popular idea in the contemporary MAP movement). Nowadays some maps use the word "childlove" to mean love towards children in the general sense, including wishing children well and trying to positively engage with their lives. This serves the same purpose as the Zeta zoos' attempts to define zoophilia as care and respect towards animals - softening the public image of this paraphilia and making it sound more virtuous than just a plain attraction. Such cases sometimes cause controversy within the community.

Childlovers who are attracted to particularly young children may call themselves little child lovers, commonly abbreviated as LCL.

History
The first childlove symbol, also referred to as CLogo, was developed by a group called the “CLogo Team” in the Netherlands. They made it in late June of 2001 and have trademarked it on 15 February, 2002.

Criticism
Some MAPs have criticized the childlove identity as excluding aromantic maps. It is also unclear whether hebephiles and especially ephebophiles are included under this term, since the age groups they are attracted to are not children.