Agree. Chucking them all in the disgusted bin doesn't really move things forward in any useful way. This is not about defending them or making excuses for them, just trying to gain an understanding of what drives them.
Yeeeeears ago, when I was living in a squat, lots of us used one of our squatmate's laptops to go on the internet. Sometimes, there was a bit of a queue to use it. One day, it was my turn, after Squatmate X.
I can't remember exactly how things transpired, but iirc while using the laptop I closed a tab that I wanted/needed, so I went into 'history' to reopen a tab, and iirc saw search terms along the lines of 'pre-teen bikini', which freaked me out a bit.
So I challenged Squatmate X, the guy who'd used the laptop just before me, and iirc he said something like he thought they were "beautiful". I wondered if he might be on a bit of a slippery slope to noncery, but I was concerned about what else he might've been searching for/looking at. The squatmate whose laptop it was worked in schools, and other squatmates who also used the laptop were youth workers and a nurse, basically the kind of people who have to have CRB/DBS checks for work. I did tell the person whose laptop it was. They were horrified, as their mobile/data account was registered to their parents' address, and (one of/both?) their parents worked for a children's charity. Although at some point, someone who was a bit geeky had cracked the WiFi of someone in the building next door, so if anything really dodgy had been accessed, it potentially could've come down on the head of a completely innocent total random too.
I was especially worried, because our squat was a squatted social centre, a commercial building that we opened to the public, ran workshops and events, and sometimes kids passed through. I'd actually phoned Childline or the NSPCC from a phone box, to ask for advice, and iirc they were saying that just because someone has been looking at questionable/relatively innocent images online, that doesn't necessarily mean they're going to do anything irl. It's all very vague now, because it was years ago, but iirc, I think at a 'house meeting' I voiced the opinion that I didn't think he should be living/present in a squat that was open to the public/kids, given his attraction/appreciation of how 'beautiful' pre-teen children are. So he went to stay with a sort of sister/brother squat crew. In a park keeper's cottage, in a park. Which I was a bit wtf!? about. Argh!
Tbh, the guy gave me the heebie jeebies more generally. He was a bit of a hippy, apparently used to go to Rainbow Gatherings, which worried me, because I heard about naturism/nakedness there and families, and wondered about him potentially interacting with/having access there to families/kids who were potentially naked.
But in a more immediate/local sense was always seducing women with bullshit about the moon/lunar shit, he came across as kind of timid nice guy (but was actually sleazy). He was very manipulative/seductive. He ended up being sort of ostracised and moving back to his mum's in Wales.
I didn't want anything to do with him. Anything even nonce-adjacent was crossing a line for me. (I'm a care leaver, albeit I was only physically abused by my father but while in care I knew kids who'd been psychologically and emotionally fucked up by sexual abuse.) But my squatmates assured me that they would pass on details about a support/therapy service, iirc run by Tavistock Centre, for people who have those kinds of predilections. Whether there was any follow through or not, I'm not sure.
To him, saying he found pre-teens in bikinis "beautiful" was sufficient explanation.
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