Amazon Sells Guide To Pedophilia

Amazon’s Kindle store is selling a book called The Pedophile’s Guide to Love and Pleasure. And judging from past examples and what Amazon has said so far, consumer complaints may not change that.

Here’s the screenshot of the book’s Amazon page.

The book’s description, in addition to being horrifying, is more or less illiterate:

This is my attempt to make pedophile situations safer for those juveniles that find themselves involved in them, by establishing certian rules for these adults to follow. I hope to achieve this by appealing to the better nature of pedosexuals, with hope that their doing so will result in less hatred and perhaps liter sentences should they ever be caught.

Right now there are 103 enraged reviews, and counting. Amazon hasn’t officially responded, but one Business Insider commenter reports getting the following response to their concerns:

As a retailer, our goal is to provide customers with the broadest selection possible so they can find, discover, and buy any item they might be seeking. That selection includes some items which many people may find objectionable. Therefore, the items offered on our website represent a wide spectrum of opinions on a variety of topics.

Let me assure you that Amazon.com does not support or promote hatred or criminal acts; we do support the right of every individual to make their own purchasing decisions.

Amazon.com believes it is censorship not to sell certain titles because we believe their message is objectionable. Therefore, we’ll continue to make controversial works available in the United States and everywhere else, except where they’re prohibited by law. We also allow readers, authors, and publishers to express their views freely about these titles and other products we offer on our website. However, Amazon.com doesn’t endorse opinions expressed by individual authors, musical artists, or filmmakers.

Amazon is, of course, a private entity that can exercise its own standards over what it sells — as long as it’s legal. In 2002, Amazon faced a similar controversy: it was selling “Understanding Loved Boys and Boylovers,” by David L. Riegel. Amazon said at the time, “Our goal is to support freedom of expression and to provide customers with the broadest selection possible so they can find, discover, and buy any title they might be seeking.” And since the book was about pedophilia but didn’t visually depict the acts, it was understood not to fall under laws criminalizing the distribution of child pornography.

Another employee said with reference to the 2002 uproar, “Please know that, contrary to rumors that have been circulating around the Internet, this book is not a ‘how-to’ manual for molesting children. The author simply expresses his point of view about what he feels are ‘misunderstood’ relationships between men and boys.”

But by the looks of it, a “guide to love and pleasure” is a “how-to manual.” So we’ll see if the free-speech rationale remains.

Update: The Smoking Gun has interviewed the author, who says he has sold one copy.

The Pedophile’s Guide to Love and Pleasure [Kindle Edition]
Amazon Is Selling A Guide For Pedophiles, Consumers Calling For Boycott [Business Insider]
Related: Amazon Defends Sale Of Pedophile Book [World Net Daily]