Why is pedo hysteria so strong in anglo countries compared to non anglo/ non western countries?

[SavannahApe]

What is the cultural and psychological reason for this?

[NeverLoseKibou]

Great question, and I don't know but would love to.

My first thought was religion, but I don't think that's the case because there are Christian countries in Asia that don't suffer from the same hysteria.

The closest I've come to is socioeconomic since the same hysteria doesn't seem to exist in Africa and South American countries also.
My best guess is that in most countries around the world, people have real challenges to deal with day to day and so the issue of other peoples relationships is not high on anyone's agenda. In fact, forming strong connections with others in the community and finding good partners is more of a priority. Someone has a daughter who's quite young, say 11, then having them mature and find security through a partnership isn't a bad thing, so they are allowed to develop naturally and learn how to bond and find a good partner to provide and protect them alongside their own family. Even younger, there is advantage in learning about relationships and matters that will be even more important as they mature.

By contrast in the anglo countries there's an abundance of wealth and support available which affords for us to turn children into dolls in effect. They don't need to learn relational skills in the same way, the drive to find security and provision isn't there in the same way, so they don't have to develop naturally. Instead, they can be shielded from the world, treated like dolls, which is why as children approach adulthood they are so under-prepared for it. High depression rates, even suicide rates in young people, poor work ethics and inability to cope with the world as they're thrust into it.

It's the closest I've got to an explanation. Any kind of hysteria is going to cause problems for sufferers of it, and I think this is possibly what is behind this hysteria and the inevitable consequences of it. It would be interesting to see how as countries move their socioeconomic status's up, whether they suffer the same hysteria. I think we could be seeing this in China for example where in the wealthy cities at least, it seems pedophilia is cropping up as a subject more while in the poorer rural areas I suspect it still isn't a big subject, just like it isn't in other Asian countries at the same socioeconomic level.

[PinkPawn]

I think it's a result of Victorian extremes. They started talking about children as "pure" and, as you say, treating them like dolls.

On the plus side, this helped fight against child labor, but on the down side, it led to society infantilizing children and making them dumb into adolescence. Children are capable of a lot, and their ability to think outside of social norms is actually a good thing. Instead, we keep them "pure", teach them "manners", then put then through twelve years of school that force them to conform to the established order.

By keeping them "pure" (aka dumb), they are more susceptible to sexual and other types of abuse, which IMO is an unforeseen but welcome feature and not a bug.