Pedophilia or
paedophilia is a
psychiatric disorder in which an adult or older adolescent experiences a primary or exclusive
sexual attraction to prepubescent children, generally age 11 years or younger. As a medical
diagnosis, specific criteria for the disorder extend the cut-off point for prepubescence to age 13. A person who is diagnosed with pedophilia must be at least 16 years of age, but adolescents must be at least five years older than the prepubescent child for the attraction to be diagnosed as pedophilia.