Here's an interesting article.

[conuly]

Apparently, some 13% of men who don't volunteer for mentoring organizations with young (?) children don't volunteer, at least in part, because of fears of being branded pedophiles.

I wouldn't be surprised if the numbers were actually a little higher, and if it carried over to other countries as well.

Comments

[lizziey.livejournal.com]

I understand where this is coming from.

When we have things at church, or at our house involving people from our church, obviously their kids (and ours when home) are involved. For thanksgiving (my first in my own place cooking, OMG!!!) we invited over everyone from church who didn't have family elsewhere. That meant we had 2 little girls, and 3 boys, all 10 and under (one 10 year old, 1 four year old, 2 three year olds, and 1 two year old). Oh, and I'd like to point out I cooked an ENTIRE thanksgiving meal. Turkey, and ALL the home fixings, even gramma's stuffing, and baked mac and cheese!

Chris gets kinda uncomfortable when the kids (mostly the little girls) are climbing all over him, because he is scared of when he's wrestling with all the kids (the girls are tomboys in dresses, really) his hand may go somewhere wrong, and OMG BIG PROBLEM. It makes him worry a lot, and not want to go near them much. The bad thing is, he LOVES kids! He'd spend his day all day with them playing. But he's afraid of being branded a sicko.

And thankfully, no one worries because everyone knows chris would be chopping off parts of his anatomy before touching a child wrongly. :)