Every year, thousands of independent TEDx Talks take place all over the world. And May 5th, at the University of Würzburg in Germany, was no different, except for one detail: med student Mirjam Heine spoke about her belief that pedophilia is a natural, unchangeable sexual orientation.
Heine believes that “…no one is responsible for their sexual orientation, for their feelings, but that everyone is responsible for acting upon this sexual orientation.”1 She also discussed the fact that since “pedophiles can’t change their sexual desires, they must learn to control them to not act upon them.”2 Saying, “Let me be clear here, abusing children is wrong without any doubt. But a pedophile who does not abuse children has not done anything wrong.” 3
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJLd6l4-t9A
(As the TED Talk organization is actively working to take any copies of the above video down, by the time you read this story it might not be available.)
Heine goes on to say:
“Scientific studies indicate that one of the strongest indicators of child sex abuse committed pedophiles is social isolation. People who can’t tell anyone that they are pedophiles can’t get any help. For example, they can’t tell their friends that they can’t go the beach because children will be there as well.”4
After an intense online backlash, the TED Talk organization immediately took down the video. (Indeed the copy we have above may soon be taken down.)
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In response to the backlash, the organization issued the following statement:
An independently organized TEDx event recently posted, and subsequently removed, a talk from the TEDx YouTube channel that the event organizer titled: “Why our perception of pedophilia has to change.”
In the TEDx talk, a speaker described pedophilia as a condition some people are born with, and suggested that if we recognize it as such, we can do more to prevent those people from acting on their instincts.
TEDx events are organized independently from the main annual TED conference, with some 3,500 events held every year in more than 100 countries. Our nonprofit TED organization does not control TEDx events’ content.
This talk and its removal was recently brought to our attention. After reviewing the talk, we believe it cites research in ways that are open to serious misinterpretation. This led some viewers to interpret the talk as an argument in favor of an illegal and harmful practice.
Furthermore, after contacting the organizer to understand why it had been taken down, we learned that the speaker herself requested it be removed from the internet because she had serious concerns about her own safety in its wake.
Our policy is and always has been to remove speakers’ talks when they request we do so. That is why we support this TEDx organizer’s decision to respect this speaker’s wishes and keep the talk offline.
We will continue to take down any illegal copies of the talk posted on the Internet.
