Do non-pedophiles grow out of their attraction to minors?

This is something I've been curious about for a long time. It sounds like most people have at some point in their childhood experienced crushes on other children of the opposite sex.

This may sound like a stupid question, but in what ways are these crushes different from romantic feelings experienced later in life?

Do non-pedophiles/non-hebephiles look back on these feelings as silly, non-serious, or not genuine romantic attraction? If it was true love then what makes them grow out of that attraction to children?

Do pedophiles/hebephiles feel differently about their childhood crushes?

I know that falling in love doesn't feel much differently for me today than it did as a child. Perhaps that's why it feels so natural for me to love a child in that way, but I wonder if that was mature love that I was experiencing at a young age, or if it is child-like love that I am still feeling now.

Because they are in the same age group. If a 6 year old boy gets a crush on a 5 year old girl he isn't a pedophile. As we age we continue liking people in our age group, with pedophilia it is different.

From what I understand from my friends, they don't really care about any of their childhood crushes. Funny but neither do I. I guess it must be different for different people.

Simontheo wrote:From what I understand from my friends, they don't really care about any of their childhood crushes. Funny but neither do I. I guess it must be different for different people.

Of course most of us move on. I don't mean to ask if you still care for your childhood crush. I'm asking about the seriousness of those feelings when they occurred in childhood.