where has this modern paedophile obsession come from?

[Dando]

Paedophiles, unfortunately, have always existed, but they get more publicity nowadays and the Internet has made more people aware of them. It's also given paedophiles (and potential paedophiles) more opportunity to look at obscene pictures of children and to contact children and underage teenagers in chat rooms and on sites like Facebook etc. In the UK not long ago a 14/15 year old girl was murdered by an older man she'd met on Facebook. He was posing as a very good-looking 17 year old boy, with false photo and all.

I don't know what the situation is in the USA, but in the UK some senior members of the Government (who should know better) seem to take the line that every adult is a potential paedophile. At one stage they were trying to make it law that if you wish to interact with children even as a volunteer you have to prove that you're not by being checked by the Criminal Records Bureau. When I was a Brownie, my father ran three of us to Brownie camp a couple of times - if this new legislation had come in, fathers doing this would have had to undergo a CRB check to prove they were suitable people to do so.

People like your friend the Retard hurl insults like "paedo" around, simply because such people are in the news. Tell him that if he keeps on doing it, sooner or later someone will take him to court for defamation of character. I also suggest that you tell him to grow up and keep his mouth shut.