Pedophilia discourses in Denmark: Towards a mixed method digital discourse approach

This study contributes novel digital mixed methods and findings on how fear of pedophilia affects parents and children’s bodily relations. We explore how norms for appropriate behavior between parents and children are constructed in the public debate on a specific case, where a mom has playful contact with her son’s genitals. The case triggered a public debate with both negative and positive reactions. A Laclau and Mouffe-inspired analytical framework and Internet-specific tools for data collection as well as processing contribute to the development of a new form of discourse analysis. This new discourse analysis is based on a combination of the digital tools word cloud and topic models, and a qualitative in-depth reading. By exploring discursive constructions and articulations of right and wrong, the study supports earlier findings that the online public unanimously agrees to the dictum of child innocence. However, we find openness within the discourses on how to define respectively healthy and damaging parental behavior towards children.