Why are so many men so creepy?

"I'M NOT SORRY- F#@k YOU!" Miley Cyrus 10 years after the above picture caused a stir.

"If they had published the photographs 24 hours earlier they would have been illegal, but because I had just turned 18 they were legal." Emma Watson on papparazzi who laid on the pavement and took upskirt photos.

“Mothers, Fathers, Sisters, and Brothers need to show the battle lines are drawn, and stand together to fight for the future of victims. Is protesting the answer? I don't know. But we've got to start somewhere."  Virginia Giuffre, victim of Jeffrey Epstein who later was believed to have committed suicide.

Why are so many adult men who should know better acting so creepy around teenage girls? I will admit I had a fascination with teen girls when I was a teen boy, but never figured out a way to act on it. But now with all the Jeffrey Epstein scandals coming to the foreground, this dirty little secret is becoming more and more visible.

I loved to watch the show Young Sheldon, a prequel to the Big Bang Theory, so I joined a Facebook group that supposedly talked about the show. As time went on, I noticed that there was less discussion about the show itself or Ian Armitage, the star who played Young Sheldon. Many of the posts were about the teenage daughter, played by Raegan Revord. She in some episode as Sheldon's twin sister, but these posts bordered on creepy as they showed her in glamourous clothing and the comments were about how pretty she was at age 16 or 17. Sheldon was often nowhere to be seen. Ick.

That brought back to mind so many of the other creepy cases of underage actresses drawing way too much attention about their looks and not their acting. Harry Potter actress Emma Watson has been at the forefront of these postings as fans have built web pages around her and used artificial intelligence and photoshop to cater to creepy audiences. Emma seems like a likeable young celebrity, but she's had more than her share of creeps all over the world bothering her. There was even a countdown clock online for when she turned 18 and theoretically legal to pursue.

Other celebrities like Miley Cyrus, Billie Eilish, Mila Kunis, Hillary Duff, Natalie Portman, Britney Spears, the Olsen twins, Brooke Shields, and others have grown up in public view and faced online stalking and in some cases actual stalking. It makes me wonder- why the fascination with these unattainable young ladies? Especially from men old enough to be their fathers or grandfathers?

This is nothing new, of course. Men have been seeking younger women for centuries, and now that we have the internet it is more out in the open. I can point to three reasons why girls between the ages of 12 and 18 are targets of creeps. (And most of them know it's creepy and feel bad about it, but do it anyway.)

1- It's taboo to have sex with anyone under the age of 18, as they are considered minors and incapable of granting consent. Breaking a taboo makes one feel powerful.

2- And speaking of power, adult men are much more likely to dominate a relationship with a teenage girl. They can lie, threaten, or intimidate an inexperienced girlfriend much easier than they can with one who has seen a few things. Many men are insecure in their manhood and feel a driving need to dominate others to make up for it.

3- At some level, men sense that younger women are more fertile and more likely to have healthy babies. Once puberty hits, a woman's eggs are approaching their peak potency. As the years go on, there are more genetic errors and by the time a woman hits age 40 healthy pregnancies are much less likely. This realization may be on some primitive level, but the urge to reproduce is strong in all mammals, especially humans, and nature doesn't seem to care if the mother is mature enough to support a new baby.

None of this excuses the gross behaviors of pedophiles and sex offenders like Jeffrey Epstein, Roman Polanski and many more. They know what they are doing is wrong. They know that they are possibly destroying these young women's sense of trust and ability to have a normal sex life. And of course it's not just girls that are the targets- young boys are pedophile targets as well, though the boys tend to be younger and more vulnerable.

As with most other crimes, it seems like the rich and the powerful get away with anything. Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby and Mr. Epstein had loads of enablers and apologists who kept them from facing consequences. The victims are intimidated or bought off and are afraid to speak up in the face of so much wealth and power. And who can blame them- when victims are accused of leading men on, why put yourself through that and have your reputation damaged?

Statistics on sexual assault of teens is hard to find, because so much of it is hidden from view. I've seen estimates from 10% to 25% of young women face some sort of assault before they reach the age of 18. And that doesn't count the many young women who suffer from online bullying, leering propositions, or photoshopped sexism. I know this sort of thing has been going on for centuries, but it seems worse now, and the damage it can do to adult women, the men who love them, and their future families is unknowable.

How do we fix this? I don't know, but this taboo subject needs to be called out more and the true victimizers need to face some sort of judgement. Would they subject their sisters or daughters to the same treatment? There is a man problem that has been much discussed- men of the internet age feel safer and more in control alone and stalking instead of taking the risks of real relationships. I've been in situations where I felt there was zero chance a woman would date me. But I worked on myself, and with the examples of many sisters and female coworkers I got to appreciate women and not fear them.

Perhaps high schools or colleges should give young men a course on listening skills, courting behaviors, and what consent means. Many of them have no clue how to behave, or take their cues from fellow bros who are just as clueless. Once single men can become integrated into the dating scene and see women and girls as equal human beings, perhaps this deviant behavior will die off. The internet encourages all sorts of bad behaviors under the veil of anonymity. This is their stalking ground of choice, and most solutions for today's ills will have to start online and finish in real-world, messy but loving relationships.