"P.S. If watching those videos is so upsetting to you, why are you doing it?"

Presumably because he finds it sexually stimulating.

I'm pretty sure that if I suggested that these pictures and videos were intended to be sexually stimuating you'd argue, however,... it might be more difficult to argue that it should be any surprise that this material might be sexually stimulating... at least to those like ourselves who have sexual feelings for cigarettes, and women smoking.

I'm not saying it necessarily will be sexually stimulating, but I'm saying that I don't think it'd be particularly surprising if it is... given the feelings that many of us here have surrounding cigarettes, smoking, and women smoking.

The problem is that frequently we're taught that these kinds of sexual feelings are bad, or wrong... they are not, they are quite natural. That is, sexual feelings such as homosexual feelings and sexual feelings for humans younger than 18.

What needs to be clarified is that it's not the thoughts and feelings that are what society deems so harshly, but rather acting out of deviant sexually behavior, particularly in regards to children.

So, I'd suggest he's not a "bad" person because he has these feelings... no. Society will judge his "goodness" or "badness" based on his behavior. Presumably if he acts out sexual thoughts and feelings concerning minors on 'real' people, society will respond harshly.

Just as society will respond harshly if any of us murder another person. But, is there any one of us who can honestly say they've never felt like killing someone?

So, I don't think it's the... feelings... it's what you do with those feelings. So, perhaps it's inevitable that each of us will get really, really angry with someone sometime... and might want to kill them... we are human, but we are also animals, as well.

I don't think you can just deny away your more animalistic self... What you can do is mediate it's impulses with your knowledge of societal mores and folkways... or not.

Obviously, I say "or not" because it's evident that certainly some criminals make an active... choice... not to mediate their more basic impulses with knowledge of societal mores and folkways. But, for that, they usually have to suffer the consequences.

If Den has a sexual interest in cigarettes, smoking, and smoking-related material like cigarette ads and women smoking, it seems likely that his sexual feelings for the young girls only spiked into conscious awareness with the supercharge that the connection to his sexual feelings for the cigarettes percipitated.

If people were "bad" or "good" based on their thoughts and feelings, then perhaps it'd follow that if the means could be found to read people's thoughts and feelings, a "thought" police force should be established. I think it's evident we want to stick to what people do, or have done... not perhaps what they might do because of unpopular, and/or societally taboo, thoughts and feelings.

Again... I think we need to stick to the behavior.

Although I'm not attempting to deny that 'thoughts have consequences'... yes, I'd agree they certainly do. But, I guess I'd ask whether the thought of feeling, in, and of itself, is hurting oneself, or others?

If it's seen to be hurting oneself, then internal action on the individual's part might be indicated. However, I'm not sure one's thoughts, and feelings, in, and of themselves, hurt others... which would bring us into a domain of concern to society.

Further, if thoughts and feelings of this nature can be said to be hurting Den I'd suggest he can choose to reevaluate and decide that thoughts and feelings, in, and of themselves, don't make us "bad" people. What's more, we are animals... and we will experience, unconsciously almost certainly, and consciously, from time to time, societally taboo thoughts and feelings.

That's all just part of being human... human is, in part, being an animal.