Roderik Muit

Roderik Muit (b. April 27, 1974) is a successful IT professional from the Netherlands, known for his work in defence of free speech on the internet, and voluntary self-identification as a minor-attracted person (Boylover).

Information technology, and internet activities

Roderik Muit making a brief appearance on television during the MARTIJN case

In addition to having worked in the IT departments of a number of large companies, Muit has for a long time sought to provide affordable webspace to other persons who seek to publish unpopular ideas. This not-for-profit work has enabled a number of websites which discuss pedophilia openly to exist for far longer than they would have under more mainstream hosting arrangements. Muit is also one of the administrators behind the Dutch website pedofilie.nl, which exists mainly as a discussion forum for those who have an attraction to children and would otherwise have no one to talk to. Muit's own experience of the positive effects of such discussion forums is one of the reasons he cites for continuing to provide technical assistance to related websites.

2007: The MARTIJN case, and wider public exposure

A major turning point in Muit's public life came in October 2007, when he defended the MARTIJN Association (with whom he is not affiliated) in the Dutch Royal family's lawsuit against them. The lawsuit, based on an incident in which a MARTIJN forum member posted pictures of the Royal Family, was supported by the false allegations of Yvonne van Hertum, and her lobbying of the media.

Muit claims that he lost paid work as a result of van Hertum's resultant approaches towards his work contacts.

Purpose and nature of self-identification

Whilst Muit's presence as a publicly identifiable minor-attracted person is not strictly activist in nature, his example, including his own self-declared non-sexual friendships with both adults and children, goes to show that with a degree of self-acceptance and resilience, it is possible to live publicly as a Boylover. From a cursory reading of his own blog posts, it appears that his success in this regard can be put down to a number of factors:

• Independence:

Muit chose to come out at a point where he was a trained and experienced IT professional with the capacity for independent streams of income.

• Unpointed disclosure:

Whilst others have made a primary point of coming out as attracted to youth, Muit only refuses to deny this attraction. In this sense, sexuality is not something that he actively forces upon others, but something that he is unwilling to live in denial over. Muit does not run sites that repeatedly push the fact that he has an attraction to under-age boys for example. He is also known not to identify as a "pedophile" to people who would infer danger and mental illness from the term, as his own life history clearly contradicts this.

• Self-defence:

Despite a prolonged campaign of harassment carried out by self-described Dutch "Pedo Hunter" and convicted criminal Yvonne van Hertum, Muit is just as frequently criticised and libelled by American anti-pedophile bloggers, operating under pseudonyms. Muit's grounding in IT allows him to defend himself with direct responses on his own website. In addressing obvious libel, these responses tend to come across as more authoritative and dignified than the speculation of American vigilantes who have no personal knowledge of him. As Muit is known to have been accepted by friends and family, editorials describing him as a danger to children (for example, Wikisposure) sometimes come across as disingenuous, culturally insensitive and motivated more by hate than a genuine interest in the safety of minors.

• Openness:

At no point has Muit attempted to hide his attractions from others, and he makes it clear that he does not seek and has never sought any kind of sexual relationship with youths, despite many years of everyday contact with other families. In some instances, he has been forthcoming about his attractions. It has long been known from the experiences of homosexuals, that if one is open about their sexuality in a non-coercive manner, or even forthcoming, this tends to ease the perception of their "condition" as a "dirty secret".

External Links

• Webcorner - Roderik's non-business site.
• Roderik's response to Wikisposure