It’s not just the case with law, it’s also about ethics. Chie is right in refusing to elaborate further about topics of pornography with anyone under the age of 18. It’s not just illegal regardless of the age of consent, but also simply inappropriate.
As for your concerns:
I don’t think you have to worry about your sexuality as of yet. You are still 16, you went through a difficult situation, you have to deal with a lot of complex emotions and evaluate everything you went through till you can achieve clarity of mind.
I was sexually exploited in my youth, so I understand how chaotic figuring out your sexuality is considering such experiences. I also worried that I might be a pedophile, because I often heard that “people who were sexually abused in their childhood tend to become pedophiles themselves”. It’s not really true, but when you feel anxiety, everything sounds reasonable. I guess one piece of advice I can give to you is to be wary, that there is a lot of myths and misconceptions about the topic, that might sound reasonable and logical, but aren’t really true. Researching these topics on my own is one thing that has helped me personally, so it might help you too.
Checking out DSM-5 is a good start. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Version 5 (the latest one) is the main and fundamental diagnostic tool published by the American Psychiatric Association (APA). that serves as the principal authority for psychiatric diagnoses.
On page 698, you have criteria for diagnosing so-called “Pedophilic disorder”. Pedophilic disorder isn’t exactly the same as pedophilia.
Pedophilia on its own is defined as is a “paraphilia characterized by a primary or exclusive sexual attraction to prepubescent children”. A regular person still might be somewhat attracted to minors, but as long as their primary interest is in adults, (that is, they find adults more attractive than minors), it’s not really considered pedophilia, because such individuals can and is naturally preferring to pursue relationships with adults, rather than minors. Put differently, they derive more satisfaction and fulfillment from dating adults, than minors, even though they are capable of recognizing sexual attractiveness in underage individuals.
You said you are capable of finding 11+ attractive, but as long as you have a bigger interest in adults too, you are not really a pedophile.
Otherwise, there is a question of whenever you are a pedophile, or whenever you also have a paraphilic disorder.
These are the criteria for the pedophilic disorder:
The criterion C is very relevant in your case. You are a 16-year-old, and you claimed to have an interest in 11+ individuals. That gives 5 years of difference. You are on the border, but as you can see, the psychologists in APA did decide that people in situations like yours, shouldn’t be really considered as having a pedophilic disorder, because “of the difficulty during adolescent development in differentiating it from an age-appropriate sexual interest in peers or from sexual curiousity”:
Your interest is not really abnormal considering your age, and you really have to still develop in order to really be sure if that interest is stable, or whenever it will change.
So you really have no need to worry. Regardless of whenever you are a pedophile or not, what really matters is whenever you are a good person or a bad one.
And seeing your initial post it’s clear to me that your worries stem from your empathy and understanding of why sexual exploitation of minors is harmful and unfair to the child. So it’s easy for me to conclude that you are a good person and that you will not commit any criminal activity that would involve a child. Simply because you are just like the rest of society, and you prioritize the wellbeing of others over personal temporary pleasure.
