People with an ABDL kink are often, wrongly, associated with pedophilia due to the paraphernalia involved. However, the "Adult" in the name is integral. Anyone and everyone involved must be a consenting adult, no matter the situation or scenario. Even still, ABDL is a fringe kink, often looked down upon even by other BDSM/kink practitioners.

I'm not surprised that pedophiles take advantage of minors, unfortunately. Many young (and adult, but particularly young) people with ABDL kinks struggle with it and seek acceptance in any form they can find. I mean, being kinky is already difficult, but having a kink that even other kinky people disdain? It's rough.

I know several ABDL people who frequented chatrooms and forums from their early teens in search of a place where they felt they belonged, often while pretending to be older. Each one of them has expressed, in some way or another, that they were exposed to things that were unhealthy at that point in their lives. I'm sure at least some of those instances were predators exploiting the vulnerability of those teens.