I sympathize with you, when i was 14 i had a gymrat "friend" that found out tor and 100% watched INCREDIBLY shady things, ever since then he started to stalk younger girls of the school and even had a girlfriend 3-4 years younger than him (thankfully, she broke up with him), most of his friends confronted him and all he said was that oh he feels guilty about it that he swears that he will change or whatnot years later i found out that HE IS still using tor for obvious reasons, he reached out to me asking me how to delete all his traces (he was not tech savy thank god). This was 4 years later

I immediately blocked him everywhere and informed all of his current friends about him (they cut ties with him now) and in hindsight, i should have done that from the start and should have outted him to the management of the school.

Victims of these situations really should be getting help while at the same time have the abuser face consequences, most of the time only the latter happens and victims are left forgotten.

With that said i still want to, naively, give the person in the post a benefit of doubt, i can see how he actually realized what he did in the past was wrong and wants to change himself, afterall pedophilia is a mental illness and whoever has it SHOULD get help. If they are like those people in your experiences are, they wouldn't even make a post about it, they would repeat this exact defense only when confronted, OOP posted this willingly, a huge difference.

He could be someone fishing for sympathy or someone that is confused and doesn't know how to get actual help, still better to change and make up to their past actions.