Lets not turn this into some pointless, multi-page thread of pedantic word games arguing over the minutiae of correct definitions.
Who cares whether their victims are pre or post pubescent...just refer to all of these vile scumbags as "kiddie fiddlers", then everyone will know what we mean, i.e. people who rape/molest under age victims.
I disagree with you. What is statutory rape in the US (but only in some states is it 18; in other states it is 16) may not be in Europe. In the UK you are considered an adult with your own mind and right to consent to sex and even leave home at age 17. In some US states you cannot even drink in a bar until you are 21. In Italy, a woman can marry and have a baby at 14, with the man safe from prosecution if she is 'in love' with him (cf a case in recent years of a 63-year-old man doing just that, and getting acquitted at Supreme Court stage) .
What does this tell us? That the legal age of consent is all very artificial.
In the UK - which has/or had - one of the highest rates of unmarried teenage pregnancies in Europe, if a girl of 14 has a baby with a boy of a similar age or up to about 21, it is rare he will be charged with underage sex, especially if they were a 'couple' at the time.
I can remember a friend being invited up to a hotel room by a famous handsome boxer when she was fifteen (she declined the invitation) and far from feeling threatened, she found it hugely complimentary.
Whilst a woman under seventeen might be below the age of consent, it doesn't mean she is actually unable to consent. Some famous footballer had an affair with a fifteen-year-old and of course, it was quite wrong of him to take advantage of her infatuation with him, and indeed, he served a jail sentence. However, he is now branded a 'paedo' by the tabloids for life.
Now I can remember real paedo rings in the early 80's when groups of middle-aged and older men collaborated in a secret network to procure young boys (mostly)
real children for the most disgusting, invasive and pornagraphic acts for their on gratification int he full knowledge it was illegal and taboo.
When you call a having sexual relationship with a woman aged 17, who then goes out and procures her friends to join in, it really is not the same as 'kiddie fiddling' because (a) she could have physically left (as she eventually did, years later), (b) could have reported it to various agents in confidence, (c) could have declined to introduce her friends. Yes, she was groomed by being offered luxury and money, and also threats and intimidation. I understand that emotionally it has devastated her and left indelible trauma to her psyche, and yes, she was sexually abused.
But was it 'paedophilia'...?
