The term chronophilia was used by psychologist John Money to describe varying forms of romantic preference and/or sexual fixation limited to individuals of particular age ranges. Some such fixations, specifically those towards prepubescents and those towards the elderly, constitute types of paraphilia.^[1][2][3] The term has not been widely adopted by sexologists, who instead use terms that refer to the specific age range in question. An arguable historical precursor was Richard von Krafft-Ebing's concept of "age fetishism".^[4] Importantly, chronophilia are technically not determined by age itself, but by human sexual maturity stages, such as body type, secondary sexual characteristics and other visible features, particularly as measured by the stages of the Tanner scale.^[5]

Preferences based on age

• Romantic and/or sexual attraction to minors
  • Pedohebephilia refers to an expansion and reclassification of pedophilia and hebephilia with subgroups, proposed during the development of the DSM-5.^[6] It refers more broadly to sexual fixations. Under the proposed revisions, people who are dysfunctional as a result of it would be diagnosed with pedohebephilic disorder. People would be broken down into types based on the idea of being fixated on one, the other or both of the subgroups. The proposed revision was not ratified for inclusion in the final published version of DSM-5.
    • Infantophilia (sometimes called nepiophilia) is a subtype of pedophilia describing a sexual fixation on children less than 5 years old (including toddlers and infants).^[7]
    • Pedophilia is a psychological disorder in which an adult or older adolescent experiences a romantic and/or sexual attraction to prepubescent youth.^[8][9][10] According to the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), pedophilia is a paraphilia in which a person has intense sexual urges towards children, and experiences recurrent sexual urges towards and fantasies about children. Pedophilic disorder is further defined as psychological disorder in which a person meets the criteria for pedophilia above, and also either acts upon those urges, or else experiences distress or interpersonal difficulty as a consequence.^[11][12] The diagnosis can be made under the DSM or ICD criteria for persons age 16 and older.^[13][14]
  • Fixation on adolescents
    • Hebephilia is a romantic and/or sexual fixation on early-pubescent youths in Tanner Stages 2 and 3 (ages 11–14). Ephebophilia is a romantic/sexual fixation on late-pubescent youths in Tanner Stage 4 (ages 15–19).^[15][16] The term hebephilia was introduced by Bernard Glueck in 1955.^[17] Ephebophilia is not classified as a paraphilia, due to overlaps with teleiophilia and overlaps and similarities between Tanner Stages 4 and 5. Forensic psychologist and sexologist Dr. Michael Seto has noted ""older adolescents are reproductively viable and the fact that typically men are attracted to older adolescents, as reflected in self-report, psychophysiological, and pornography use studies (Freund, Seeley, Marshall, & Glinfort, 1972; Symons, 1979)".^[18][19]
• Attraction to adults
  • Teleiophilia (from Greek téleios, "full grown") is a romantic and/or sexual preference for adults, specifically for adult body types, as it also technically encompasses attraction towards postpubertal, sexually mature teenagers.^[20] Dr. Michael Seto states: "A sexual preference in those in late adolescence who show many signs of sexual maturity (Tanner stage 4) or who are sexually mature (Tanner stage 5) is not representative of hebephilia; instead, it can be described as ephebophilia or teleiophilia (Hames & Blanchard, 2012)."^[21][22] The term was coined by Ray Blanchard in 2000 and has seen less public adoption than some newer terms.^[23]
    • Mesophilia (derived from the Greek "mesos", "intermediate") is a romantic and/or sexual preference for middle-aged adults. The term was coined by Michael Seto in 2016.^[24]
    • Gerontophilia is a romantic and/or sexual preference for the elderly.^[25]