As you say ...

... that is what any normal adult would do, though a pedophile might be a little more likely to notice.

I would not date this to the early 2000s, though. It was already well established by the 1990s, and seems to have its roots in the 1970s backlash to gay liberation.

Though I am also beginning to think that much may be linked to late 1960s concerns about overpopulation and a desire to delay marriage and reproduction in order to reduce the population. It seems like the anti-pedophile panic may have been a psyop designed to lead to the extinction of the human race.