First if all: that is exactly how you treat addicts. https://harmreductionjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12954-019-0340-4

Secondly: no, we don't have evidence that this might decrease the danger for pedophiles to act on their desires, since the technology is rather new.

Of course we should not enable urges like that. Yet, we have to be realistic: there will always be those that can't be treated. Do you want those who cannot be stopped from indulging in their desires to do so on children's images by real, abused children, or do you want them to vent on made up images?

your argument is implying that if somehow we allow them to use AI generated child porn that it will somehow stop them from seeking the real stuff out or is somehow “better.”There is literally no evidence that suggests that in the slightest.

Of course. How would you procure such evidence? Give a group of pedophiles access to AI generated content and check if they molest children significantly less than a control group?

Pedophilia is an illness. […] You really need to […] take a macro view of what you are arguing in favor of.

I’m not defending pedophilia. Given that access to pedophilia treatment and prevention of sexual abuse is often lacking, I was starting a discussion of whether AI-generated content might be part of the prevention of sexual abuse of minors. After all, there are similar programs for drug abusers. Take methadone substitution as an example. Or establishments that are called “Drückerstube” in German (a very lacking translation would be “injection rooms”) – clean rooms where drug addicts have access to clean utensils for consuming drugs.