The word pedophilia is very commonly
and mistakenly used to refer to people who have sex with individuals below what the law determines as the "age of consent" in a given place. However, pedophilia is not a legal term,
it's a medical (psychiatric) term. You're either a pedophile or you're not, and that doesn't change depending on what the age of consent laws are where you live.
That being said, I'll quote the
Comprehensive Textbook Of Psychiatry, vol.1, by Harold I. Kaplan, MD, and Benjamin J. Sadock, MD:
" Pedophilia involves preferential sexual activity with children, either in fantasy or actuality. Adult sexual activities or fantasies involving prepubertal children, the essential behavior in pedophilia, may be exclusively homosexual or heterosexual, or a mixture of both, and may occur within the family, among acquaintance groups, or between strangers.
Diagnostic criteria for pedophilia:
A - Over a period of at least six months, recurrent, intense sexually arousing fantasies, sexual urges, or behaviours involving sexual activity with a prepubescent child or children (generally age 13 years or younger).
B - The fantasies, sexual urges, or behaviours cause clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.
C - The person is at least age 16 years and at least 5 years older than the child or children in Criterion A. Note: do not include an individual in late adolescence involved in an ongoing sexual relationship with a 12- or 13-year-old. "So,
no, you couldn't possibly be a pedophile for dating a 16 y.o., although you might be breaking the law in some US States if you had sex with her. I'm guessing that's where you're from, since
teenage sexuality is a big taboo in the US, while in Europe ages of consent vary between 14 and 16, the sole exception being Ireland where the age of consent is 17.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ages_of_consent_in_Europehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ages_of_consent_in_North_Americahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ages_of_consent_in_the_United_Stateshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ages_of_consent_in_South_AmericaRecommended reading:
Adolescent Sexual Health in Europe and the US