Pedobear is the name given by 4chan users to a bear originally called "Kuma" (which is just "bear" in Japanese) who is a meme on the Japanese BBS 2channel. The name " Pedobear" is misleading, for the original character on 2channel has none of the passion for young girls, a trait that his Western counterpart is known for. The name came to usage near the middle to end of April 2004, when on /b/ there was a large flood of Ascii Art posts. A few users started an in-joke whereby one would post Osakaphone saying something, and the other would post Kuma with a response. Invariably, the content of these posts began getting more and more sexually oriented as the length of the conversations increased-- this, paired with the innocence and widely-held immaturity of Osaka, led some to dub Kuma as being "pedo" for her. Thus, Kuma became known as Pedobear; but it is important to understand that Pedobear is not all that Kuma is. Now Pedobear is placed after pictures of underage girls.