Hi Godspell and Dakota.

I want to start by saying that I definitely don’t think there’s any *intrinsic* reason for “loved boy” to indicate sexual contact.

But, having said that, it does seem to me that there’s a consensus in favor of that usage. For example, Daring Dialogue (http://philia.ws/dd/ , one of the websites linked here) says “Young friends are children who are considered by boylovers and girl-lovers to be their friends; there need not be sexual contact between the boylover/girl-lover and the child. The use of the terms loved boys and loved girls generally implies that sexual contact has taken place.”)