I might as well chime in here too, lol.
I'm not staunchly against sex at a specific age or think imposing a cutoff date of consent.
I know a 20 year old girl about as mature as your average 12 year old; and a 15 year old more mature than me.
Obviously 12 is too young for anyone, period, Even another one. And, the age difference of 5 years timoclea came with, or that 'rule' about your age / 2 + 5 (or +7, I forget, 7 makes more sense though) seems to be another good one. The older you are the less an age difference matters. The point here is to prevent predation and psychological damage upon the 'victim', if there is one.
Now, I'm not condoning this statement, but I am going to present it because it made me think: One time I was complaining to my Canadian friend that I cant seem to find women my own age. At the time the only ones into me were... 12, and 40. One was a innocent crush and the other was a case of sexual frustration. I wont go into any more specifics. Anyway, I ask her, what would you do? Flip a coin? or go for the 40 YO becuase its leagal? She told me that shed take the 12 year old, and I asked why:
(Toe-stepping-on-time) She said its not inherantly wrong for someone to have sex just because of their age. I go we have stat. rape laws to protect people from being abused or manipulated. She says: So everyone is automatically a predator if there is an age difference? Would YOU be one? Naturally, I said I wouldn't be. And I really don't think that I would either. She says that if people are mature and have had proper sex ed then the age doesnt matter its when you mature. She claims at 12-14 she was with people my current age, 20. She also said it was not a bad experience for her (but obviously I wondered if she was being literal or just trying to pull on my strings here). Just FYI, she was the victim, later on in life, of rape, so shed know the difference between a positive experience and a not-so positive one.
Then, another comment she made, is that the lack of sexual awareness and sex-ed she sees in the USA seems to make the stat. rape laws a necessity. I'm inclined to agree. I'd refer to my 20 year old friend whose naive as hell. Her parents *SUCKED* and kept her home too much, and she absolutely FAWNS over anyone who simply treats her nice, because apparently nobody did, including in her home. Naturally, shes head over heels for me. :lol:
Now, dont get me wrong, and dont let some baghead come out and twist my words, I'm not out here trying to start some inter-generational or underage sex thing, but I am saying that strict #s on age are unnecessary if people are actually educated and made aware - they'll be able to make decisions for themselves. Peoples sex drives kick in far before 18 and in years past people WERE adults before 18 anyway. The victorian method of preventing interaction or segregation obviously isnt going to work anymore, so a little education could go a long way.
Yeah, abstinance would avoid a lot of problems, but lets be realistic here, not everyone can do that. Part of growing up is learning how to interact anyway, so why not give some guidance instead of restriction?
People who are willing to give up freedom for the sake of short term security, deserve neither freedom nor security.
--Benjamin Franklin