Sexual Orientation

[Jenny A]

The problem is that young people ~<16 have mostly not developed intellectually enough or gained enough experience to be able to make well-informed choices in sexual matters. That's why Statutory Rape exists, to protect those who might give their consent when they're unknowingly vulnerable.

I find that this applies to adults just as readily. Humankind is a learning being, and their lives shape that learning.

If you wish for them to make "well informed" choices in sexual matters, then it is your duty to inform them as early as possible in their lives.

I think you'll find that by 10, kids are starting to get pretty damn smart.

I'm all for giving children information. If they do choose to have sex, I want it to be informed sex. And yes some of them are "pretty damn smart." What the vast majority of 10 year old lack is a sense of consequences or an ability to take care of those consequences. I've had my own 10-year-olds way to recently to have any illusions about that.

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That's what your parents, their grandparents, are for, silly. It's dangerous for humans to go babymaking young... but luckily: medical science is here to catch them now.

10-year-olds are not necessarily ready to tell their parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles,or family friends early enough about oncoming little consequences. Nor is dealing with those consequences ultimately their own responsibility. It becomes the responsibility of the parents. Therefore, parents should have some say in it. Just as parents get to decide if 10 or 12 is a good age to get to own a gun, or ride a dirt bike. And in the case of sex there are more than one set of parents involved.

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Well, I guess I can't really imagine a scenario in which an adult who takes advantage of a child for the purposes of exploiting them sexually is going to have any positive effects on the well-being of said child.

And how about an adult who wishes to love that person, to hold them close and teach them all of what they know of the world...

I find that some of my best learning is through practice and exploration. There are advantages to these things.

Sorry, not buying it. Learning about sex is best learned through practice and exploration. It is not best learned through exploitation. An adult who thinks they have sex with a child out of pure motives of love is deluding themselves.

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You at 8 or 9and another 8 or 9 year-old and I wouldn't say boo provided it was consensual--though I think that that's rare, and shouldn't be encouraged.

Consensual sex with people of your own age... not encouraged? Odd.

Yes, because of the consequences children are not yet ready to take responsibility for.

]But an adult and a 8 or 9 year? No way. I don't think given the power difference, that a 8 or 9 year old could really consent. And I don't really think a child is in a position to really understand the possible consequences of sex. You may have been ready, but in order to protect other children, I'd say no.

So... given the 'power difference'... should my relationship with a physically disabled adult be thrown out... shall they not find an outreach for the love they crave? Can they 'really consent', or can they just 'sort of consent', or can they 'not consent' even if the only thing they are speaking is their consent?

Mentally or physically disabled? If mentally they may not be able to give consent. If you are talking physically, why yes they can.

The consequences of every action... cause reactions so far-reaching that no man might know their heading. I don't think that an 8 or 9 year old (though perhaps the person is just blissfully stupid, who knows) is incapable of understanding the immediate potential consequences of one subject that, should an adult be on hand at the happenstance, they are dutybound to explain.

Or, perhaps your distrust of the human race has chained the freedoms of man in your mind.

The part of the brain that can not only describe but actually act upon potential consequences is a late bloomer in the human brain. It doesn't really mature until between 18 and 25 or so depending on the gender of the individual.

No human is perfect at this, but 18 year-olds are much better at it than 8 year olds.