Should pedophilia be legal?

[Ben Davis]

Paedophilia is having sex with prepubescent children.

This. People often forget this and conflate issues of pedophilia and statutory rape. Let's start by saying that unconsenting sex is always wrong, no matter what. Then we can ask 'is it right to have sex with physically immature people?'. Of course not. They're too physically immature for it, their body's simply not ready. This point makes considerations as black & white as rape. Consequently, pedophilia is wrong.

At that point, we can start asking 'once physically mature (i.e. pubescent), is it right to have sex with people who may/may not have a proper intellectual understanding of their actions & the consequences?'. This is the point where age of consent/statutory rape becomes the discussion and different cultures have come to different conclusions. In the UK, 16 is the age. This works pretty well to protect the intellectually immature from the advances of sexual predators whilst allowing people the freedom to practice their sexuality fairly soon after reaching puberty (when sexual curiosity is strongest). Our laws of precedent mean that we have a pretty balanced way of judging individual 'edge' cases, generally (e.g. 16 y/os having sex with 15 y/os) and with empathy. Most European countries have very similar models to ours with similar levels of success in balancing permissiveness with protection.

[Something completely different]

I value your responses, although I'm disappointed that no one has used logic or empirical evidence to challenge my argument.

I have given my argument. It is above! Lowering the legal standerds would allow criminals to act within a legal relaim.

Are you one of these halfwits who ignore things they dont like?

Do children consent to being sent to bed? Do children consent to being fed junk food, or raised catholic? Adults have the right to do whatever they want to children, as long as they don't cause harm.

Equating "going to bed" to forcefully shoving a penis into a 9 year olds anus is so out of touch with reality and so completly far fetched that I seriously doubt your seriousness here.

It seems you are probably only a troll eager to gain some negative attention for your pathetic existance.

Sexual maturety is reached with puperty and even after that, an individual has to be educated enought on sex - being mature not only in the biological but also in a legal sence to be capable of engaging in sexual activity.

Children are not asexual. Toddlers have been known to masturbate, even doing so in public as they are unaware of any taboo. Why can't an adult be a apart of this sexual experience? Even a newborn can enjoy non-penetrative genital stimulation.

It doesnt matter at which age a child starts masturbating, it matters at which age a person reaches the maturety to have sex.

[youmightbeanatheistif]

The OP attempts to implicitly argue that sex with children is not harmful because a significant percentage of victims of pedophilia polled self-report that they don't feel that it was harmful. I think this is quite flawed and based on my own experience knowing people who were sexually abused as children I dispute it. I do think there are significant psychological traumas that occur when adults use children for sex, if for no other reason than that they are using them...the child isn't mature enough psychologically to be an equal partner in the interaction.

For this reason alone it should remain illegal. As to haggling over the cutoff age, that's fine, but there has to be a line drawn somewhere and it makes common sense to draw it so to protect the vast majority of children (as in, the 75% of females who responded that it was harmful) rather than the exceptions to the rule (the 25% who responded that it wasn't.)

[LastPoet]

Adults are susceptible to being conned, even old men and women, but its easier to mold a human being in those turbulent years. The problem resides on taking advantage of someone way less experienced and vulnerable, because they haven't lived as long enough. Personally, I think an adult interested in sex with a child has serious issues.

[RonaldReagansGhost666]

Adults having sex with children is considered one of the most heinous crimes. The rape of a child causes significant trauma and physical harm. However consensual sex with children, which may not even be penetrative, is a grey area. In order for something to be justifiably criminalized it must be harmful, for this reason homosexuality has been decriminalized. There are several factors which need to be discussed when deciding if pedophilia is intrinsically harmful.

Age of consent

Ages of consent are arbitrary and differ across nations. In Italy a 40 year old can legally have sex with a 14 year old, whilst in California a 20 year old having sex with his 17 year old girlfriend is committing statutory rape. The problem with an age of consent is that it doesn't allow for exceptions: young people are criminalized for having consensual sex whilst vulnerable teenagers over the age of consent are unprotected. There is no scientific evidence suggesting that sex before a certain age is intrinsically harmful.

Taboo and morality

How society views sex is important, sexual ethics are subjective and ever changing. Sexual taboos exist in every culture and cause individuals to feel shame, guilt and other powerful emotions. These taboos are often unjustified, such as the taboo against interracial sex. Whilst sex with children is taboo in western cultures it has been, and still is, acceptable in some parts of the world. Recently the west has imposed it's sexual ethics on the Pitcairn Islands where children routinely have sex with adults. One woman told reporters:

"I was 13 ... I felt like a big lady. I wanted it"

What right do we have to impose our laws on these people? In the West parents can feed their kids junk food and raise them with religious beliefs, why should they not also be allowed to decide on how the child develops sexually?

APA (American Psychiatric Association)

The APA conducted 59 studies on college students. They discovered that two-thrids of sexually abused men and more than one-quarter of sexually abused women "reported neutral or positive reactions." They concluded that the negative effects of child sexual abuse "were neither pervasive nor typically intense".

In the Psychological Bulletin (1998, vol. 124) the American Psychiatric Association stated:

"Childhood sexual abuse is on average, only slightly associated with psychological harm--and that the harm may not be due to the sexual experience, but to the negative family factors in the children's backgrounds. When the sexual contact is not coerced...it may not be harmful at all." The APA also states that abuse "may only constitute a violation of social norms.".

Prior to the late 20th century much of the research on pedophilia was based on data from clinical populations, i.e., people who sought help for existing emotional/psychological problems. The APA concludes that "the inevitable result was that the pervasiveness of harm was greatly exaggerated, since only those who perceived themselves as needing treatment were included."

What are your opinions of aduts having consensual sex with children and teenagers?

[Deicide73]

I would like to ask a question to the persons who are trying to rationalize this topic... If you came home from work and found your, lets say 9 or 10 yr. old daughter being fucked by an adult would you say, "Oh hi sweetie, I didn't know you had company." Then politely excuses yourself. Go into the kitchen and make them a few sandwiches? Because I'm sure they're gonna be hungry.

[Autumnlicious]

I would like to ask a question to the persons who are trying to rationalize this topic... If you came home from work and found your, lets say 9 or 10 yr. old daughter being fucked by an adult would you say, "Oh hi sweetie, I didn't know you had company." Then politely excuses yourself. Go into the kitchen and make them a few sandwiches? Because I'm sure they're gonna be hungry.

That's another appeal to emotion along with strawmanning every single person who doesn't precisely agree with you on every point, as their differences in minor points of dogma may be construed as 'rationalization' under your terms.

Again, religious logic.

Does the prospect of the existence of pedophiles drive all reason out of your head?

Evidence is better than faith.

Yet it seems the anti-side is more interested with postmodernist discourse (person and position are one and the same) and attacking anyone who seems to not share identical beliefs.

Oh religion...

[Deicide73]

When did I saying anything about religion? What is exactly wrong with saying that pedophiles are fucked up?

[Tea Earl Grey Hot]

When did I saying anything about religion? What is exactly wrong with saying that pedophiles are fucked up?

It's because you threw all logic out. Your's and most other replies here have been nothing but fallacious appeals to emotion, riducule, and ad homonim.

Saying "of course pedophilia is wrong!" is no different than theists saying "of course God exists!"

[cratehorus]

when i was 14............ I had a former runway model for an english teacher............... I tried as hard as i possibly could..... to fuck that lil hottie


.........just sayin' gender roles are involved in this discussion