Zyr

This came to me, while I was just sitting around thinking. Thinking about how black and white some people think certain subjects are. There are few absolutes. I imagine this subject will be controversial, and anywhere else, I wouldn't post this. Nowhere else on the internet, that I've found, would I trust the maturity of the people to keep this a civil discussion, and not degenerate. I hope you will understand that this is just supposed to generate disscusion.

In recent times, pedophilia, or at least it's image, is on the rise. We hear about it more and more. Is there more of it going on, or is it just getting more news coverage? These are interesting questions, and worth discussing, but they are not the main questions this thread is asking. Children having sex. Is it wrong?

Automatically, I bet the vast majority of people would have jumped to "Of course", "Why is this guy even asking?", or even "He must be a pedophile, trying to justify his actions". Not unexpected, however, I must ask you to read the whole rest of the post, before jumping to conclusions.

Now, this question is in fact not the right question to be asking. The right question is when is it right or wrong for a child to have sex? (this may be considered to be the point at which they are no longer a child, but that is beside the point)

There are a few aspects that must be considered.

First, legality. In most countries there is an age of consent. Here (New Zealand) it is 16. A lot of places it is 18. I've heard of places where it is 13. This might seem to imply that somewhere around there, it becomes alright for a person to have sex, but there is variation all around the world, so this can't really be used as an indicator of morality. Not to mention that legality and morality don't always match.
The age of consent is, however a legal necessity. Below this age, a person cannot legally consent to sex, as consent would have been able to be obtained easily through coercion, as they would not fully understand the implications.

Another point is the physical development of the person. Untill a certain point, it would be uncomfortable, if not physically damaging, to engage in some sexual activities.

And that leaves us with the actual moral aspect. Given that both people are physically developed enough, and mentally developed enough to understand the implications (very subjective), is there a moral limit on the ages of the people? Does it matter if one person is older? Does it matter how much older? Does it matter which gender is the older?


I can already imagine the responces, and I love playing devil's advocate, so here's a pre-emptive answer.

"Almost certainly, under the age of consent, a person would not understand the implications"
- But what if they did? Perhaps they can't, but is that because a young person has no capacity for such things, or because they are sheltered from anything sexual for many years? If they grew up in an enviroment where they were taught sex in an open way early on, wouldn't they then be able to make their choices in an informed way?


Discuss.

__________________
"Oh, irony! Oh, no, no, we don't get that here. See, uh, people ski topless here while smoking dope, so irony's not really a high priority. We haven't had any irony here since about, uh, '83 when I was the only practitioner of it, and I stopped because I was tired of being stared at."

Omnia mutantu, nos et mutamur in illis.
All things change, and we change with them.
- Neil Gaiman, Marvel 1602