The word pedophile is so weirdly used. If an older man or lady meets a 16 year old… their technically not one, but in this day of age… they would be consider one to society…but they would be consider a Sex Offender. Depending on Level 1 or 2… all depends on what they did and if their state will think they will re-offend or not. Most Level 1’s do not.
It’s not weirdly used. Society always determines what is appropriate. We’ve decided, as a society, that humans cannot consent until 18. And any sex without consent is rape.
That said, what is weird is that we conflate pedo and child rapist. You’re describing child rapists.
Get the fuck out, man.
Teenagers fuck each other all the time, consensually.
So there goes your argument about people younger than 18 being incapable of giving consent.
For the record, I’m in my 40s and I wouldn’t go out with anyone below the age of 30, before someone accuses me of anything I ain’t.
I hate predators as much as the next person, but let’s not go over to the other extreme.
Children can’t consent. Teenagers fucking is without consent. Their brains, on the average, are not capable of making that level of decision.
But that doesn’t make it illegal.
We’ve decided, as a society, that humans cannot consent until 18.
Older criminal laws were based on that idea, usually called “statutory rape”. Modern laws about sexual abuse of children usually ignore the concept of consent entirely to allow for more nuance.
One example of nuance is exceptions for people close in age so that non-abusive relationships between teenagers don’t suddenly become crimes when someone has a birthday. Another is that consent is often a factor in the severity of the penalty.
Yes and that’s completely fair. It’s about the imbalance of power. An 18 y.o. and one day, is exactly the same as they were two days prior.
But the cutoff has to be somewhere, and the guy I was replying to was talking about proper adults and 16 y.o.
That’s a highschool sophomore. And I think we’d all agree a sophomore dating a college student would be pretty imbalanced.
