George, Of The Jungle Wrote:

leo Wrote:Pedophilia is sexual attraction to prepubescent children.

The way I see it, so long as the legal guardians are in agreement and both individuals are consenting, I'm not gonna judge 'em. I don't know many 13 years olds that want to sleep with 40 year olds, so.

I know, but in a lot of cases a 13 year old is prepubescent, or barely in the phase of puberty.
But imagine that the age of 13 is the norm (didn't know for sure before you were talking about individual testing), you could have an instance where a 40 year old had sex with a 13 year old. The 40 year old claims it was consensual, the 13 year old didn't physically resist. Then this is legal. But in a lot of these cases the consent is due to heavy manipulation, at that age a lot of them aren't mentally capable of dealing with those situations. The child may have servere psychological traumas that result from this encounter. Under the current laws, this isn't an issue because it's considered illegal.

Hence the standardized test. If you can give informed consent, that means you're capable of looking at it from many different angles, including that of being manipulated, and know the risks involved (physically, mentally, and emotionally). Many studies claim that the psychological trauma that results is not from the act itself, but the negative social reaction to it.

George, Of The Jungle Wrote:

leo Wrote:Each person. Not having a strict hard age for this kinda thing. So, for example, say we recognize anyone over 16 as able to give consent freely. Anyone that is under 16 that thinks they're capable of giving consent and has parental permission can take an unbiased standardized test that determines their ability to give informed consent rationally.

Meh, better to have an option than not if you ask me.

I agree, although I still think a lot of teens aren't going to inform others that they're gonna have sex.

Passing a standardized test doesn't necessarily mean someone intends to have sex. It means they want that option available.

George, Of The Jungle Wrote:

leo Wrote:I dunno. We came up with the numbers 16, 17, and 18 as being capable. We trust 16 year olds to drive cars. We've tried 15 year olds as adults for murder. Dave Chapelle says 14 is old enough to know whether you want to get peed or not. I'm sure we could come up with something.

A test like that sounds like a good idea. But at 16, 17 years old it's pretty easy to determine. When you talk about ages 12, 13, 14, it's a grey area.
It reminds me of determining whether a person was sane at the time of a murder, it's pretty much flipping a coin.

Maybe. I slept with a guy when I was 15 and he was 13. No psychological damage and we both definitely knew what we were doing.

George, Of The Jungle Wrote:

leo Wrote:There's a good book on some of these issues. It's called "Harmful to Minors: The Perils of Protecting Children from Sex" by Judith Levine. Definitely a good read.

Thanks, I will. Well, maybe, there's a lot of books on my to-read-list.

It's definitely worth the read.