Reply #176: What exactly is a "child"?

[Boomer]

People are throwing this term around as if it's a given, but in truth the definition of child varies widely from era to era and society to society.

The implications of having sex with a 5-year-old are very different from having sex with a 15-year-old. Both are "children" and having sex with both is illegal, but there is a world of difference in the psychology of the adult and the child in one scenarior versus the other.

Within my lifetime, a 13 or 14-year-old girl could be legally married to an adult man, at least in some states in this country. There was no perception of child molestation, although there might have been a little tongue-clucking at marrying a girl off that soon.

Go back a century or two and no one would even blink at the idea.

The line we've drawn at 18 years is arbitrary, and adults and teens will continue to cross it because puberty can start at 12 or 13 years of age. And that gap of 5 or so years leaves room for a heck of lot of messing' around.