>>8210165 (lb)
First:
>>8210294 (lb)
This.
We know @POTUS always has a reason.
>>8210326 (lb)
OK, then let's address it with an age-gap solution that gets youngsters around the obvious cases of "adults" abusing their positions of power/influence over younger people. You won't get everyone to agree on a base age of consent, so the simple solution is to set it to 18, but have an age-gap clause of 2 years for exceptions.
Watch this:
Should a 16 year old be a registered sex offender FOR THE REST OF THEIR LIFE for having sex with a 14 year old?
Should a 17 year old be a registered sex offender FOR THE REST OF THEIR LIFE for having sex with a 15 year old?
Should a 19 year old be a registered sex offender FOR THE REST OF THEIR LIFE for having sex with a 17 year old?
Now, 18 seems to be the most agreeable age that most would say "Hey, if you're 18, you can have sex with whomever you want (that is OLDER than 18) and nobody's going to bat an eye". So, let's call 18 the age of consent. Boom. You got your AOC, and you also have protected the teenagers from becoming "hardened criminals" for the rest of their lives.
I'm not talking about proper parenting, or having a nanny in the house 24/7, while parents work, to keep the kids from doing shit they shouldn't. It's not the government's job to be the nanny, either, as many single parents have to take risks with their own children to be independent/self-reliant. That often opens the these kids to learn from their mistakes on their own, and it's a tough world of pressures/influences; a problem in and of itself that you cannot fix with MORE gov't.
What I'm talking about when is it appropriate for the government to step in on some of these cases, potentially ruining a person's life forever over being a teenager with raging hormones (both parties, mind you). This is where it gets difficult, and people stop thinking, and get emotional. So far, I think what we have above keeps the adult female/male pedo from preying on children, right? Good. Adults preying on under 18s is predation. Period. End of discussion.
Now the hard part, and this is what people start freaking the fuck out over:
Should a 15 year old be a registered sex offender FOR THE REST OF THEIR LIFE for having sex with a 13 year old?
Should a 14 year old be a registered sex offender FOR THE REST OF THEIR LIFE for having sex with a 12 year old?
Should a 13 year old be a registered sex offender FOR THE REST OF THEIR LIFE for having sex with a 11 year old?
These are indications that there is NO proper parenting/parental guidance. These are the tough cases where you might have a single parent that relies on their kid to make good decisions on their own, a lot, or cases where grandma/grandpa might be the guardian, and the same situation with a generational gap in what's the current societal norm.
Many of these cases are not LEGAL issues (not all, mind you). Many of these cases are familial issues. What right does the state have to interfere? What use is the police/justice system in these matters? None. Notta. No good. They have no place in these matters. These are parenting issues, and you aren't going to strong arm the gov't into fixing them because you know where the kids will end up; making their long term resolution to your perceived legal problem a complete disaster for their lives.
Obvious caveat to this is where you have a parental figure ENCOURAGING this behavior for their own sick/twisted reasons. This is where the gov't needs to step in to rescue kids from abusive homes. That can only be found out if case workers get involved, though. For people on the outside looking in, this is tough to grasp.
It's difficult for many to wrap their heads around "sexually active 13 year olds", but it's there, and it's not always cases of abuse/neglect. It may often be, but do you punish the (usually) older kid, or do you go after the parent(s)/guardian(s)? What about intervention? A social worker's goal should be to help these people work through these problems as opposed to going straight to the "snatch the kids up"; unless, of course, there's obvious signs of abuse.
The conversation is going to come up. This issue will be dealt with, eventually, under this administration. What do you think they are going to do to fix it so that "everyone's happy"? Why do you think @POTUS quoted the tweet? So that we start having this conversation ahead of the time.
Kids/Teens experimenting/exploring is not exploitation. Adults targeting kids/teens IS exploitation. Differentiate the two, and create a solution that fixes the problem instead ruining people's lives. Eliminating the age of consent in exchange for an age-gap solution, or even driving that AOC up to 18 with the age-gap solution might actually be the best thing to do.
If you have a better idea, I'm all ears, anon.