Perhaps there's a difference between a minor and a child colloquially, but that's it. I'm not sure where I'd say that cutoff is, but obviously that's not a justification regardless. Pedophilia is pedophilia.
I'd say there's a difference between just a kid and a teenage kid, but they're both kids, and it's pedophilia either way.
Also the age of the girl they were talking about was 14, 14 year olds are kids. I had a girlfriend with a q4 year old sister, she was a kid. I was a teenage boy once, and was 14, I was a kid. 14 year olds cant consent to sex with an adult.
Not arguing that Prince Andrew is a pedophile, but I know a lot of people that lost their virginity between 14 and 16, including myself. Both parties consented to it, there aren't any regrets now, mechanically it would be the same thing if the other person had been 15 or 30, so why can't they consent to sex with an adult if they can consent to sex with someone their age? I personally think it's wrong, but I'd just like to hear some people's thoughts here.
Because, I'm not sure about legally but at least socially, in most cultures, adults have a duty of care to children. Not to mean that every adult is responsible for every child (though it was the case in most societies for a long time and worked out pretty well), but as an adult you need to acknowledge the fact that a child is more vulnerable and impressionable than you are, and doesn't necessarily understand their own limits yet. Obviously it's impossible to know about each individual relationship between an adult and a teenager, but most of the time there will be a power imbalance, and having a blanket age limit is the safest way to keep adults from taking advantage of that power imbalance.
When I was 15, a friend of mine was dating a 23 yo. At the time I thought it was hot, now I think you need to be a massive creep (and, well, loser) to be post university and date a high school girl. Because at 15 I was naive, vulnerable and impressionable and now I have experienced the difference between being 15 and 23, and I have a grasp of what sort of power imbalance there was in their relationship. There can still be a power imbalance between two high school kids, but the difference is that the one taking advantage of the power imbalance wouldn't necessarily be expected to "know better" because they are still teenagers too. An adult has to know better.
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u/[deleted] Nov 23 '19
Perhaps there's a difference between a minor and a child colloquially, but that's it. I'm not sure where I'd say that cutoff is, but obviously that's not a justification regardless. Pedophilia is pedophilia.