gbaji wrote:
Personally, I find using the label "child" when speaking of a 16 year old a bit questionable (or at least overly broad). We're not talking about a 5 year old here. He's 16. Also, I have to totally disagree with the whole "don't have the mental ability to understand what it means to consent" bit
Still under the age of consent. Assumably, I have not looked up the age of consent of the State in question, but I imagine that if it were 16 then there wouldn't be much of a legal issue with a 16 year old having sex with an adult, right? I don't think many States exist these days with 16 as an unrestricted age of consent.
gbaji wrote:
That's a complete social construct of our own modern (more or less messed up) society. For most of human history a 16 year old was considered an adult, expected to act as an adult, and likely was already a parent and employed in the work force. We coddle the **** out of our teens, making them wait a ridiculous amount of time before giving them any responsibility or allowing them to participate in adult society.
They're not immature because of any sort of biological or natural development potential limitations. They're immature because we force them to be.
Then I guess you have a time machine and can go back in time 10 years and start teaching this boy at the age of 6 what society was like in the 1800s and training him to be ready for work and life outside of childhood by his early teens so he can be developed mentally to the point where were he could make informed choices?
Ya, some time ago people would get married and/or start families at younger ages, and the main reason they aren't now is because society has changed and children are no longer forced to grow up as soon as they were prior. But that's why I said "Mental" and not "Biological" or "Physical". I remember High School. Kids, even though they were very into and prepared for se
x, had very little concept of the actual consequences of it. 10th grade girls could still be heard saying in the hallway to their friends "Oh come on, it's just one time, it's not like you are going to get pregnant." even after yearly sexual education classes from 4th grade on that stated the exact opposite.
But that's what medicine and abortions are for, right?
Jophiel wrote:
No, they're definitely
immature from a biological standpoint. For most of human history, we just didn't care.
Most notably, the areas of the brain that evaluate risk vs reward aren't fully developed yet. Which is why, you know, teenagers can be convinced to do a lot of dumb sh
it. Emotional centers aren't developed yet either which is why, you know, every six day relationship ends with heartbreak and bad poetry. Both of these just might factor into why educators shouldn't be having relationships with teenage students as though said students were fully developed adults.
I think I listened to a story on that on the radio a month or so ago.
I was thinking more along the lines of "My pe
nis works, but my brain isn't prepared to understand how this all works within society."
Edited, Oct 3rd 2014 6:55pm by TirithRR