The age of consent in Portugal is 14. They don't have any of the theoretical problems you say would happen if we let 17 year olds control their own bodies.
Portugal is not an exception. Plenty of countries respect teens' bodily autonomy. We need no hypotheticals. We have real world examples of low ages of consent working very well.
America to its teens: "You're a stupid child with a deficient brain. You need laws to protect you bc you're so dumb."
Europe to its teens: "You are now free to choose a partner, maybe even have sex with him or her if you want, because you're not a baby and we trust you."
It seems to me that everybody wants to blame smart phones and TikTok so they won't have to examine how helicopter parenting destroyed the minds of the younger generations.
_"Between 1979 and 1989 use of the word 'predator' goes up 900%"
Mass hysteria gripped the USA, and never let go.
If the victim of a statutory "rape" says that it wasn't rape, I believe the victim.
I believe victims when they say they are not victims.
It's evil to force them into victimhood they do not feel or think is real. It's just disgusting disrespect.
Just like Crypto the entire "Anti Sex Trafficking" ecosystem is teeming with grifters, crooks, liars, and dirtbags.
It's because the entire thing is based on fear-mongering and hysteria. There's zero critical thinking happening there.
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the term "groomer" is ridiculous fear-mongering bullshit, just like "predator"
it's totally detached from reality and serves only to gin up hysteria.
My vids are on Instagram too.
This one, for example:
Many people fundamentally misunderstand what age of consent laws do. Few take the time to learn how they work, or even what the law in their state is. They have naive notions that "Romeo & Juliet laws" mean only bad people get branded sex criminals.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CjYL7EqoCd-/
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Peeps in the US whipped themselves into an hysterical frenzy over mythical sex predators raping their children and lurking around every corner ready to pounce on their next sweet innocent victim. Hansen and Walsh got rich as hell terrifying American parents. Our whole society is an emotional basket case ever since.
Honestly I don't think Cuties is about sexuality at all.
I think our sex-phobic culture has made us obsessed with sex, so we see it everywhere, and it dominates our view of everything, even when the real theme of the movie is right there shouting at us the whole time.
There are over 450 million EU citizens living in countries where the age of consent is 14, 15, or 16.
If there were any truth to the currently popular American hysteria about helpless teens getting abused by rampant predators, they'd have a huge problem.
but they don't.
Our society is celebrating very prudish Neo-Puritan sex-phobia
and doing it under the guise of railing against “sexualization”
Maturity depends a lot on how much you have learned, which depends on how much you have been challenged. Before the age of helicopter parents we learned faster and matured faster because we weren't locked up in an overprotective bubble.
There are some things people just always believe. True or not.
If crime is rising or falling or staying the same, everyone always believes it's rising.
and they always believe the youngest generation is the worst and the most lazy, wild, undisciplined, etc.
Putting people in prison for age-gap sex is brand new in world history.
It has never been done before.
Is it really necessary? Doesn't it cause far more harm than good?
The burden of proof is on those promoting incarceration here.
Not the other way round.
It's very odd and quite disturbing that our society is obsessed with tiny changes in very poorly understood parts of the brain which appear to happen in your early 20s.
It REALLY seems like Boomers and Gen X hate the young and are desperate for a way to denigrate them.
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