Debate Guide: Cyclical paternalism
This argument is in effect the reverse of the liberty empowerment theory and is used to describe how paternalist/protectionist/parentalist/ageist practises in society will sometimes fulfil their supporters' prophecies that such measures will be required.
This argument (in relation to the concept of consent) is summed up by Chin-Keung Li on the MHAMic website:
Some anti-drugs laws that aim to protect people from harmful substances have made the use of virtually harmless substances potentially deadly through poor production standards and lack of appropriate education. Similarly, attempting to protect a class of people from natural, human sexuality leads to inadequate education and hands control of these practises to a hidden, criminal element. Therefore, protectionist actions may be excused by the unthinking because they allegedly "prevent" and "bring closure to" the problems they are in part responsible for causing.
To resolve this issue, young people should be handed back control of their bodies and taught not to feel guilty about their sexuality.
Adultism
It may be important to consider that the idea of "sexual maturity" is an adultist concept, imposed on the worlds of minors. What constitutes sexual maturity is defined by the adults who have "attained" it, but critically, those with the power to determine what it is. This elitism can be seen among people like Prostasia's Meagan Ingerman[1], who professes an interest in "kink and ageplay". She is a typical adultist kink snob/gatekeeper in that she constructs a highly convoluted "adults only" world of subjective deviance for herself, and then withholds virtually every other kind of shared sexual pleasure from minors.
The unsuitability of an over-complicated form of "adult sexuality" for "young minds" has been seen as a self-fulfilling prophecy.