Template:Debate Guide:Arguments about adult-minor relationships

People fail to appreciate the flaws of Age of Consent laws...

Problems with the Age of Consent - There are numerous flaws, listed on this page.
Against: It's wrong because it's illegal - Homosexuality was once illegal.
Against: Legal pragmatism - It is sometimes wrongly argued that there is a permanent pragmatic argument for keeping the Age of Consent.
Against: There is no law that prohibits minors - The nonsensical argument that claims children are already sexually emancipated.

Myths and bad meta-ethics plague discussions of expressed adult-minor sexuality...

Against: All child molesters are pedophiles - This belief is demonstrably false.
Against: "Stranger danger" or "It could be anyone" - These two conflicting "expert" opinions are both unfounded and abused to incite fear.
Against: Sexual inexperience - Experience is not a necessity. We all start inexperienced.
Against: If we could only save one child - Negative utilitarianism is discredited and nonsensical meta-ethics.
Against: Child sexualisation and objectification - Claims that sexuality may consume the life or identity of a minor are bizarre and unrealistic.

Levels of harm are exaggerated and the sources are completely misunderstood...

Against: Power disparity/Stockholm Syndrome - Differences in power are not automatically inductive to abuse.
Against: Intrinsic harm - The belief that harm is intrinsic to adult-minor sexuality is demonstrably false.
Against: Profound and lifelong scarring - These characteristics are atypical, often a result of culture and nonconsensual sex.
Against: Doomed from the beginning - It is sometimes assumed that adult-minor relationships will die as the youngster grows older.

Other societies and species are points of interest...

Nonhuman relatives - Other species' adult-juvenile sexuality.
Historical nonadult-adult sex - Historical precedent for adult-minor sexual emacipation.

And what do those who experienced it have to say?

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