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The hypocracy on this in astonishing. I had sex when I was 14 with a 16 year old girl (the age of consent in the UK) and looking back over the years I have no regrets whatsoever! Yet *legally* I was a victim of child molestation, and *legally* she was peadophile. With the benefit of years of adulthood, I neither consider myself a victim nor her a peadophile. We were teenagers being teenagers to the horror of our parents. It was ever thus. Indeed to apply such terms in that case diminishes the full horror of the real child molestation and peaodphilia that exists in the world.

I could have picked out others to reply to but what we are discussing here is kind oif interesting although it is sort of like the "snake" chasing it's tail and when you ger 5 people together, you come up with 7 different opinions. I know in the time of 70 to 100 years ago and futher, people getting married at the ages of 14, 15, 16, sometimes even a little younger was a bit more common. I know I'm talking about marriage but I want to ease into this and this is a good tart as I branch out. My great uncle was a Russian Jew and a violinist, immigrated to the US and was active in the Jewish community. Like in the movie, "Fiddler on the Roof," he was matched to marry a 16, 17, or 18 (we are not sure exactly) young lady, he was like 45 or so, it was done through a matchmaker which was common in the community at the time. I believe David Sarnoff who later founded RCA and NBC got his wife that way too.

Back in those days, in many ways people "grew up" (for lack of a better term) faster then so mental maturity matched physical maturity (at 13 14 and above, most people are equipped to reproduce although the question of should is another matter, I'm sticking to raw science for now) to where many did go out and get starter jobs to help support a family, work their own plot of land on the family farm and so on. I think in today's world, we have pushed back the envelope of resposibility to an older age, even though we are still the same physically. We mature at 16, 18, 21, sometimes never on a mental basis. Add in the lack of a society with a strong set of morals as a guide and structure, I think we have a lot of problems today, many of which we are discussin here. My great uncle and his wife had the community and society to back them up, today we largely lack that outside small insular groups, say a Hasidic Jewish community or a Christian commune. I know nothing is perfect, even in the old days as anything touched by the human hand always has some flaws, but in some ways, things were better off then.

So in today's world, I can't see a 16 year old getting married let alone living on their own or getting jobs with great responsibilities. I'm sure there are some out there that can batter up to the plate of some resposibility but the most I have run into are immature. (Note: Exceptions are the teenaged Freepers and Freeper kids here, I'm just observing general society at large).

Heck, my buddy met a girl from Canada online and brought her down here to live, she's 24 yet she acts and talks 13 or 14. Her speech inflections and actions make her that way. I think a huge part of it is she wanted to get away from her family and my buddy was her ticket.

I think as a society, due to the efforts of liberals, the sexual revolution of the 1960s, the removal of morals from our lives, and so on, we are raising people who lack the ability to make decisions with a goof foundation of having a good judgement to go with it. The 14/16 year old of 1900 seems to be better equipped to make some life decisions and own up to many responsiilities than the 18, 21 or even some 25 year olds of 2005.

I often wonder how "the powers that be" determine ages to do various things like age of consent, age to get a driver's license and so forth. Here in Pennsylvania, the age of consent is 16 as it is to get a driver's license. I know in the UK, like Pennsylvania, the age of consent is 16, at least hte last time I loooked it was. Why 16? Why not 15 or 14? Better not when you think of it. Well in today's society and the putting off of mental maturity, let's go the other way, how about 17 or 18?

Getting back to laws, either apply the law equally or not at all, why punish one offense if it is politically correct to do so while not punishing another because it isn't politically correct? It seems like since the 1960's, we have become more schizoid on this issue.

I know things were not perfect before the 1960's, far from it, but at least society was better equipped to self regulate itself unlike today. Plus too, this case seems to be part of the homosexual agenda as well.