Re: Where did you get the number 10 from?

Ten was the age of consent under English common law, which is also important to American jurisprudence.

I'm not necessarily opposed to penetration at a younger age, but in the absence of a better mechanism for determining at what age protection should be automatic, ten seems good. It is young enough to cover most children who have entered puberty, and represents an age when most children will be somewhat aware of what they are doing.

Of course, there are other considerations that could be taken account of legally, especially if we did not have draconian laws or a black-and-white view of the world. There are also laws that give special protections to the elderly to prevent criminals from taking advantage of them, without restricting too much the right of elderly people to make their own choices. We seem able to consider the subtleties of reality when dealing with adults of diminished capacity, but we discard this ability when dealing with children. That is not smart.