The strongly emotional need to believe that children are more or less asexual is a very important component of the cultural paradigm of the Innocent Child

I can't answer for some vast impersonal "Society", but I don't believe children are asexual. I just believe the vast majority of them are not interested in genital-manipulation sex with an adult for purposes of sexual pleasure.

he won't be convinced because he doesn't want to be convinced. He isn't "open" to data that does not support the socio-cultural party line.

My divergences from this putative party line are large, though you can lump us all together if you apply enough force.

I offer this instead: The pro-contact position posits a significant transformation of our present society. This transformation must maintain all of our progress on individual autonomy and well-being (as opposed to when girls were married off at age 13, for instance). It assumes regret at sexual activity that is not understood at the time will vanish without other ill effects once society is tweaked the right way. And it assumes that in this new world large numbers of children will be actively interested in sexual activity with adults. That is a party line based on lots of questionable assumptions. Any individual pro-contact person may drop away from the community if they look at those questions honestly and decide it doesn't add up. But the community will continue. It is united around the conclusion, not the evidence for the conclusion. It is united around a desire, at least in theory, to be the adults who would get to be the sexual partners of these children.