But you listed the bad consequences of legalizing it. Not why the act itself is wrong. ... [if the child wants it] Why would sex in that case be bad?

No one can rule out bad consequences in advance, so engaging in something that is likely to have bad consequences for the child is something society is right to prohibit. We also prohibit drunk driving, though of course the vast majority of trips a drunk driver takes do not result in harm. Harm from adult-child sex is much more frequent. Rind et al showed it is far from universal, but harm is harm.


There's also rape on adult-adult relationships but adult-adult sex is considered OK.

No one here on GC will defend sex with an unwilling partner, whether adult or child, and of course I won't either. We do assume that adults can choose sex, and while bad results do occur, the rewards are also huge -- a good sex life is a big part of what makes people feel good about life (and why exclusive pedophiles deserve our deepest sympathy and compassion). The inherent rewards of sex to prepubescent children are typically very small when they exist at all, and "wait a couple years" is a reasonable thing to say. And of course while the police can traumatize children in investigations (something I am very much against), we don't actually punish children legally for relationships with older people.

I for one do not want to legally punish two willing 13-year-olds who have sex with each other, and with that view the grand principle of "children can't consent" doesn't quite hold up, which is why I defend it as a cost-benefit societal policy. With an adult partner, there is great potential for manipulation, intentional or unintentional, and experience shows that there is often deep regret.

But God also did not decree that the age of consent must be 16, as opposed to 18, 17, or 15. That's where recusal fits in -- I'll trust the ordinary folks to sort it out. Whatever they pick will be approximate and make mistakes in both directions.

P.S. I'm not trying to disprove your views or anything, I just want to understand both sides.

I appreciate that. People with open minds are those I am most interested in discussing these issues with.