usmbguest5318
Gold Member
I don't know for certain, I would need to read up some more...my impression of what I have read, was that this particular area of the brain that involves reasoning or/and impulse is simply not activated to it's fullest until later....so even if as a father, you explained all of this to him or her, they may think and you may think they understand it fully, but they simply may not.No it is not legally or mentally consent at that age with an adult male much older...BECAUSE the brains of boys at that age are not fully developed....and any 29 yr old adult that chooses to have sex with a 14 year old boy knows that he has power over the boy or girl.It seems that you are making a legal argument. In many if not most states, the age of 14 is below the age of legal consent, so legally a 14 year old can not consent to have sex with an adult. That being said, a 14 year old and definitely agree or give permission to have sex with an adult, but not in the legal since. Agreeing is consent.oh my gosh!
no silly willy! What I was saying was that yes 14 year olds may end up having sex with their peers of around the same age, but at 14 having sex with a 29 year old is the 29 year old taking advantage of the 14 year old's lack of maturity and statutory rape.
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AND GIRLS mature in that area of the brain years before a boy, and there is no way, that I would believe that a 14 year old girl could give consent for having sex with a 29 year old man, even though she is more matured in that area of the brain than the boy is so why in the HECK would I think that the 14 year old boy giving consent is ok?
It's called statutory rape, there is a reason for it, and it is science now, that shows such development in the brain.
I have kids (all adult now), two each, boys and girls. I get what you're saying, but I wonder whether the immaturity of which you speak ("maturity" is the term "everyone" uses; I'm not semantically quibbling over that) is a function of time or teaching. My thinking is that at something like 14-16, kids, if there are taught frankly about the risks of sexual activity, the attendant responsibility and the potential impact on their later lives, they might very well be able to make what we call mature decisions about sexual activity. It is after all culture, not nature, that advises deferring sexual activity until later periods in life. I know it sounds overly simplistic to say, but Mother Nature gets a lot of things right, and "she's" got a better track record in that regard than do we humans.
I do think that you having a discussion on this all with them can only help lead them to understanding....but it is still a "fingers crossed" situation in my book....they are called juveniles for a reason and have so much more on their plate than I did at their age, but this still does not increase the actual development in that part of the brain that relates to these kind of decisions....as far as I am aware...but as said, I will read some more on it to see what I can find out.
Correct, the frontal lobe is credited with "higher" thinking, i.e. critical thinking. It does not develop until people are in their 20's. Therefore it is against nature, who set that timeline, to say that a child at an earlier age should be given the "authority" to make decisions that require that ability. It is that simple.
Okay. So I'm not questioning the frontal lobe development age or its role in higher thinking. What I'm postulating is that the maturity of which we speak in this context is necessitated by culture rather than by nature. The proposition that "it's against nature" seems incongruous with the fact that nature grants fertility at about 14 years of age, give or take. That's not to say one would be a good parent at that age. Indeed, I seem to recall having read that even in the wild, first time mothers experience far higher mortality rates than do their more experienced "sisters" in the species, that being particularly so for non-social creatures.
Mother Nature's a harsh teacher in many instances, requiring as she does experiential leaning, indeed offering only that modality as goes sex, birth and rearing offspring. It seems to me that humanity's cultural mores obviate the need for young people to endure the same lachrymose travails as must beasts. Be that as it may, though we consider ourselves apart from beasts, Mother Nature certainly does not.