Paedophilia - homosexuality parallels taboo

Children are not biologically ready for engaging in sexual intercourse. Is it now paedophilic for a person of 18 to have sex with a 15 year old? Because I have known this to happen with 3 couples and its perfectly okay because both parties were in a consensual relationship and the 15 year old was mature enough to handle a sexual relationship.

Paedophilia is just a blanket term to identify the wrong sort of engagement in sex with a minor. Having sex with a child, a toddler, anyone who is physically and mentally unprepared for the act of sex is WRONG. Even if they say yes, it should still not be allowed! I wouldn't let an 8 year old consume a bottle of vodka, or get a tattoo of edward cullen on her ass so why should I give her permission to have her body violated before it is ready and her mind exposed to adult themes of sex and the like.

I appreciate people mature at different times and maybe I am biased because I didn't mature till I was a full blown teenager but that doesn't mean they should be introduced into the sex-world. I understand your argument and their may be loop holes where by it may not seem to bad but really, we shouldn't even be considering it.

Paedophilia is not in parallel to homosexuality and nor are peoples opinion or reaction to it.

Homosexuality has been acceptable in many socities throughout history according to wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homosexuality#History

Ancient Greece is the only obvious example I can think of, there are undoubtedly more.

Almost all instances are pederasty and even still it's almost always bisexuality, never exclusively homosexuality, that's accepted. The word paedophilia itself is Greek for 'child friendship', referring to the fact that it was commonplace for men to have young boys as lovers at the time.

How can any of us decide when someone is ready for something? Your example of the vodka is funny because if a child drank too much vodka they would feel sick and not do it again. This I feel is the only way for a child to learn, we should not tell them or influence them in anyway about what they should and shouldn't do. A lot of adults on the other hand drink too much and feel sick then do it all over again the next night, all because our society encourages this. I'm not just talking about drinking but all cases where adults act, in my eyes, totally insane because of cultural conditioning. Children are not conditioned so they are much better at making rational decisions in my opinion.

Who said anything about rape? Heck, try to imagine that the child thoroughly enjoys the sex and wants more, would it be ok then? Like I said in the post, 200 years ago they would have saying "marriage is between a man and a woman, homosexuality is a man raping a man, how is there any similarity?"

Children cannot consent, It is always exploitation.
Homosexuality has never actually been rape, they just said it was. Paedophilia is rape.
It's extremely offensive for you to compare the two BTW, don't know if you realised...

You really can't see that you're just saying that paedophilia is rape? You really can't see that?

How can any of us decide when someone is ready for something? Your example of the vodka is funny because if a child drank too much vodka they would feel sick and not do it again. This I feel is the only way for a child to learn, we should not tell them or influence them in anyway about what they should and shouldn't do. A lot of adults on the other hand drink too much and feel sick then do it all over again the next night, all because our society encourages this. I'm not just talking about drinking but all cases where adults act, in my eyes, totally insane because of cultural conditioning. Children are not conditioned so they are much better at making rational decisions in my opinion.

So you're saying to ensure that children aren't vicitms of paedophilia we should have sex with them if they say "yeah, why not"? I hope not, because learning the negatives of something is VERY different with sex than it is with practically everything else.

It comes down to this. A child does NOT know the dangers of sex, a child does NOT know the mental or physical harm it can pose and they are in general NOT developed enough physically or mentally. The difference is with the vodka is that a child can drink vodka however unless its in seriously large amounts it will have no long lasting effects, whereas sex will do potentially.

And when it comes to sex which is something that 99% of children know bugger all about (or don't know enough about), they're not good at making rational decisions.

Somebody ring the police.

EDIT:

I'm now including my counterarguments against what people have said in the order they came up. Some of it is probably a little out of context

Manipulation:

1) So a guy has never bought a drink for a girl to get her drunk, pretended to be interested in her, lied to compliment her, bought her flowers, chocolates etc, or lied about themselves to make themselves look more interesting/appealing? These are all manipulative techniques to get a girl to have sex with him.

2) If the child wasn't manipulated into the sex then he/she might go to their parents and tell them that some man/woman just asked them to have sex. This would lead to prison sentence and never getting a job. Hence, the law necessitates the manipulation.

3) Manipulation of trust is just the negative way of saying getting someone to fall in love with you. Its how adult-adult relations form; you buy her dinner, you compliment her hair, tell her she's special and boom you have one groomed adult "in love" with you and willing to have sex with you.

Children making rational decisions:

1) Firstly, adults are often no better at this. Secondly, most children at any one time have never suffered from eating to much ice cream, so it would be irrational for them to stop eating ice cream. A child can't know whether sex will be bad until they've tried it for the first time, but most people are more or less adults when they have sex for the first time so there's no meaningful difference. If a child does not remotely enjoy sex then they will stop straight away, they will be rational. Adults on the other hand can be insane.

2) How can any of us decide when someone is ready for something? Your example of the vodka is funny because if a child drank too much vodka they would feel sick and not do it again. This I feel is the only way for a child to learn, we should not tell them or influence them in anyway about what they should and shouldn't do. A lot of adults on the other hand drink too much and feel sick then do it all over again the next night, all because our society encourages this. I'm not just talking about drinking but all cases where adults act, in my eyes, totally insane because of cultural conditioning. Children are not conditioned so they are much better at making rational decisions in my opinion.

Culture differences and conditioning:

1) I do know about the greek and romans, but its all a matter of cultural conditioning: ancient greeks might for example see the mixing of social classes in modern western society to be as disgusting as we see paedophilia in ancient greek society. You saying it is fundamentally wrong without giving reasons is a clear indicator of this.

2) I do believe this and asking whether I would have sex with a child, while it means a lot in our society, it is possible to imagine a society where it would be like asking me whether i would argue with my dad.

3) What is respectful or not depends on your culture, were you brought up in a culture where necrophilia was the norm I doubt you would have a serious problem with it. You don't have a problem with wearing clothes in the summer when it is totally unnecessary and indeed sometimes uncomfortable, yet you do it without question because it is the norm.

4) It is possible that there may be certain morals that are natural and instinctual, but I doubt it. I believe that morals are the product of the society, morals which you believe to be fundamental like no murder have been and still are perfectly acceptable in cultures different to your own (human sacrifice with Aztecs, the sacrifice volunteered and felt honoured by it).

(My post will make more sense if you appreciate that I live in Scotland.)
I volunteer at a place where there are 10 year olds recovering from alcohol addiction. They felt sick, they woke up with extreme hangovers yet the next night they were at it again. That is an example of a child doing something on his own accord that he does think he enjoys yet is harming him and should not be allowed to happen. A child can decide for themselves when they are ready for sex yes - but I would prefer repressing overt sexuality in very young children as opposed to allowing it under the minuscule chance that some kid will be ready to partake in an act that is emotionally/physically beyond what they can handle thus risking the exposure of it to those who would be scarred by it.

Can you not accept that children are largely more vulnerable and not ready for sex. Yes it is a generalisation but the amount of kids ready at 8 would be severely outweighed by those who aren't.

I also think it does have something to do with your sex. Most guys that I have asked about their first masturbation say it was when they were way young, and most girls not till they are in their teens at least, if ever. Maybe a child who is male could handle the emotional and physical aspects of sex, but a girl could not. It is difficult for women to handle it - the hormones and chemicals released in a womens body during sex seriously **** her up, make her clingy etc. Its the same chemical as is released when she gives birth which makes her feel 'bonded' to her child and protective over it. Guys however can go about sexing anything that moves without necessarily being affected very much.

All in all consensual paedophilia should not ever be considered legalising. There are to many flaws, to many places where by it could go wrong. It is perverse. Children are children and by law are not considered mature enough to make certain decisions let alone have sex with an adult.

I can appreciate your parallels with the taboo of homosexuality. However unlike with homosexuality, I feel severe unease when saying that a consenting child should be allowed to engage in sexual acts with a consenting adult.

Try to understand the real root of your unease, think about every single time you've been directly or indirectly told that paedophilia is bad bad bad.

I personally can't see the significant difference between sex and other activities. They all boil down to emotions; pleasure, pain, comfort, whatever. Why do you think they are "VERY" different, why do you think it has long lasting effects?