2. The problem of "consent".
Our reader seems to believe that children cannot consent. But children can consent. Consent consists merely of "I do", or "Yes." It is irrational to believe that children cannot "consent". It is clear that, in this sense, the child can consent to sex just as easily as anybody else can.
"Technically, yes, children can consent. But they can also consent to things which are harmful to them. Thus, they must informedly consent. The age of consent is the age at which one can make an informed decision. This is what we mean by age of consent."
Of course. But can an adult not consent to something which can harm him? Is he not capable of making an uninformed decision? Must the adult, therefore, be refused all sex, because it is possible he will make an uninformed decision?
"Of course adults can make uninformed decisions, but surely you cannot deny that there is a correlation between informedness and age. And the correlation is such that the adult is far more informed about decisions concerning sex than the child."
It has not been denied that there is a correlation between informedness and age. But what is the child not informed about - about which he needs to be informed - to be able properly to have sex? Why can he not be informed about this? Are his mental faculties really that defective?
"What is there in sex that he is not informed about that he needs to be informed about? Protection from sexually transmitted diseases. Rapists. Etc. Can a child be informed about these? No."
First: The sexually transmitted disease is not such a difficult concept to get one's mind round. In the Netherlands, for example, children as young as eleven are fully informed about this. It is purely an educational matter. What is more, the type of relationship about which we are speaking is not a one-sided one: the adult ought to use "protection" as well. Everyone on Earth can, and must, be informed about "protection". If the adult did not use "protection", would you say that he would not be informed, and therefore cannot consent to sex? By your own logic you must admit this. And what about before there was a significant problem with sexually transmitted diseases, hundreds of years ago? Or in some isolated culture, in which there is no history of sexually trasmitted diseases? The child would not need to be informed about STDs in such examples (even though, given education, he certainly can).
Third: As regards rape, is my informedness about it going to change anything? If someone is going to prey upon me in an alley, it makes no difference how "informed" I am about the concept of rape. The key is not how informed one is about the existence of rape (though that certainly is desirable), but how to avoid dangerous situations. The child must therefore be carefully guarded by his parents. And he must be educated about, and thereby protected from, the dangers of the world, including rape, by his parents.
Second: I suspect that you are once again thinking about the "correlation between informedness and age". Sexually transmitted diseases aside, a child no more needs to be informed about sex to enjoy sex than he needs to be informed about poetry to enjoy poetry. For indulging in both is a pleasurable experience. It is not as if he will suddenly be harmed by poetry if he is not "informed" about rhythm, meter, the anapest, etc. And the same is true (perhaps truer) with music. Sex, like enjoying music, is a pleasurable sensation. There is no inherent harm with it, irrespective of the person's age who partakes in it. There is harm involved in force - and this must be stressed - but not sex itself.
Third: If there is not a particular age at which a person develops the informedness at which he can consent to sexual contact, then age of consent, whatever it may be, is arbitrary.
"And I have no problem with admitting that. But still, though I can admit that the age of consent is arbitrary, it is used to protect children who cannot defend themselves, who generally have not the informedness to consent, and is therefore laudable."
But what about "sex play" between two children? Do you disapprove of that as well? Is it harmful, too? The children are not "informed", even in such cases (what would they have to be informed about?); and by your reasoning it must be harmful, and punished severely.
"It is not harmful because an adult is not involved in it."
And thus we arrive at problem number three.