The concept of the age of consent, in fact, has evolved significantly over time.

While I agree that 18 is a reasonable age for the legal definition of sexual consent, it’s important to understand that age of consent laws are not inherently biological truths. They are, in fact, social constructs — legal definitions that vary based on cultural, historical, and societal context. These laws reflect our collective decision about when we believe a person should be able to make informed decisions about sexual activity.

Biologically, childhood technically ends when puberty begins.

In the 1990s, for example, we were taught that the onset of puberty marks the transition from childhood to adolescence. However, Western societies deem people under 18 as minors not yet capable of fully understanding the implications of adult decisions, including sexual consent. And that's fine. Social constructs evolve.

I remember when I was a young teen in the '90s, and a friend of mine got pregnant at 14 and gave birth at 15. He boyfriend was 19. Back then, such occurrences weren’t uncommon in my country, and the societal response was different from how we view teenage pregnancy today.

Throughout much of human history (millions of years), teen girls were marrying men, having families, and engaging in sexual activity at a much younger age than what we consider typical today.

In many ancient civilizations, early adolescence was often considered a period when individuals were ready to marry men and bear children. This was largely driven by survival rates, religious values, economic factors, and social constructs of the time.

Even today, in various parts of the world, particularly in Islamic and Middle Eastern cultures, young teens, particularly girls, still marry men twice their age and begin families.

We can certainly debate whether the age of consent should be lower or higher.

Ultimately, age of consent laws are part of evolving social constructs. These definitions can and do change over time, but they will always be rooted in the cultural context of a given society.

Definitions of what constitutes a 'child' and what constitutes an 'adult' can evolve as part of changing social constructs. Language and its meanings are not static. For example, for millennia, the term 'woman' referred to an adult human female. However, in recent years, some dictionaries have expanded this definition to include individuals assigned male at birth who identify as women. As a result, the term 'woman' is now understood more broadly—anyone who identifies as a woman is recognized as such.

In the end, it’s important to recognize that age of consent laws are not universal truths; they are societal agreements that reflect evolving social constructs.

And which episode was yours?

The law is the law one's cultural belief doesn't supercede laws in most cases

So it's not just a social construct, there's biology at play, mylanation of the brain occurs back to front and takes time to complete, 18 is actually pretty young and not yet fully mylanated, but good luck setting the age of consent to 25, few people would want to wait for their brain to completely mature.

None of the culture conversation matters, none of the opinions people may have, matter. What matters is whether or not the individual has the capicity to weigh or predict what could or would happen. They aren't mentally developed enough to understand the risks, the dangers, the potential outcomes. They lack insight. They haven't even secured their sense of identity at that age. A grown adult who has sex with a teen isn't risking anything, they have the upper hand, they can prey on malleable minds. The teen is at risk because they don't have the foresight to make an educated choice. Their bodies are riddled with hormones, its a very confusing time, we have these laws in place so that adults don't abuse their power and exploit individuals that arent equipped to pretect themselves. Hope that clears it up 🙄 Makes culture look waaaaaay more dark than they initially lead you to believe.

"In the end, it’s important to recognize that age of consent laws are not universal truths; they are societal agreements that reflect evolving social constructs." I don't see how that's relevant when adults show up to commit horrible crimes against kids.

What a big load of horsesh-- to attempt to justify illegal, immoral and unconscionable behavior. Lame lame lame