The consent law is arbitrary. Being 18 means nothing in biology. Nothing. Age of consent laws are arbitrary not only in sex, but everywhere else. Theme parks, for example, can decide when you are an adult to charge you more. Though this is an extremely poor contrast. You futile attempts at using straw men are also rather amusing. I am 18, going on 19 in about 26sh days. Now, what I simply think is that consent should be defined with the cognition of one's brain. One can be 14 and be more mature and developed than that of a 19 year old, for example. But in our age of consent laws (at least in 'Merica), the said 14 yeah old would still be cognitively devoid than that of a 19 year old because the law said so. And only a couple hundred years ago, those laws were different than todays. Laws evolve and change over time as we investigate and discover new realities, or when we can disprove older laws and replace them. Every single person who has anything resembling a rational thought should question the law every now and then, in my opinion. Mindlessly following the law is silly and dangerous. Its good to question the reality of the situation sometimes. This girl may not have had the cognitive abilities to discern what is good or bad in her situation, and we won't know because of the law. I also cannot agree with the so-called "reality" you stated. Teenagers mature younger and more rapid nowadays. Puberty is occurring younger, and many children are also capable of rational thought during those ages. I also find it arbitrary that an adult, lets say age 33, can have sex with a 15 year old and he would be the only one charged with any wrongdoing, even if the teen consented. However, if the situation was twisted and lets say the 15 year old were to rob a bank with this man, she can be tried as an adult for being an assistant to this mans crime. Granted, sex is definitely more psychologically relative and is emotionally connected as well, but given the conditions of the bank robbery scenario it can be just as frightening for the child. No. In reality, age does not show anything but how many days one has lived on this earth and does not necessarily relate to cognitive ability. Surely there are teens that obviously cannot make that decision, but at the same time there must also be quite a few that can. I was ninja'd :P Also, if I were trolling, I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't make an attempt to sound intelligent and I also wouldn't make an attempt to care about what I was saying. But hell, I apparently may be a troll simply because I don't agree with the majority. I could be misunding what your saying, but it sure looks like your arguing in favor of Pedophilia.