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"To assert that a 14-year-old will necessarily make worse sexual decisions than a 24-year-old is absurd on its face."
Unless your 24-year-old has been living in a box, this is one of the most laughable statements I've seen yet. Sexual maturity is hardly a marker of mental acuity or emotional maturity. A 14-year-old will *almost always* make worse decisions than a 24-year-old, for the simple reason that they are lacking 10 years of comparative experience in the world. The onset of puberty as the marker of "maturity"? What about girls who reach puberty at 10? Shall we drop the age of consent for them?
I don't believe relationships (such as they are) between teens and adults are necessarily "abusive" as most people think of the word, but they are certainly manipulative and exploitative. It's far easier to cajole, lie to, and flatter a teenager to get what you want than it is to do the same to an adult (even a 24 year old), simply because this is their first experience with such a thing. This is what makes them teenagers, and by law "underage" -- they yet lack the experience and maturity to make otherwise adult decisions. The reason why age of consent laws exist is the same reason we don't let 14-year-olds vote, drive, hold full-time jobs, or live on their own. They're Too Young.
Legal and social issues aside, I have to wonder: who on earth wants to have sex with a 14 year old boy? Jeebus, I didn't even like 14-year-olds when I *was* 14. I mean, I guess they're cute in an antiseptic boy-band kind of way but I think any grown woman who thinks 14-year-olds are a better choice than men her own age has to have a few screws loose.
