@hawkeye10,
For you, the debate has run its course, because your consideration of the issues is narrow minded and mainly confined to your own, somewhat deviant, sexual interests.
You talk about
Quote: healthy erotic expression
What you really advocate is that children should be allowed to consent to having sex with adults. You perversely characterize this as giving the child freedom of choice, as though there is something inherently good for the child from what you propose. Good? Unwanted pregnancies? STDs? Being psychologically dominated by a more powerful person? Being in a relationship one is not emotionally mature enough to handle? Being sexually exploited?
What you really want is to provide pedophiles easier access to children by removing the legal sanctions against such behaviors.
Pedophiles are people who need weaker, relatively powerless, sex object partners. Their sexual satisfaction comes from, or is heightened by, sexual contact with a more vulnerable, easily dominated individual, a child.
You want to provide more prey for adult pedophiles.
And you want these same adult pedophiles to be able to sit at their computers looking at, and downloading, pornographic photos of children, without fear of arrest or jail time.
This is your idea of " healthy erotic expression"?
Healthy erotic expression does not create victims, it does not harm anyone involved. There is nothing healthy about sexual exploitation.
Your problem, or at least one of your problems, is that you think there is actually a societal debate about these issues, when there is no debate at all. No rational mature adults condone your point of view. Your views represent those of a handful of deviants who would like to bend the laws to conform to their pathological desires. You aren't debating anyone. Society is not listening to you or taking anything you say seriously.
And, ironically, when people read the sorts of things you post, the response is to want even tougher laws for sex crimes involving children and the sexual exploitation of children. You remind them that children are at risk. So, your "cause" is essentially self-defeating, And, as Martha Stewart might say, "That's a good thing".
