Children often masturbate from a very early age, curious experimentation comes later, while typically interest in pleasurable sexuality with another person comes later.

Historical examples of girls being sexual from a young age are not helpful. In those cases, what was involved was the girl being married off. Or perhaps her being a sexual plaything of others. I don't think any of them involve a girl's freely expressing her sexual choice. She might want to get married early when choosing from a very impoverished set of options. We aspire to much more for girls today, including their ability to get an education and wait until they are older to make better-informed decisions about marriage. Whether girls can safely engage in sexual activity from a young age is a separate question, but I don't think that historical examples really bear on it in a position way.

I find myself agreeing with quite a few (not all) of rainbowloom's points.

I don't think Dante's concern about the injustice to children gets much support from most people because it's an injustice that is corrected over time. First you're a child, and may suffer some limitations. Some of that is inherent, because you really do start out pretty helpless. But you know you will be an adult shortly. On the other hand, adults want the best for their children, they remember what it was like to be a child and based on that concern and what they knew then and what they know now, they set up some rules that work fairly well. Of course there are some exceptions that one can easily cite where the process gives bad results.

I know Dante and Dissident and some others here are guided by pure principles of child empowerment. But the issue keeps arising in a group like this because of our intense interest in the idea that a girl might want to freely and happily engage with us sexually. For us the simple expedient of her waiting a few years is no good, because then she is no longer attractive to us personally. That's why I think society at large is in a much better position than we are to decide what ages of girls adults can interact with sexually.