Hi 28,

Your post brought a couple questions to my mind.

While I agree that children do have sexual desires and that society makes a grievous error in banning all manifestations of it, we must "liberate" children only as far as their developmental stage of life will safely allow, and never give up our obligation to parent, mentor, and teach children what they need to know as they grow into adulthood.

I think we all agree that all people go through the stages of life at different rates. Not all 5 yo's are all in the same place developmentally just as not all 15 yo's are in the same place or all 50 yo's in the same place. If we liberate children based on what they should be able to handle and understand at their stage of life, do we generalize and say all 10 yo's are ready for such and such, or do we go on a case by case basis and look at each one individually. If we look at each one individually, what criteria do we use to determine what a particular person should be able to understand and who makes that decision?

Also, if children are indeed liberated and receive all the same rights to decison making that adults do, how do we go from a protective society to one that allows the child to make these decisions for themselves? Certainly there would be an adjustment period that the children would have to go through. Many are so used to the way things are right now, (and I'm not saying change is a bad idea) that I just wonder what this world would look like and how children would handle suddenly having so many areas that they now completely control when before they had no control over it and have no experience in controlling it.

Cinn