Two girls and a boy, for sending kiddy porn to each other. They were 13 and 14. With kids having phones younger and younger, how long before 8 year old dancers get themselves onto sex offender lists?

I bumped across this update last night:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/8680370.stm

which kind of nails home the question of relying entirely on prepubescent testimony. Is someone at 8 or 10 years really responsible for their own actions? Surely not to the extent that someone at 30 is.

Wasn’t there a case in Idaho a few months ago where a prosecutor wanted to get a underage boy and girl both on a sex offender list?

I hear you, but I don’t agree with you. The urge for sex is a biological imperative rooted deep within our male and female genes, and many other living organisms share that drive. It is our cultural imperative that attempts to hold back and control this most basic of drives. Yes, teaching boundaries, especially sexual ones, is part of that cultural imperative - which I believe is your point - but human beings take lessons from many sources. It’s one of our greatest strengths as a species, but it also leave us vulnerable, both to malign influences, or the absence of positive influences (where one would act instinctively). Regarding the boys, I believe both aspects were at work here - which is the point I was making about sexualising everything in sight.

I don’t know how the jury came to its conclusion, but I agree with you. I doubt any of the children had the equipment necessary to make this charge, but I am guessing as I have no facts but what I’ve posted. What they (the boys) apparently did have was a cultural imperative to act out the behaviors described. I have no idea where, or in what form this cultural imperative may have been, but western society has become increasingly sexualised over the years with one boundary or taboo after another giving way to license.

In another thread, I noted that adults should be as free as possible to pursue their own interests. I also argued that that freedom should stop, or be reined in, if children are involved. Hence my comments about the dance video. I think most who posted to that thread agreed it was way out of line.

Detcord (16) jeez, 10 and 8?! How can that even be called rape? It’s just plain crazy. Does a 10 year even have a sex drive yet? I know I didn’t at that age. Ok, I had other problems, but sex wasn’t one of them. Jeez.

http://www.wbur.org, click “Listen Live” at 10:30 p.m. Eastern Time every Sunday (in summer that’s 0240 GMT Monday morning). As far as I know you can only listen live; they don’t make a podcast of it.

OHHHHHHHH !!!! I thought the thing about Luann’s exclamation points indicating how many sexual encounters was over the top that everyone would know I was kidding. Especially when I followed it up with the Dan Brown comment. No … I don’t think it was anything other than shock.

So …. Just so we are clear … Luann’s mom has made a double entendre .. Luann has picked up on it and is shocked that her mom would say something something sexual to her. I do actually think mom is making a double entrendre and that is what makes this Arlo worthy.

I thought a little more about the article you posted. I think there is a real issue today with parents not understanding what is appropriate for their children and what is not. And this does not only apply to sex. Here is an example from my own life. When the Tim Burton Batman movie came out I knew it was not appropriate for my then 8 year old son. About a year after it came out, it was on TV and he wanted to watch it. I still felt it was inappropriate for him, and said so. He responded that he had already seen it at a friend’s house. In this case the parent saw ‘Batman’ and assumed that anything with Batman was kid oriented. Parents are both overwhelmed and lazy. I am sure the boys in this story were allowed to watch things totally inappropriate for them and their age. While the result was a sexual horror story, that is not the only result of not paying attention to our children.

As an aside, This being Memorial day weekend I am away so my posts will be sporadic at best

Have fun stormin the castle.