Yes it is illegal and immoral to take advantage of minors, even if they have physically developed into adults (although not mentally developed). And I think that the harshest penalties should be applied to people who take advantage of minors. Having said that, I also think that western society at large also has a role to play.

Our media and entertainment has been going through a very intense wave of sexualizing teen girls for the past decade. Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera are immediate examples Sex was (and still is) used to market their music when they first hit the scene in their mid-teens. Supermodels, barely dressed on the runways, are often aged 15 and 16, and are just as often washed up by age 21. Our daughters emulate their speech, their habits and their style of dress. We let our teenage girls go out in public dressed like skanks, in barely-there tops and low-rise pants that show off thongs. Corporations are allowed to make hundreds of millions of dollars by exploiting that sexuality and selling that image.

Instead of just being outraged on a case-by-case basis we should be prepared to say "no" to the wholesale exploitation of teenage sexuality for marketing profit. That's the real ugliness, as far as I'm concerned.

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Jonathan

2011 Mazda2
2000 E320 4Matic Wagon
1994 C280 (retired)