I've thought this too! I am Australian and it's also very disturbing to me to see people in America call someone attracted to a 17 year old a pedophile when 16 is our age of consent. The age of consent doesn't magically turn someone into an adult. Age of consent matters for legal reasons but it's not a scientific thing. Some people aren't emotionally ready for sex at the age of 20. Some people are emotionally ready at 14 and have sex with teens of similar age.

It's also complicated by the fact that teenagers have sex drives, and often WANT or fantasise about having sex with older people. I know I did! When I was 13 and 14 I was fantasising about celebrities in their 30s.

Does that mean it would have been right for me to have sex at that age? No. Does that mean it would have been OK for an adult to target me and try and have sex with me at that age? Definitely not.

But the way people talk about pedophilia online you'd think that no one feels any sexual desire until they turn 16/18/21. And that if you acknowledge that actually young teens are often extremely horny and fantasise about older people all the time, and sometimes put themselves in harm's way because they want to have sex (like lying about their age to older people) you're somehow condoning predators or child sexual abuse.

There is a huge spectrum of harm that can happen during statutory rape. Ranging from "liferuining" to "groomed and emotionally abused" to "felt good at the time, feels icky years later" and finally "nothing but positive memories".

But again, people think if you say that you're condoning pedophilia.