The only sound argument around the age of consent I've ever heard, and this was on voat arguing with a crypto pedo, is the age of criminal responsibility vs age of sexual consent And I'm not arguing for lowering or raising one or the other, to be clear. Just pointing out at that technicality https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ages_of_consent_in_the_United_States >>In the United States, age of consent laws regarding sexual activity are made at the state level. There are several federal statutes related to protecting minors from sexual predators, but laws regarding specific age requirements for sexual consent are left to individual states, District of Columbia, and territories. Depending on the jurisdiction, the legal age of consent is between 16 and 18. In some places, civil and criminal laws within the same state conflict with each other.[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_criminal_responsibility#Ages_of_criminal_responsibility_by_country >>At the state level, 33 states set no minimum age of criminal responsibility.[85] For federal crimes, the minimum age of criminal responsibility is 11.[86] Massachusetts has the oldest age of criminal responsibility at 12 years old with no exceptions while North Carolina has the youngest age at 6 years old.[87] .... So in other words, below 16 you aren't old enough to make an informed decision for sexual activities, but you're old enough to make an informed decision regarding criminal activities. And, I hate to say it, but the crypto pedo had a point, there's something contradictory here Not old enough to make an informed decision about sexual relationship, but old enough to be charged for computer crime (like hacking pornhub to death), or any random federal crime And again I'm not advocating for lowering age of consent, I think the current status quo 16/18, is good enough, and I'm not advocating for handing get out of jail free cards to anyone under 16/18 years old