Pregnant aged 11

[JAWS]

How young does a girl have to be before he would be classed as a paedophile, predatory or not and being 15 would not be a redeeming factor for him in my eyes?
Just where would we draw the line?

How about a nine year old paedophile? Or maybe a couple of five year olds playing Doctors and Nurses?
What would happen if a young lass said she did it for a packet of cigs? Should she be dealt with as a prostitute?

Under your definition of a paedophile virtually every youth would be on the sex offenders register by the age of 17 for immature fumblings. Of course, young ladies would never engage in such activities would they, so they can remain pure as the driven snow and wear a white wedding dress to display their purity.

What about an 11 year old boy and a 15 year old girl? Not such an outlandish idea in view of recent reports. Would he go on a sex offenders register? Should he be branded a paedophile for the rest of his life?

As I said, it's time society stopped being so emotive over the subject and started looking at the reality. That way we might end up doing something about the dirty shades of grey and stop pretending all is black and white.
By doing that then possibly we might make some progress towards getting some solutions rather than just shaking our heads and tut tutting.

I don't know what the answers are but I do know we should not just ignore the problems in the hope they will go away themselves.

[pultneytooner]

Of course you are right, jaws, having a daughter just turned 12 and thinking about this happening to my own, I lost it with this thread.

[highlander]

I am not a prude but when you go into some of the retail shops and see the skimmpy little out-fits for small children, i mean does a five year old have to wear thongs? Retailers and the parents themselves have to ask themselves, are they trying to make them out little adults? then the child thinks of herself grown up, and acts so, but in the end they cant handle it. I hate to think that the little girl in question feels she is old enough to take care of a child, when she in no more a child herself.

[obiron]

do they have thongs for 5 year olds. thats yukky. glad i have boys and deal wi boxers.

[JAWS]

Of course you are right, jaws, having a daughter just turned 12 and thinking about this happening to my own, I lost it with this thread.

Don't worry, I would probably be the same. It's an emotive subject and I can sometimes (only sometimes?) put things in a slightly extreme way to get people thinking. Sometimes it backfires and that I understand.

I have thought that for too long it is a subject which is treated with shock and horror and with a great display of surprise and then quietly buried again in the hope we won't have to face up to it.
I don't suggest for one minute that we should just accept an "anything goes" attitude as acceptable but I do think it is something which deserves serious consideration as to where lines are drawn and to which of the present ones may or may not need adapting.

I would think we are all aware that a particular age is often not a fixed marker of maturity. One fourteen year old can be more like an eleven or twelve year old and another like a fifteen or sixteen year old and expecting the same behaviour off both is not going to work.

It will take better minds than mine to arrive at sensible solutions but I can set the questions, as I suspect most of us can.

[angela5]

I am not a prude but when you go into some of the retail shops and see the skimmpy little out-fits for small children, i mean does a five year old have to wear thongs? Retailers and the parents themselves have to ask themselves, are they trying to make them out little adults? then the child thinks of herself grown up, and acts so, but in the end they cant handle it. I hate to think that the little girl in question feels she is old enough to take care of a child, when she in no more a child herself.

I totally agree Highlander about the skimmpy out-fits for small children. Thongs that is awful, who on earth would buy these for a small child.
Children in today's society are pushed to grow up too fast.

[JAWS]

I totally agree Highlander about the skimmpy out-fits for small children. Thongs that is awful, who on earth would buy these for a small child.
Children in today's society are pushed to grow up too fast.

The slippery slope started many years ago when it became all the rage to dress toddlers in the latest designer clothes, like some fashion accessory, as soon as they could stand up unaided.
I suspect some of the stuff was out of fashion and the next lot in before the kids had a chance to outgrow them. The parents just had to have the new stuff with all the right labels to show off to all and sundry.

The stores soon realised that some parents would do anything to show how trendy they were so they added the miniature adult underwear and accessories for the "Designer Gullibles" to buy.

The parents really are to blame for that one, it the stuff didn't disappear like hot cakes it would soon stop appearing on the shelves.
And, you can't blame either the kids or the stores for that one, I don't know many infants who buy their own underwear.

[The Pepsi Challenge]

May I take this opportunity to remind everyone that the youngest grandmother in the UK came from Wick. Her age? 28.

[JAWS]

May I take this opportunity to remind everyone that the youngest grandmother in the UK came from Wick. Her age? 28.

It was nae me!

[Whitewater]

May I take this opportunity to remind everyone that the youngest grandmother in the UK came from Wick. Her age? 28.

Yes that is true Pepsi. you would have thought the grandmother would have learned the lesson and passed it on to her daughter. I really don't understand the mentality of people who think that being a mother is their sole purpose in life. Young girls who want 'live' dolls that wet napppies etc. If they are thinking along these lines, why not get the real thing, it not a problem, and be so much more fun, and when you are young I bet they think that is just the thing, to be just like mum, looking after a baby.

I think in cases such as this the parents have not been able to teach values or at least values that matter to their children, but perhaps that is being unfair. There is so much 'peer' pressure with children now that I don't think 'we' the older generation, have any idea what they are going through when they are out of our sight. Bets, dares, bullying if you don't want to join in. It must, in some cases be terrible for many children who know better, but want to be accepted and become one of the gang.

Children also mature younger now, so it is only natural they want to take advantage of that maturity. That is the time when parents should be at their most observant, and offering all sorts of help and guidance and hope that some of it gets through. But no matter how good a parent you are, accidents will happen, any intelligent, adventurous child will always wonder about things, what it feels like, what does it do to me etc. etc. All we can do when they are out of our sight is hope that we taught them right, and even then it doesn't always work.

I don't think I would like to growing up in todays world, with all the advertising trying to turn all the children into little adults, it is just brain washing, they begin to think they are little adults and don't even like being called children any more.