I'm going to hold my Catholic tongue on this matter, and just go with what I've seen is effective.
What I do know is, concerning minors and sex:
- If you're having sex with another person just for pleasure, you usually get a bad label.
[INDENT][INDENT]Meaning that sex isn't meaningful and just for very selfish reasons. It can be a reason why it makes some people believe sex is controversial on one hand, corrupting on the other. And why it's a very iffy subject when concerning minors. You wouldn't want kids to have sex just for pleasure, right? It's corrupting in that sense. It can interfere with education and mental processes at certain ages, like the identity-searching teen years. That's also another reason why minors having sex is controversial, because it can affect their mental/emotional growth in a bad way if done/taught incorrectly (which is not that uncommon).[/INDENT][/INDENT]
- Sex is actually a risky gamble on your emotions.
[INDENT][INDENT]Now, of course, I think the best way to experience and get the best out of sex is through being emotionally intimate with your partner. However, keep in mind, while it may foster emotional growth and attachment to the other person, it also creates a side effect of emotional vulnerability. Easiest way to put it in a situation is if the partner cheats on you by sleeping with another person after having a very emotional sexual experience with you. Obviously, very crushing on the emotions. Said crushing of emotions can be determinant to a minor's life, much more so than adults.[/INDENT][/INDENT]
- Sex can, of course, have the risk of STDs and unwanted pregnancies.
[INDENT][INDENT]Diseases that hang onto you for the rest of your life? In your private area? With those marks? Yeah, seriously, how will a teen (much less a 12 year old) deal with that? Much less what it would implicate for the rest of that teen's sexual future. "Crud, I have herpes at age 16. Who would want to have sex with me now?" That already puts depressing risks into the minor's mind. Pregnancies. Kids. Responsibilities. Work. No time for things like school or fun. All of those going on in the mind of a growing kid.[/INDENT][/INDENT]
- Sex seems more appealing because of its implications on one's self if done.
[INDENT][INDENT]Pressure to have a favorable identity, basically. The pleasure of "looking like a cool adult", being "I've done it and nobody has", or just to experience this physical pleasure from it. All sound like good incentives for minors, no? The problem is, the reasons I've listed attract them and can affect their definition/perception of what sex really is or is best for.[/INDENT][/INDENT]
Seriously, I can see why some people fear minors having sex (at least intercourse). It has to take strong emotional will and maturity to be able to handle sex as a minor and still live like any normal person. And when people consider the physical/mental/emotional processes and growth of children before becoming adults... It just doesn't seem worth the risk to put sex and minor together. There's a reason why we have laws on what age is the consenting age and what age is the legal age.
Now for my answer, I think the right age to have sex is indeterminable. You have pointed out that the human body is capable of sexual functions at really young ages (I believe this because it's been proven in history that sex have occurred as early as between 12-14 year olds
legally, because of early/arranged marriages and shorter life expectancy). Because of that, what measurable age to have sex becomes an invalid question to me.
A better question to me is, when are the
individual's mindset and maturity at a point where he/she can engage in sex, in a
knowledgeably responsible and intimately sacred manner
with regards to risks and consequences?
That question answers itself, it depends on the individual's (not the minorities, adults, girl/boy, or whatever group as a whole) mental understanding and development in regards to sex (for lack of a broader term than "sex").
I say this to everybody, because... I've made mistakes in my past, and I still ponder if it's regret or not. Looking back on it, it's easy to make lifelong mistakes concerning sex, and yes, it can hurt a lot. The mistakes are real, the regrets are real, and the impact on your life from those is much larger and stronger than you originally think. And it irks me to no end that there are some people (much less minors) that disregard the true risks and consequences of sex, only to fall into these pits that I wonder if they can ever climb out of it for the rest of their lives.
The point I'm trying to make is, you have to be smart about sex, you have to learn to fear its repercussions as much as you love its joys and deepness, you have to take sex seriously, whether it's for fun or for passion. It's not a kid's game, it's so much more and
only through knowing, understanding, and accepting its rules without breaking it, makes it an incredible and truly too-wonderful-to-make-into-words kind of game.
tl;dr Gotta be smart, mature, and responsible about sex, m'kay? :thumb: [SIZE="1"]
[s]It makes for really great sex.[/s] I think I said too much there.[/SIZE]