[Ghoulish Delight]

Things are so bass-ackwards. We're teaching kids that sex is not okay, while presenting them the image that overt sexuality is all-important. Honestly, it should be the other way around, sort of. I think kids should be tought be to be less afraid of sex than they are, and more warry of overt sexuality. Not that I think sexuality is a bad thing, but I think it's something that takes a long time to master and definitely shouldn't be encouraged in children who do not yet have the perspective to control it.

Of course, there's no magic age where ALL kids are old enough to understand. Everyone matures at their own rate. But because of that, the only solution is to set an artificial cutoff that encompasses as many cases as possible while still being reasonable. 18 seems to work pretty well. They've (in theory) been through the entire basic education system, they've been pubescent for several years, so they have good odds of being as prepared as they are going to be.

Also, addressing a little of what Eliza brought up, I think prepubescent physical exploration with other prepubescent peers is a totally different can of worms than either A) post-pubescent exposure to the adult world of sexuality (i.e. pornography, or to a lesser extent main-stream entertainment with sexual themes) and B) imitation of adult public sexuality in pre-pubescent children (i.e. unmodest clothing, very early dating behavior). The physical exploration with peers I find totally natural and harmless. It's part of the learning process and it's with someone of your own general level of sexual understanding. However, when you're talking exposure to the adult world of sexuality, and imitation of adult sexual social behavior, you're introducing actions and behaviors that I don't think kids that young are ready to integrate in a healthy way. It just leads to confusion and messed up expectations. Not a good trend.