Words Like Locusts Flew From Her Fingers

Sex With Minors

Salon.com Life | “Isn’t she a little young?”: “A new public service ad campaign in Virginia uses billboards and bar coasters to remind men that sex with a minor is against the law. But will it work?”

Okay…maybe I’m naively optimistic about the general intelligence level of Virginians, but…is there anybody who is capable of reading these billboards and bar coasters who really doesn’t know that screwing children is illegal? (Not to mention immoral!) I mean…come on!

Okay, so the article quotes an official as saying, “We agreed that people who are going after children 12 and under are not going to be fazed by a billboard campaign”. Later, the article quotes another official: “”Statutory rape is a significant public health problem nationwide,” says Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association. “A large percentage of births from young women can be from older men.”"

Hm. Okay…I hadn’t thought about it but I suppose that’s quite possible. It’s interesting, though, that Mr. Benjamin says, “births (…)can [emphasis added] be from older men.” Apparently, they don’t really know. I suppose most of these underage pregnant female aren’t telling (or don’t know) who the father of the child is.

I wonder whether these ads will really make a difference, though. Do men who screw around with teenagers really take seriously the possibility of jail time–much less the immorality of the relationship? (Isn’t any ‘relationship’ where one party takes advantage of the other party’s emotional immaturity immoral?)

The Salon article continues: “One of the goals of the campaign is to urge men to start talking to each other about the reality of statutory rape — to remind each other that dating underage girls is against the law. “If he hears it from enough of his friends, hopefully he’ll change his behavior,” Odor says. Billboards and bar props seemed like the best way to reach groups of men when they might be meeting up with friends or going out for the night.”

Sounds like maybe it’s a reasonable approach after all.

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