@bitterblossom @mario @Jazzy_Butts (continuing here bc l.t is bugging out on me too much)
consent choice is a simple positive or negative. that doesn't require a description, that's where the concept of informed consent comes in. which, clearly, an infant is not going to be able to provide (unless you got some freak genius baby on hand, which is a whole other mess of concerns).
the only reason children can't make informed consent decisions is because the adults refuse to fucking educate them properly. contemporary society forces children to be ignorant of many things, especially sexual ones, for no good reason - and then uses that abuse to justify overbearing protections "because they don't know better".
and despite it being the legal guardian's legal duty to protect a child from being taken advantage of, it's almost always the legal guardian who provides that sort of abuse, because the child has no means or rights with which to escape or prevent such abuse. nor is there any substantial system in place to check things and ensure that abuse isn't taking place - not until it's too late. AFTER a child starts showing the signs of being hurt, publicly, then MAYBE some other authority figure willl bother to contact legal authorities, and then they MIGHT bother to show up to investigate, and even when they do, chances are they don't do anything at all, because it's too bothersome for them to interfere and too expensive for the state to put more kids into protective custody.
informed consent required the subject to:
- actually be informed. if you don't allow a child to learn about love, sex, babies, etc, then you have failed them; they aren't inherently incapable of learning the information.
- make a decision based on that information and their own desires. it may be a positive or negative result. that is their decision to make, not yours, not anyone else's. you certainly don't get to say they don't have the right to make a decision in the first place.
the duty of a legal guardian comes into play when these conditions are not met. when the child is not yet capable of receiving, understanding, and communicating a choice of consent - then the parent would have the right to a decision on their behalf, PRESUMABLY for the child's benefit.
and this applies to mentally impaired adults as well as children. not everybody operates at the same level. age is literally not a factor, except that there's a bell curve of functionality, where the youngest edge of the spectrum is uneducated and unable to process complex information, and the eldest edge of the spectrum has gone senile and crippled and has lost necessary faculties. that middle section where one is perfectly capable of deciding things for one's self does not arbitrarily begin at 18+ years old. it would be far more accurate to say it begins around two years old, spikes around 4, and then rapidly accelerates as a child absorbs information from formal schooling.