That isn’t sufficient for the people trying to pass these laws. They’re trying to get the government to enforce parental controls, not the parents. Those types of controls already essentially exist and yet they were deemed insufficient.
This is mostly because these people are not interested in protecting children, but rather shutting down anything they don’t like. The same way they tried to shut down abortion clinics by attempting to hold them to full blown hospital building standards. It wasn’t because it was unsafe, it was a way to harass the clinics they disapproved of.
Yeah, this is the first I’ve seen someone else weirded out by the constant push to up the age you’re considered a ‘real adult’. I’ve seen people arguing for the age of consent to be set to 25 and treating people in their 20’s like they were 12 year olds.
Like I’m not arguing that old men dating young women isn’t gross, but that doesn’t make those young women in their 20’s children. There’s this dehumanizing element to the conversation that’s really concerning to me, but the whole sexual abuse aspect of it overshadows the extremely troubling language they’re using, so you can’t address it.
You can acknowledge inherent power imbalances without resorting to treating the younger party like a kid.