Long ago, people believed that children were born corrupt, needing to be taught morals and conditioned through education. Yet, as obvious as this once seemed, that way of thinking is long gone. Perhaps the reason that so many people today believe so strongly in childhood innocence is because people see the world becoming less and less innocent and they are tempted to retain one last vestige of humanity which is still uncorrupted. The world is an evil place, but placing an unrealistic burden of superhuman purity onto one segment of the population does more harm than good. As the United States becomes even more obsessed with sex, we become even more obsessed with protecting "minors" from it. The temptation to raise the age at which sexuality is "harmful" and one of the subconscious reasons for such a high age in the first place is to expand the population of "minors" and thereby artificially increase the innocence of a society otherwise sinking into depravity. hence "Adults Only" sections were created, along with punishments for businesses who do not properly keep "kids" out. Yet, not only does such an arrangement prove a great temptation to teenagers who are naturally more sexual than adults, but it also proves hypocritical and counterproductive. You see, as "minors" are made more innocent (purely in the minds of adults), adults in turn become more perverse. It's a symbiotic relationship, as no segment of the population--regardless of age--is an island unto itself. All of society must be uncorrupted or all of society evil. In simple terms, we must abandon "adults only" because there is no such thing as "adults only" when it comes to the real integral makeup of any society--especially our own. If you want your children to be innocent, you must first be. What is harmful to minors is what is harmful to everyone else: being sheltered from a reality that you must inevitably face. There is only one reality. Let's make it a better one.

Interesting Reading:

Harmful to Minors: The Perils of Protecting Children From Sex
by Judith Levine