Our Debate Guide summarizes arguments and counter arguments encountered online by MAPs and Allies. We also refer to the related topic of youth choice within the sphere of minor-adult physical relationships. Debate Guide offers general advice and links to useful resources on these topics, including our own. Why not consider reading our introduction or getting involved in the wider wiki project?
Advice
The task at hand...
Contextualize your activism and choose your debate platform and approach:
Against:The violent sexual predator - Now less common argument conflating MAPs' sexual interest with "violence", "psychopathy" or "reptilian" impulses.
Arguments about young people, minors, children
People under the age of majority can be sexual...
Against:Cognitive ability = consent - Some argue that "sex" has special properties that make it impossible for minors to give informed consent.
Against:Childhood innocence - "Childhood innocence" is a highly problematic concept.
Evolutionary logic - Trauma from voluntary age-gap relations makes no sense in evolutionary terms.
Cyclical paternalism - Protecting minors brings about the need to protect them more.
Anti age-gap arguments are really anti-youth arguments...
Against:The kids do not want it - Legal minors (who are supposedly too stupid to consent) are suddenly required to show enthusiasm for law reforms that antis dispute, but not ones that take their rights away.
Against:Teen brain - Ideas of a distinct, or inferior "teen brain" are value-laden, outdated western pseudoscience.
Against:Corresponding age attraction - Questions the assumption of a unique "childhood" or "between minors" sexual orientation.
Sexually repressing minors does not benefit them...
Against:Online dangers - The internet is generally not a dangerous place for minors.
Reverse sexualization - Popular acknowledgement of sexuality in nude photography is revealing.
Turn of events - How the reporting and prosecution of sex can change the perspective of a youth.
Other arguments don't relate fundamentally to attractions, minors or relationships, and instead focus on the debate itself, and its key participants...
SOR problems - Registries for sexual offenders are unfair and counteractive.
Child pornography is much misunderstood, and is most certainly not a multibillion dollar industry (research).
Thank you for reading
You may also find some other parts of the Wiki useful in debate situations. Check our research anthologies for highly citable scientific articles on this subject. Our encyclopedia contains an easy to use database of all the individuals and organizations of interest to those who follow our ethos. Our database of lived experiences lists personal testimonies intended to be used as evidence of positive relationships.
Debate Guide was written by a range of authors during the years 2006-24. If you are not pleased with the quality of Debate Guide, consider getting involved. From the simplest of corrections to the most complex of new arguments, we want to hear from you, so please consider signing up for the PCMAchat service, where we have people present.