I'm astounded at some of the things that have been said here. It truly amazes me how some people have no appreciation for human life, and how what they say or accuse can affect others.

Another one that bugs me is statutory rape, more importantly, when all parties involved (including the parents) agree that they don't feel the need to press charges, yet the DA insists on doing it anyway! This thread made me think of that couple...I think she was like 14 or 15 when she got pregnant, and he was like 18. It was consensual sex. The girl's mom, though not completely happy with her daughter getting pregnant so young, opted to be supportive...even signing over her consent for the girl to marry the baby's father. Because their state didn't allow for someone her age to marry, even with parental consent, they had to get married across state lines. The DA caught wind of it, and insisted on pressing charges against the father, now husband, for statutory rape. The guy was found guilty and is now serving time, leaving the young girl to raise the baby alone (well, not completely alone, because she is getting help from her mom). When the guy gets out of prison, he will probably never be allowed to return to his family. Why? Because he will now be labeled as a sex offender who cannot be around children because his offense was against a minor!

Why does this tick me off so much? We are living in a time where one of the biggest problems in America is fatherless homes. Here you have a man who was stepping up to his responsibility, and some high and mighty DA (probably an election year) decides to make an example of him, and charge him with statutory rape. Now, he cannot be a father to the child. He will have a hard time finding work, which mean that he will find it difficult to even provide for the child financially. Is the DA going to help pay for this child's needs? No!! Mom will be at it alone. The DA's agenda was more important that the child having a father in it's life. If the girl's parents wanted to press charges, that would have been one thing. But this was a case of a DA putting their nose in other people's business!

Now, true...the guy had no business having sex with a girl his wife's age. It does happen all the time, however, and sometimes not at the knowledge of the guy until it is too late. One of the girls my daughter hung out with in high school was only 15...daughter was 17 at the time. The girl put on her facebook and myspace that she was 18. Though myspace, she met this 18 year old guy, and was trying to hook up with him. She and my daughter sneaked out one night to go to a party where the guy was. My daughter had too much to drink (another story all by itself), and let it out that the friend was only 15! The girl tried to play it off, but it made the guy feel uneasy enough that he backed off. If it weren't for my daughter not being able to keep her mouth shut while drunk, the guy probably would have had sex with the girl. I know the girl's mom...when she found out (and she would have...somehow), she would have pressed charges on the guy, and his life would have been ruined because the girl lied about her age!

I was drinking and having sex by 15. I was still utterly horrified however to discover that a girl I'd had sex with when I was 23, was only 16!

To be fair she hadn't lied to me (I met her in a club with a bunch of people who I knew to be over 18) She just omitted to mention her age or to correct my assumption that she was old enough

It's also scary how much older teenagers look these days! Even a couple of decades ago...must be the hormones they are putting into the milk or something! I knew a 12-year-old girl when I was 16 who looked older than I did!

It's being attributed to the good economic conditions and prevalance of plentiful food in some places I've seen. Makes people mature physically faster so they can breed earlier. The same thing is observable in most animals, it's usually a bit more dramatically obvious too. Unfortunately mental maturity still takes the same lenght of time so.... yeah.

I never got what the big deal was about letting kids use makeup. In a school setting where bullies are bullies, it's not doing a kid any favors to keep it (boy or a girl) from using stuff like concealer to cover up red spots, acme breakouts, and so on. Puberty does such awful things to some peoples' skin.

Clothing I can see being more of a point of argument, particularly when the clothing industry seems to assume that "if it's a skirt for anyone under 25 it has to be less than 14" long." Maybe my sentiments are skewed since I've always been on the tall side (where anything that is short, appears shorter) but clothes shopping when I was a teenager, especially for stuff like skirts left me with pretty crappy options, either stuff that was too short, or stuff that was long enough would be way too baggy for my frame to pull off. There was never an easy time of finding a happy medium between the two because the longer stuff would be aimed at older people with more filled-in frames.

Having been one of those teens with terrible acne, I agree with allowing some sort of cover-up. Even some of the OTC acne meds are putting some form of tint or concealment in their creams. The problem is when you have a 12-year-old completely made up and they look 20! Add the clothing to that. No wonder teens can so easily lie about their age!