> But what is the harm in nudes of 17 year olds? I've thought about this over the years myself. There are several issues here. First is the age of consent, i

> But what is the harm in nudes of 17 year olds? I've thought about this over the years myself. There are several issues here. First is the age of consent, it varies from 16 to 18 throughout the US. So 18 catches all the states, but it's not illegal to have sex with a 16 year old in many places. Second, sexual maturity has physical, emotional, and intellectual components. There have been 21 year olds that I am not attracted to because they're too immature, and there have also been 15 year olds that I have been attracted to because they are (or appear to be) sexually mature. Somebody had to draw the line somewhere, 18 is an arbitrary designation that probably doesn't catch enough of the edge cases. Third, there's a big difference between having sex with someone and paying them for sex work. I've seen my share of depraved porn and I guess my feeling is that it would be harmful for a student in high school to be making it. But again I understand it's an arbitrary number and a society where the age of majority was calibrated to 16 years old might work, who knows. What about porn featuring unpaid minors? Well, it's basically just volunteer sex work, there's no real difference between amateur porn and professional porn in terms of consent. I think for the later years it's mostly about protecting the transition from teenager into adult, not about stopping pedophilia. I don't think there's really an easy answer to any of it... my opinion is subject to change, etc.