My neutral stance

[infantogirly]

That makes sense; the most likely reason why sex with younger children is more often perceived as a negative experience is simply that the child is less likely to want sex, and so they are also less likely to consent, and so this argument would apply less to the ones with higher libido. But I'm not totally sure.

I believe it has more to do with the brain development and power imbalance. Children are still developing and they don't have morals, they are still learning about how the world is and the evils of the world. If a child gets sexually abused their entire childhood, they aren't gonna be able to tell if that's normal or not, they are going to believe that this happens to every kid and that's it's just normal parenting. Later in life, this can create mental health problems to the child and also make a cycle of abuse. When it comes to power imbalance, the child is much less privileged than the adult. Children are much weaker than adults both mentally and physically. Society has a hierarchy which puts the child below the adult. The adult can hit the child, the adult can force a child to wear whatever they want, the child doesn't owe anything in the home so the parents are allowed to break any tows they want, the child can't deny a hug and etc. This hierarchy makes the power imbalance between child and adult worse, which is used to justify the possible lack of the child's consent.

Now, I personally believe that there are better forms of dealing with this, but I believe these are the main reasons.

[Not Forever]

If a child gets sexually abused their entire childhood, they aren't gonna be able to tell if that's normal or not, they are going to believe that this happens to every kid and that's it's just normal parenting. Later in life, this can create mental health problems to the child and also make a cycle of abuse.

On this point I’m slightly skeptical. I had a mother who had a truly awful childhood, including being beaten in an institution and having a relative who was quite sexually inappropriate. Regardless of whether she interpreted that as the norm (though I don’t think anyone would interpret it as the norm—it’s simply one’s own life experience, which is a slightly different matter), there was never anything like a “cycle of abuse.”

Her character was obviously influenced by those experiences, but not in the sense of imitation. Because if such imitation existed, we would all be living in violent families, since the phenomenon would simply spread like an oil slick from generation to generation, like a genetically transmissible disease.

Not to mention that we live in societies, and learning also takes place during adolescence and adulthood. We are influenced by cinematic portrayals, advertising, stories, and so on… the way of being a parent changes from generation to generation.

[Learning to undeny]

I believe it has more to do with the brain development and power imbalance. Children are still developing and they don't have morals, they are still learning about how the world is and the evils of the world. If a child gets sexually abused their entire childhood, they aren't gonna be able to tell if that's normal or not, they are going to believe that this happens to every kid and that's it's just normal parenting.

In a world where children are more exposed to sexuality and receieve more education, so that they can tell what is normal and what is not normal, do you think this problem would be reduced? (However, of course, being abused will always have negative consequences.)

When it comes to power imbalance, the child is much less privileged than the adult. Children are much weaker than adults both mentally and physically. Society has a hierarchy which puts the child below the adult. The adult can hit the child, the adult can force a child to wear whatever they want, the child doesn't owe anything in the home so the parents are allowed to break any tows they want, the child can't deny a hug and etc. This hierarchy makes the power imbalance between child and adult worse, which is used to justify the possible lack of the child's consent.

While this is true, it applies much more to the parents than to other adults (I don't think another adult would hit the child, for example). The imbalance is the best argument against AMSC because it is ultimately a moral judgement and thus irrefutable. Then the question is why this imbalance is considered pernicious only when it comes to sex.

(Edit: wanted to add one article talking about this raw association with age and negative outcomes of AMSC:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12476263/
But again, there doesn't seem to be evidence of this correlation when other variables, especially willingness, are taken into account, as far as I know.)