Why is adults having sex with children harmful?

[pedo233]

Maybe i am slow, but i dont understand the logic at all, i just accept it as a truth but i dont understand the logic behind it. My understanding is that children cannot consent to having sex with adults because they are too mentally immature to understand the consequences of sex.

However, in hunter gatherer societies, children who haven't hit puberty often have sex with each other or with adults, and i dont think they are mentally impaired by this experience.

For some reason, it only becomes traumatic and damaging when it involves an adult, but i was wondering why does this happen? People say its because the adult is more experienced and mentally mature than the child, therefore its abusive. But how? Why is this abusive unless there is physical or verbal abuse involved?

[OnionPetal]

[...] My understanding is that children cannot consent to having sex with adults because they are too mentally immature to understand the consequences of sex. [...]

Legally they cannot consent. And the basis for those laws is a kind of mental incompetence that minors supposedly only have in regards to sexual activity. But philosophically and theoretically, in a society where minors were more informed and educated, who is to say what they could and could not consent to?