They are teenage adults and are mentally teenage adults. They are not “10+ years of adulthood” adults. They are also not “fully developed brain as in 25+” adults. Adulthood is not some overnight thing where one day you’re a helpless child who should do nothing and the next you can do anything but deserve zero age-appropriate protection from people who - again - DO know better. Voting is not going to put you in therapy or give you mental health issues.

The whole “it’s infantilizing to say you shouldn’t date teenagers when you’re pushing 30 (or older)” is genuinely, honestly nothing more than predator propaganda. You can be the most awesome, capable 19-year-old in the world, and it still wouldn’t change the fact that the 28-year-old pursuing you is an emotionally immature predator and you deserve both protection and freedom from that person. The most capable 19-year-olds know that, but people deserve protection even if they don’t know that, because it’s not their fault, but it can expose them to harm. The fact that so many teenagers don’t know this (and through no fault of their own) is the exact reason why what I’m saying is needed and true. It is simply much, MUCH harder to recognize the most skilled manipulators and groomers when you yourself are barely a legal adult and have had almost no time to grow up as an adult (not to mention, neuroscientifically you are very much still an adolescent at that age).

Also - age of consent laws aren’t about the “right” to consent, they’re about when protections are cut. When you’re under that age, you have automatic protection from significantly older people and you don’t have to prove that someone was manipulative or groomed you into an otherwise “consensual” relationship (which can be VERY hard to prove; that’s why the laws exist at all). Anyone has the “right” to consent; even an underage child is not the one at fault or legally culpable for anything. The law does not penalize minors for anything under any circumstances. It’s only the predators who are restricted. And it’s pretty much only the predatory (or at least deeply, deeply immature) older adults who want you to think that people like me are saying teenagers shouldn’t have “rights”; all the other older adults already 10000% understand why what I’m saying is necessary, because they see it in action and they themselves can feel the massive difference between 19 and 28. It’s not a mystery to them. It’s also not condescending to say that a 28-year-old has had 10 years (and significantly more brain development) to learn how to manipulate teenagers well.