Consent

Though I think I'm right, and that my arguments are better (Though that's not much to say if the opponent is really 14 years old).

I feel like I fail to. . . Address their argument 'quite right.

I figure this is just due to consent having certain logic and description depending on certain scenario, but that I fail to speak it correctly.

What do you think?

Saying kids can consent, feels like it misses the mark to me though.

Feels like it misses the implied underlying question/assumption.

Say if you asked someone if they could handle a gun, and they said yes, only to run their hands across it, or to shoot it, but with terrible aim, and poor reloading time.

I wouldn't feel such a person knew how to 'handle a gun.

Feels like it doesn't answer the question in the 'meaningful way one is asking.

Children are cognitively impaired.

Young children are especially vulnerable to suggestion.

This is why advertising and programming specifically targeted to children was more highly regulated in the past.

All teens are especially vulnerable to social pressure.

Science has demonstrated that hormones released in the mid-to-late teens give these children a greatly inflated sensitivity to social queues.

Males between the ages of 16 and 25 have roughly double the testosterone levels found in adults over the age of 30 (this makes them ideal soldiers by the way).

In short, your ability to make rational, long-term, life impacting decisions begins at age 25 (insurance companies know this and lower your rates after 25).

Though I agree with you,

Cognitive impairment is relative, wouldn't you say,

What with some adults being uneducated, poorly developed by nutrition, or having psychological bents,

Feels a gray sliding scale area.

That someone as not as capable, does not follow they're 'incapable.

Compare an average man shooting basketball hoops with a professional basketball player,

Though the average man is poor in comparison, he's still able to shoot the ball through the hoop some of the time.

It feels more a social/cultural/definition based idea, consent.

What with older societies having kids start earlier in life, what with war and short life spans. . .

By such I'd still say children can't consent, but it's a. . subtly understood definition, a social norm with reasonings behind it, we don't really bother spelling out, though they're there.

Age is a pragmatic guideline.

A much better guideline would be, objective brain development + health.

For example,