Re guest who said that the purpose of setting the age of consent higher was to allow personal development - read those links about conditions on Pitcairn. There isn't any room for personal development. They're so damn busy keeping alive, there's no room for much else.

Remember that the concept of "teenage" is only 50 years old - before that, you were either a child and you were at school, or you were an adult and you worked. In the 19th century, the British armed forces would take soldiers or sailors as young as 12 and expect them to stand alongside the rest. Our modern concept of spending years on personal development is a creation of our richer society today which no longer needs every worker it can get. So it's hardly surprising that a society that's still in subsistence conditions hasn't moved on.

Having said that, the main issue is a girl who *is* saying she's been gang-raped. That's very serious, and really *does* need investigating. But the "statutory rape" thing can't work, simply bcos the precondition of British law, ie. a society resembling British society, doesn't exist here.

Graham.