That age difference might mean nothing whatsoever. Depending on their birthdays, it's possible that they might be the same age for a few months every year. If so, does that mean that the Year Eight kids would think it's okay for them to be together during that period, but not for the rest of the year?
The personal experience of any kid should let them understand that it's not like a switch flicks somewhere in your head at one second after midnight on your birthday. They should be able to grasp the fact that you're not a drastically different person when you wake up on the morning of your birthday compared to who you were when you went to sleep.
It's normal for kids to be obsessed with the ages of other kids, even though that will inevitably seem pretty stupid to them once they get older. And, yeah, the law considers chronological age very important when it comes to sexual relationships involving those under the age of consent. But the law is always a sledgehammer, and the reality is that the dynamics of any relationship are always about emotional maturity, not how many birthday cake candles the two people each last blew out.
Something else kids are always obsessed about is cramming their noses into other people's business. Kids love to judge and condemn anyone who doesn't conform to whatever rules they believe are right. Often those rules are just crap they've had pounded into their heads by their (possibly dim-witted) parents, or random shite spewed by social media media celebrities famous for no real reason whatsoever. Or the rules could be a bunch of absurd stuff the kids have dreamed up amongst themselves, based on nothing more than their very limited understanding of the world, and their need to believe that there are hard and fast rules, because they've begun to understand that the world just doesn't work like that, and that's scary as hell.
If the boy and the girl are happy to be with each other, if your friend treats the girl respectfully, if he's not exploiting her naivety (although girls tend to be more emotionally mature than boys their own age) and if their relationship isn't causing any huge problems in the home life of either of them, then the stupid Year Eight kids are just being stupid kids, and they should be ignored.
Is my 15 year old friend going out with a 14 year old girl predatory?
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That age difference might mean nothing whatsoever. Depending on their birthdays, it's possible that they might be the same age for a few months every year. If so, does that mean that the Year Eight kids would think it's okay for them to be together during that period, but not for the rest of the year?
The personal experience of any kid should let them understand that it's not like a switch flicks somewhere in your head at one second after midnight on your birthday. They should be able to grasp the fact that you're not a drastically different person when you wake up on the morning of your birthday compared to who you were when you went to sleep.
It's normal for kids to be obsessed with the ages of other kids, even though that will inevitably seem pretty stupid to them once they get older. And, yeah, the law considers chronological age very important when it comes to sexual relationships involving those under the age of consent. But the law is always a sledgehammer, and the reality is that the dynamics of any relationship are always about emotional maturity, not how many birthday cake candles the two people each last blew out.
Something else kids are always obsessed about is cramming their noses into other people's business. Kids love to judge and condemn anyone who doesn't conform to whatever rules they believe are right. Often those rules are just crap they've had pounded into their heads by their (possibly dim-witted) parents, or random shite spewed by social media media celebrities famous for no real reason whatsoever. Or the rules could be a bunch of absurd stuff the kids have dreamed up amongst themselves, based on nothing more than their very limited understanding of the world, and their need to believe that there are hard and fast rules, because they've begun to understand that the world just doesn't work like that, and that's scary as hell.
If the boy and the girl are happy to be with each other, if your friend treats the girl respectfully, if he's not exploiting her naivety (although girls tend to be more emotionally mature than boys their own age) and if their relationship isn't causing any huge problems in the home life of either of them, then the stupid Year Eight kids are just being stupid kids, and they should be ignored.