Melanie Phillips

The end of childhood – what we lost when we dropped the age of consent

For a society obsessed with paedophilia, we're disturbingly comfortable with sexualising childhood

issue 14 March 2015

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[/audioplayer]In all the sound and fury about historic sex crimes against children, one crucial factor has been generally ignored. Last week, a review of the agencies dealing with the phenomenon of ‘grooming gangs’ in England said that more than 370 young girls in Oxfordshire had fallen victim to them over the past 15 years, and called for an urgent national debate into these ‘indescribably awful’ sex crimes.

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