Victim and perpetrator at the same time.

Two kids, far too young in my opinion, had sex with one another. One was 13-years-old and one was 12-years-old. The girl, who was the one slightly older, became pregnant. In other words it became obvious what had happened. And her boyfriend was likely partner in this foolish exercise.

Both children are now labeled sex offenders and pedophiles, a term that has lost all literal meaning and is banded about in areas where it does not apply.

Prosecutors in Utah, where this girl played Juliet (she was supposed to be 13 as well) to this Romeo, said the girl was a victim of child sexual abuse by the boy. Thus she was a victim and the boy was a perpetrator who must register as a sex offender for the rest of his life -- remember this means that when he is 30 years old he will listed as a pedophile because at 12 he had sex with a girl who was probably just a few months older than himself.

But it does not end there. The girl may have been the victim in this "abuse" case but she was also a perpetrator who sexually abused the boy. So she too is guilty of child sex abuse and must register as a sex offender for the rest of her life.

For the rest of their lives these two kids will find it harder to get employement. They will be forbidden from living in vast areas of the country since various laws forbid "sex offenders" from living so many hundred yards from a school, playground, etc. Like others who are on these lists their names and home addresses will be on the internet allowing people to hunt them down, harass or kill them (as has happened several times already). Worse the register will list them both as having sexually abused a child and the context that they were the same age (or nearly so) will not be mentioned. And under new legislation proposed by John McCain and Charles Schurmur these two children will be required to register all email addresses they ever use and will be permanently blocked from participating in social website like MySpace.

And why is this done? Well, to protect children like these two of course.