Quote: (Rocky) Bobby's Girl "... the responsibility HAS to lie with the adult knowing right from wrong. Under 16s CANNOT legally consent to sex, therefore all of it was abuse - men with money and power doing whatever they liked with impunity. Thank Christ the 70s are over.
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Very true, the age of consent in the 1970s was 16 and any behaviour of a sexual nature towards the under 16s was illegal as it is now.
What is different is the attitude towards behaviour of a sexual nature towards those who are sexually mature yet still under 16 - today it is a black and white issue, the line is drawn at 15 years and 365 days old (except on leap years) and anyone who crosses that line is liable to be placed on the sex offenders register for some years, its very clear cut and the attitude of the public is very entrenched, its wrong and no-one turns a blind eye to it anymore.
It was different in the 1970s and much as we don't like to admit it the world and this country in particular was still awakening from an age of sexual confinement, an age when, if the internet had been invented, then a topic like this would not have been permitted - there were very concerted efforts by many liberal social groups to have the age of consent lowered to 14 in the early 1970s , very serious efforts made indeed with votes being taken in parliament - one of the proposals being that there should ne NO age of consent but prohibition of certain sexual acts on those under 14.
What is also very obvious now is that there was no culture of whistleblowing, no pointing of fingers because even if you did then no-one would take you seriously, when Esther Rantzen admits that she was aware of acts of this nature but did nothing, at a time when she was hosting the UK's biggest consumer and legal rights show on prime time TV, then you can take it as read that a young girl (or boy for that matter - see Jonathan King) who "made herself available" to an adult would not have the support of the law enforcers when she changed her mind, even though the law was as clear cut as it is today.
Those are unpalatable but true facts and you only need to think about recent and numerous cases involving childrens homes and religious orders to realise that some sectors of society were above the law in this respect.
