Thus, by the definition of rape I use, it is reasonable to assume that any sexual interaction with children is rape as a child can not give informed consent to sexual interaction.
Yes. The problem is determining when a person can give informed consent. In my country, for example, the
legal age of consent is fifteen. I think that's low enough, but I know I've seen several girls that had sex when they were even thirteen years old and I'm pretty sure it wasn't rape. However, in the current state of things there always (regretfully) needs to be a definition given by
law, even if it is in most cases absurd and often leads to severe limitations of personal freedom. You see, the shift - the change - from child to adult does not occur immediately upon the day of the
n-th birthday (where
n is the age of consent). No. It occurs in the span of several years. A more developed (physically older) ten year old could feel some vague sexual desire, but not understand fully what it is and what would actually happen if she followed her desire - thus, she would possibly give consent, but almost nobody would consider it
informed consent. On the other hand, if somebody ever found out about one of those friends of mine that had sex at thirteen - even though at least in one case the girl was completely and undeniably informed on what sex entails and not only consented to, but
wanted it - by law, her consent wouldn't be considered
informed either. But that, I guess, is just the problem with laws in general.