ok two sides to the response im about to give. one is personal, the other is a "what if?" bear with me and read all the way thru b4 i get flamed... and i probably will on this one lol. btw this one will get long
the personal first. when i was 8ish/9ish not only was i capable of erections, but knew what they were for. most of the kids in my neighborhood did too. im not saying how they got this knowledge, or saying one way or another how healthy that might or might not be, just describing my experience. one of my playmates was about the same age and female. one day while under her house (ahhh the fun of youth and summer in the south!) we were kissing and exploring. my body reacted, and apparently hers did too. penetration was achieved. not much more than that, since knowing what goes where isnt the same as getting the whole experience, but my friend was warm , receptive and well, to be frank, quite well lubricated. she was on top of me and doing her best to do what mammals do in the humid warmth and darkness. no more details than that, but it was an experience for both of us. last i talked to her, she cherished the memory as much as i do.
so is that normative? probably not. she never gave me the full details, but she was not a virgin at the time. what it does indicate is that it is possible to not only know the facts, but to enjoy and try the act by that age. with no ghost of molestation being involved as we were both young and similar ages it is just one experience, one memory in a lifetime of them, and not an ugly one either.
fast forward the better part of a decade to my mid teens. 16/17 or so. luna mentioned something which resonates. at that age i, like many males was hormone drenched and willing to stick it in anything that held still long enough to let me hop on (an exaggeration, but thats how i roll).
at that age ( heck even a bit younger) i experienced a rush of blood from my brain to other parts rather frequently. sometimes in that state it was almost like a haze of lust and need. i mean that literally. my vision would dim slightly, my thoughts would center only on the physical. while i was lucky enough to not encounter anyone young enough to be harmed by my ummm.... vigor?.... i dont know if i would have been capable of stopping anything that might have occurred. lord knows i wasnt when my play partners of a more appropriate age presented willingness.
later on i learned about the lack of brain development that is still present until the early to mid twenties of life. a person of that age is NOT capable of the full restraint and self control that an adult owns. testosterone and the other hormones of the body increase libido, increase risk taking behaviors and aggression. they decrease inhibition as well. and all that is going on while an unfinished brain is unfamiliar with those impulses. a person in that state can know logically that an act is immoral, or illegal quite fully. they are also not yet physically able to UNDERSTAND why the act is wrong. there is a big difference between knowing and comprehending morality.
this leads to the what if. what if the same two people. myself and my friend from youth, were there. me at 17, her at 9. the same thing occurs, in exactly the same way. is it morally different? the same two people, the same desires to explore and find sensuality. just the ages different. now as you are reading really stop for a moment and run it through your mind. like me the initial response is a feeling of revolt or at least distaste. but beyond that, the 17 year old me was only slightly more capable of restraint and ethical thought than my 9 year old self. and he was vastly more driven by chemicals and urges that raged through him like wildfire. i can sit back and see that the act would be bad, probably harmful to both parties. but even with the hindsight of adulthood i can not find myself able to think or believe that the act would be the same as a full adult performing the same acts.
despite the prosecution of children as young as 11 as adults, it remains a medical fact that the parts of the brain that govern restraint and ethical thought are not developed fully until the early twenties ( and not always by then). also, depending on the state you live in the age of consent may be 16 or 17 is the. 18 is the mark for about a third of US states. 16 is the national age for canada. but, with those ages being the borders for consent,the laws governing what is legal for those under that limit with each other are much more vague. the ethics for that are even more muddy. a 17 year old and a 15 year old? a 12 and 10 year old? a 5 year old and a 6 year old? the idea may skeeve you out ( lord knows the wider the age gap, the more i get skeeved) but the ethics are difficult to sort through.
but again, what if? we are still talking about individuals who are not capable of the same standard of thought and behavior as an adult (and what is an adult? over 18? over 21?) and if we decide that 17 is too damn old for a 9 year old to play with like that, what is to be done with the 17 year old? prison? a life long mark as a sex offender? by the time his case gets through court and the sentence started his brain would be different, more capable of understanding that the act wasnt right.
my disclaimer: no im not a proponent of nambla. i think theyre a bunch of crap that should be shot. i dont condone, or like the idea of kids being harmed in any way. i personally get rather rage filled at the idea. i do however think that there is a grey area present at the ages being discussed that needs to be thought out carefully, and handled on an individual basis rather than being painted with broad brush strokes. this post is intended to generate thought and debate, not excuse or back morally wasted molesters
It seems a lot more likely that she was forced and dude is a creeper. 
