One reason is that I’ve been told the age of consent in many places was 12 as recently as the Victorian era [0], and why would it be that low if there wasn’t a lot of people who wanted that? (It might just have been politicians who wanted that, but I fear that’s merely unjustified optimism).

The other main reason is the number of women who tell me about traumatic experiences is high enough that it’s plausible all of them have been (there’s no reason for me to know about everyone’s history, so of course I believe I know someone who hasn’t told me and never will).

Of course, this percentage does mean that the “think of the children” meme ought to put all children under 24-7 surveillance so that nobody can ever touch them. Side effects haven’t slowed that meme down before, why would it now?

[0] I never cared to check, so I don’t know how many or when any given jurisdiction changed