Children have always wanted to participate in adult activities before they are legally entitled to eg drinking under age.
A lot of paedophiles who target children on websites intended for over 18's use the defence that it is an over 18 site, this never washes with the courts as it's accepted that children nevertheless do join such sites and if they make it clear that they are a child then the fact that it's a site intended for over 18's is regarded as not relevant.
This would be the case even if any parent was irresponsible enough to buy them a game intended for over 18's.
In a real world situation a 15 yo girl may manage to get into a nightclub. If she discloses that she's only 15 to a man who she meets and has sex with, the fact that they met in an environment for over 18's would not be a defence.
If she never mentioned her age or lied and said she was older, then it would.
---------- Post added at 04:19 ---------- Previous post was at 04:12 ----------
I was verbally told about this by a colleague, so no link was available at the time. Now that it's been picked up by the media I am able to provide this:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/a...tar-raped.html
Sadly, the incident referred to by Pip appears to refer to a historical case and it was a real little girl that was targetted
Her age had not been disclosed, only that she was under 16.
The definition of rape requires physical penetration to take place, so I imagine that other laws will be used against the perpetrators until if/,when the law is updated to take into account modern technology.