USA TODAY: Why the fuss over adolescent relationships? My grandmother was 15 when she married.

There is absolutely no excuse at all for a 32-year-old man to be seeking a relationship with a 14-year-old girl or sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl. But a century ago or even 40 years ago, being 14 or 16 meant something entirely different than it does today. Adolescence, to the extent it was even acknowledged was a quick bridge between childhood and adulthood.

In recent decades, our culture has been extending that bridge without thinking things through and now it often seems as if it leads nowhere. Parents and the government are dangerously elongating years of adolescence because they feel their kids need to be “safe.”

I wrote something about this very problem 15 years ago.