>Can't consent
Correction… anyone who can nod or contribute to an action, can consent.
"Can't legally consent", is to be bound by protection of law, as a contract of negotiation. That is what children/minors can not do… but only in relation to "smoking, drinking and sex".
Smoking is an agreement and understanding that you are potentially harming your body with a known cancerous and life-altering substance. Which the state will not compensate for, by law.
Alcohol, the same thing…
Sex, the act of procreation, is all that could be "consented to", legally, out of marriage. (It is accepted as consent, by marriage, for that, and other sexual stuff.)
Other sexual stuff, is not sex. However, being of a sexual nature, can be prosecuted, by the wording, as "sex", which extends the consent to make it "not rape" (sex), or "molesting" (sexual touching). (Though molesting is not "bad", they use the term with the phrase "unwanted", which is the "legally defensible or non-defensible consent" portion.)
"Bobby, want a cookie?"
"yes"
Bobby, age 7 just consented, legally. You have to surrender the cookie…
He did it all for the cookie… all for the cookie…
"Bobby, want to have sex?"
"Yea!"
Bobby just consented… however, due to the law, it was not "legal consent", and will not be defended in a court of law…
Eg, The judge will never hold Bobby in contempt for not fucking you after having made that "verbal contract of consent". That is what the law was ORIGINALLY for. However, it has been abused and turned around to "prosecute the person asking", instead of "failing to support the defense of the person asking", which was how the law got put into place in the first place.
Normally, it is not legal to prosecute a contractor for asking for a binding contract. Which is what prosecuting for "grooming", and "asking for", is actually doing.
That would be like prosecuting you for asking how to build a bomb or where to get drugs… Could be for defense, or to cause trouble… or it could have just been a question you wanted to know the answer to… (Which is irrelevant in a court of law, apparently. Unless they do it, then it's all fine…)