Why are children considered deserving of protections that other weak or powerless individuals do not get?

We give children a fair number of protections that other weak or naive people don’t get. Why?

Children have an age of consent below which they are not considered to have the power to make informed consent. You can’t have sex with anyone under the age of 16 or 18 in the US without running the danger of being accused of statutory rape. Children who commit crimes are treated differently and more leniently.

They don’t know what they are doing. Yet there are others in society who don’t know what they are doing and we don’t protect them. There are people starting businesses and they get eaten alive by larger, more established predatory businesses. We don’t protect them.

People don’t know how to handle their finances and they get so far into debt they have to declare bankruptcy to get out. These people didn’t know the impact of payday loans. They don’t even know how to calculate interest. Why don’t we protect them in a more serious way?

We don’t protect people with mental disabilities if they are over the age of 18. There are so many different issues where we protect children. We have Children’s Protective Services. But we don’t protect other naive or incompetent people in this country. What is so magic about the age of 18 that you get tossed in the ocean to sink or swim at that age?