Consenting adult

A consenting adult is a person who has the privilege of engaging in certain acts without the risk that anyone will suffering legal repercussions. Both of the terms, "consenting" and "adult", place limits on who has the privilege. For example, a person who willingly gets drunk is considered to have temporarily relinquished his capability to consent, and therefore loses the right to have sex with another person without subjecting that person to risk of rape charges, until the inebriation passes. The now-defunct child liberation site ChildWiki noted:

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There are two possibilities: children are unable to consent, and therefore it's redundant to say "consenting adults"; one may as well say "consenting persons"; or children are able to consent, but the person making a statement about consenting adults doesn't care; he's unwilling to expend political capital on defending children's right to do what they want because he has other fish to fry. That phrase has permeated American culture so much that it's even made it into the Libertarian Party's World's Smallest Political Quiz. To say "All consenting adults have the right to x" is analogous to saying "All law-abiding citizens have the right to x" or "All Americans have the right to x." What about victimless offenders? What about non-citizens? What about non-Americans?

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Will Matheson points out, "Our obsession with the freedom of the adult has made being a kid, comparatively speaking, to be living under the jackboot of a totalitarian regime. Any freedom hinging upon “adult” is a tyranny to the non-adult. Fortunately, a few freedoms are fundamental (at least in popular conception if not also by law) and escape this. Nobody says, 'What two consenting adults discuss in the privacy of their own bedroom is none of the government’s business.'"