In my experience as a teacher, I have to say that (from my understanding - secondhand knowledge) it seems to be very common for girls to lie about their age on sites such as Facebook or Myspace, claiming to be (usually) around 2 years older than they actually were. It also seemed to be that the girls who would be most 'interested' in boys would be far more likely to do this than those who weren't.
If this was a case where a 16 year old was knowingly having sex with a 12 year old, I'd find that disgusting, and agree that the boy would need help and deserve whatever legal consequences were coming to him. Heck, someone posted earlier that it could be the case where a just-turned 16 year old was with an almost-13 year old, making the age difference a 'mere' two years, however, its just as likely it was an almost-17 year old with a just turned 12 year old, making it a six year age difference.
Just saying - to give the boy some benefit of the doubt here - that it is possible the girl told him that she was a fair bit older than she actually was, and that it could be perfectly reasonable for the boy to think so in the absence of other 'evidence'. There are many 12 year olds that I have taught (both male and female) who look significantly older than they actually are.
To conclude a rambling and perhaps incoherent post, I'd like to add that in my opinion, a 12 year old IS that young. Invariably.
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