The release of the Epstein files continues to dominate headlines about what is and is not in them.
On February 25, 2026, almost a month after the January 30, 2026 document dump by the Department of Justice, New York Times And NPR reported on missing memos related to President Donald Trump’s relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Earlier in February, members of Congress were given access unedited versions of these documents. Representative Cynthia Lummis, a Republican from Wyoming, had this to say as she emerged from the viewing room: “I haven’t been one of the members who has seen this as a problem. … But 9-year-old victims … wow.”
“Well, at first my reaction to all this was, ‘I don’t care. I don’t know what the problem is,'” she says. added. “But now I see what the problem is, and it was worth investigating.”
Whether she intended to do so or not, Lummis’ comments suggested that an alleged global sex trafficking ring involving some of the most powerful people in the world – including possibly the president of the United States And some of its high officialsalthough they deny all allegations – wasn’t that big of a deal when she thought the survivors were teenagers and young adults.
This sentiment echoes something former Fox News host Megyn Kelly said about the ages of the survivors when an earlier round of Epstein files were released in November 2025. On her podcast, Kelly expressed her sympathy for the idea that Epstein wasn’t really a pedophile because he liked 15 year olds – not 8 year olds. He didn’t like children, Kelly explained, but he did like children who were “barely legal.”
But “barely legal” isn’t a thing (I’ll get to that in a moment), and arbitrarily tweaking the definition of pedophilia shouldn’t be either.
Age is not just a number
Let’s start by making our terms clear: pedophiles are people who… sexual preference for childrenusually prepubescent children or children who are around puberty. Pedophilia is one psychiatric diagnosis. You can be a pedophile without sexually abusing children, and you can be a child molester without meeting the diagnostic definition of a pedophile.
The word pedophile immediately brings to mind the abuse of small children, which breaks our hearts and makes our skin crawl. This visceral reaction is understandable and may explain why Lummis, Kelly and other public figures have insisted on distinguishing between the abuse of young children and the rape of teenagers.
To be clear: the law makes no distinction between a 9-year-old and a 15-year-old – both minors – when it comes to sex. Although age of consent laws vary by state, all states consider 15 years old to be too young to consent. With the possible rare exception among consenting couples who are approximately the same age (for example, an 18-year-old high school student dating a 15-year-old college sophomore), any adult who has sex with someone 15 or younger has committed a crime.
In some cases, that crime is statutory rape. In other cases it could be rape or sexual assault. And in some states it is also illegal for teenagers to have sex with teenagers.
Like I said, there’s only legal and illegal – not ‘barely legal’.
When consent is not possible
I believe that teenagers should experiment with sex. I’ve spent much of my career as a sex educator arguing that sexual development and experimentation are natural parts of adolescence, helping young people understand themselves and develop the relationship skills they’ll need as adults. Adults should view high school students as people capable of consensual sexual relationships.
But relationships can only be consensual if the couple is on equal footing. When one person has too much control due to their age, status or position of authority over the other (think coach, teacher or boss), true consent is rarely possible. Age isn’t the only power imbalance, but it seems clear that a 51-year-old man looking for sex with a 14-year-old is a predator, not a partner.
The late financier Epstein is accused of this the sexual abuse of at least 1,000 young women and children. He had a pattern of offering teenage girls aged 14 and over money for massages, while he would do so masturbate and touch their genitals with his fingers or sex toys. He would offer these kids more money if they would recruit other girls for the same thing.
Epstien has also been accused of it the forcible rape of girls from the age of 14. (Epstein pleaded guilty to soliciting a minor for sex in Florida in 2008 and was indicted on sex trafficking charges in 2019, but died in prison before a trial could take place.)
Survivors have also said they were abused, assaulted or raped by Epstein’s friends and acquaintances; President Trump has been mentioned in these allegations. The allegations against Trump have not been investigated or verified, but he has done so before found civilly liable for sexual abuse.
Let’s stop saying ‘underage women’
The question of whether Epstein or others among his we-just-like-them young friends were “really pedophiles,” as Megyn Kelly did, is a twisted game of splitting hairs.
It opens the door to letting some perpetrators of sexual abuse go free by implying that the pedophile who preys on young children is a pervert, while the CEO who preys on teenagers is a pervert. just misbehaving. It’s bad, but not that bad.
I have to wonder if this is what some of the men involved in Epstein’s sex ring have also been telling themselves. When Trump embraced the QAnon conspiracy theory that there was one secret cabal of powerful pedophiles who abuse children and made exposing it part of his 2024 campaign strategy. Didn’t he remember partying with Epstein? Or did he think his name wouldn’t come up because he didn’t consider himself a pedophile?
To some people—and I’d wager that Trump, Lummis, and Kelly fall into this group—the distinction between an 8-year-old and a 15-year-old probably seems important because 15-year-old girls can be sexual. Most of them have breasts and curves and pubic hair. They are allowed to wear make-up and short skirts. They’re probably thinking of boys or girls or both. They may read spicy books and have sexual fantasies.
Some 15 year olds even have sex: In 2023, 16 percent of ninth graders and 25 percent of tenth graders reported having had sexual intercourse. This is probably why we saw so many people, including some legitimate news sourceslike NPR, call the young girls “underage women.” Again, that’s nothing. Even with high heels and mascara, being “underage” means you’re a child.
And children are children, not women. To suggest otherwise could lead to girls being blamed for wearing the wrong clothes, making bad choices, leading men on, or any number of other things we often attribute to rape survivors in retrospect.
It’s about power
We need to stop talking about the ages of Epstein’s victims and start talking about their ages sexual freedom of choice– that is, their ability to make conscious, informed and empowered decisions. Agency is about having a voice and being able to negotiate what you want.
It seems clear to me that the men of this decades-long sex ring were looking for people who had no agency. The girls and women were reportedly being lied to, coerced, threatened and possibly detained against their will. The men did not want sexual partners; they wanted control.
None of this is meant to minimize the horror of the trafficking of 9-year-olds. If anything, I also want to highlight the horror of 19 year olds being trafficked (I know that’s not a word, but it has to be). Although the law may consider them adults, these young women did not have the authority to make their own decisions about how they were treated or what they would and would not do.
The emerging revelations that young children suffered from Epstein’s crimes may cause some people, like Lummis, to pay attention, and it may cause others, like Kelly, to shut up. My hope, however, is that we can stop discussing whether the men were pedophiles and start focusing on the survivors.
We can give survivors some agency back by listening to and believing their stories, no matter how old they were at the time of their abuse.
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