who is under the age of consent serves to protect young people from being coerced by the power of an older, more mature person. The fact that the statute does not require the State to prove mens rea as to the victim’s age places the burden on the adult to ascertain the age of a potential sexual partner and to avoid sexual encounters with those who are determined to be too young to consent to such encounters. Even the dissenting opinion in Fleming acknowledged that “the State has a compelling interest in safeguarding the physical and psychological well-being of children. Protecting children is a widely articulated rationale for imposing strict liability for child sex offenses.” Id. at 610 (Keller, P.J., dissenting). See also Black v. State, 26 S.W.3d 895, 898 (Tex. Crim. App. 2000) (<HOLDING>). Here, it bears repeating, we are not
holding a social worker treating the child was permitted to testify to statements the child made about the abuse including the victims identification of the perpetrator because the statements were necessary to the treatment of ensuring the continued safety of the child holding an unborn child is not a child for purposes of criminal prosecution of mistreatment of a child holding that the theory elevating murder to a capital offense based on the victims status as a child does not require a mens rea with respect to that aggravating element and noting other penal code provisions refleeting the legislatures desire to protect child victims independent of the offenders knowledge or intent that his victim is a young child holding noncapital murder and injury to a child not same offenses for doublejeopardy purposes noting murder requires proof of death while injury to a child does not holding that the trial court did not err in allowing a witness to testify regarding the child victims hearsay statements prior to the child testifying because ocga  24316 allows testimony about a childs outofcourt statements even in cases when the child does not appear as a witness as long as the child is available at the trial to testify