Why is it ok for 13 and 14 year olds to go to a nude beach?

Question

I went to a clothing optional beach last weekend in Miami, Florida and I was surprised at how many minors were on the beach. Most of them Why isseemed to be in groups with their friends. How does the law allow a 12 or 13 year old girl to be around grown naked men like that but in any other scenario it would be considered inappropriate and illegal. I am 31 years old and I was lying nude near the shore and when it turned to my right, I saw 5 teenage girls lying nearby none of them looked over 14. I felt weird because there I was totally naked on my back with my one incher there and these girls were looking over. I then took my towel, put on my flops and left to another part of the beach. Low and behold there was like 5 teens over there also, 3 boys and two girls. I felt like the beach was full of middle age or high school age kids. Why isnt this illegal? None of those girls were nude. In fact they all had on shorts or skirts. This leads me into thinking they are there to gawk.

Answer 1

The only thing about what you saw that could ever be illegal is if an adult was touching or harassing them in any way. I actually approve of the trend for the treatment and display of the human body in a more casual and acceptable way. Now this is not to say that there isn’t a time and place for nudity. I would not consider it to be acceptable for you or them to be wandering around the public streets nude, unless it was a clothing optional community. You expect to find nude people on a nude beach, so you shouldn’t be surprised when you do.

Now I can sympathize with you’re your embarrassment, after all you were brought up in an age where nudity was not acceptable in any shape or form. You have been engrained with the idea that every part of you that is “normally” covered is an embarrassment when it is not. You have also been taught from a very early age, that nudity is not acceptable until you are “Grown up”. The thing to understand here is that you were only one person on a whole beach full of people similarly equipped. And I’m sure they were not there to look at you.

You did do the right thing, you felt uncomfortable, and instead of making them go away with threats of legal action, you simply went some place else. That practice should be the way any situation is handled where we feel uncomfortable or don’t approve. If you hear something on the radio you don’t like, listen to a different station. Don’t write complaint letters to the owners or the FCC. If you don’t like what’s on a channel on TV, Change the channel, don’t try and get it taken off the air. If a go-go bar opens up in your neighborhood, then don’t go there if you don’t like it. If you don’t like people smoking in a restaurant, then go to a different restaurant. (I’m a NON-Smoker by the way).

Similarly, if you don’t want your children hearing or seeing these things, then it’s up to you to control them. It shouldn’t be that they are allowed to “Run Around” unattended while the rest of us have our right to participate taken away.

The point I’m trying to make is that you can’t impress your values, however good and right they may be, on the rest of society. The only thing those young girls and guys are guilty of is making you feel embarrassed. Also they may have felt a little self-conscious about their bodies, so they put on some clothing to feel better. A practice that in and of itself is acceptable. Remember where your were, it was a Clothing Optional beach, so right there in the name, you have the option to be nude, semi-nude or not nude at all. So why should they be made to change their ways simply to accommodate your feelings. After all Body Acceptance is the whole idea behind the naturist philosophy. You can’t have it both ways.

Answer 2

14 Year Old At Nude Beach

Answer 3

You are probably right that these teens were there out of curiosity to know what a nude beach is like! As it was a clothes optional beach, they were free to wear clothing. However, you can check with the beach authority if there is anything in the rules book that requires people of certain age to be accompanied by some elders.
If you voluntarily took off your clothes and found that this bunch of gawkers was gaping at nude bodies, then it shouldnt have mattered because you knew it was a clothes optional nude beach! Who looks at your nude body is not material in a nude beach!
Maybe you could have had the beach authority to keep a watch on these girls, to be warned if rules otherwise permit them inside the beach.

Answer 4

the question is BARELY worth an answer. but, i agree that children, below the legal age, should not be permitted at nudist resort without being accompanied, monitored, and supervised by an attentive adult.parent. you are right, gawking is not the primary reason for nudism.
i, too, engage in nude recreation and feel very uncomfortable when children are present. it's the only time when my nudity doesn't feel appropriate for me.