How would you describe/react to this?

[Retrospective]

Straight to the point here, I’ve been having something of an emotional breakdown and have found myself going over some things in my past relationship-wise. I am remembering some things and seeing them in a new light.

Quick poll. How would you describe the following, and how would you react as the parent of this person?

13 year old girl gets into a relationship with a 19 year old man. The relationship quickly becomes sexual. The parents are aware of this. This is the 13 year old’s first sexual experience, and includes them losing their virginity.

The relationship continues for around 6 months, facilitated by parents with lifts to the partners house etc., until the 13 year old decides they are not comfortable with the sexual element, tells the 19 year old they need to take it slow again. The 19 year old then ends the relationship.

Erm, the parents were complicit in an illegal situation where a child were abused by an adult.

I'm so sorry.

The child should absolutely have been protected from this by the parents.

It is not a relationship I would encourage nor enable at such a young age. Apart from the legal issues, there is a typically huge developmental difference between 13 and 19. I would ponder why a 'well adjusted' 19 year old would even be interested in a younger girl, apart from a sexual outlet. They used to call them cradle-snatchers back in my teens. The fact that 19 year old ended relationship when sex was not available rather points to his motivation. When people have been through traumatic or inappropriate experiences at a young age (or any age), they sometimes benefit from counselling as a way of processing it. Perhaps give that some consideration.

Thank you both, you have confirmed what I had suddenly realised as well

@Retrospective
Maybe the parents where being pimping her out and pocketing the money, young girl thought it was love wanted to slow things down and deal then of with parents, sorry all I can think of because to me her parents are fucked up and I would report them and 19 year old to the police, 19 year old for rape and parents for trafficking.

I'm sorry for you OP. I wish your parents had protected you properly.
It's not your fault. Be kind to yourself.

[quote Babyghirl]@Retrospective
Maybe the parents where being pimping her out and pocketing the money, young girl thought it was love wanted to slow things down and deal then of with parents, sorry all I can think of because to me her parents are fucked up and I would report them and 19 year old to the police, 19 year old for rape and parents for trafficking.[/quote]
The parents should not have enabled the relationship, but that's a bit of a leap from the limited information given by OP (OP, this is absolutely not a demand for you to give more information than you wish to give).
It's possible that the parents considered the 13-year-old mature enough to make such decisions, possible that they were unusually indulgent for any number of reasons, possible that their cultural background involved girls marrying at a very young age... They made the wrong choice, but they didn't necessarily do it out of malice.

The parents absolutely failed to look after the 13 year old, and the 19 year old was a predator.

Thank you all for your thoughts on this. Just to be clear, 100% no money changed hands, this was very much a situation where parents assumed a level of maturity in the 13 year old.

There was a general permissiveness in the household about where I went and what I did, a lack of interest in school performance and various other issues and events that I have been thinking through as well.

This one thing in particular I had framed in my mind as a normal situation but, as a parent to a pre-teen myself, suddenly appeared in a new light and I have now realised was quite wrong.

Thank you all again for your responses

It sounds like you had a rough adolescence, even though it might have seemed fun at the time. How much you want to either make peace with your past or confront your parents about their treatment of you is obviously up to you, though if you are considering confrontation it's probably a good idea to think about what you want to achieve and whether such an outcome is likely.
The other thing that might be worth contemplating - or even discussing with a counsellor of some kind - is making sure you don't go too far to the other extreme with your own DC: you want to keep them safe and enable them to make good choices but without excessive meddling and scaremongering about their own developing sexualities.

Calling the police, doing every thing in my power to keep 13 year old away from 19 year old and I know it can be difficult to stop them at that age.

I would be paying the 19 year old a visit and it wouldn’t end wellCertainly not taking the 13 year old to their house!!!!!!

I did however go to school with children (my friends) who were allowed to pretty much do what they wanted and left to their own devices.

Thank you @Wreath21 for your advice, definitely a lot to work on from here

Regardless of how mature they thought you were, your parents should not have facilitated a relationship with a 19 year old man.

For a start it was illegal and he could've been charged with statutory rape and, more importantly, you were still a child and emotionally and physically vulnerable.

They failed you.

Your parents failed in their duty to protect and nurture you.
I hope you're ok.