This feels like some medieval shit from over a millenium ago

I don’t think you realize how new a lot of the current situation is. When that article was written, it was still legal for children to perform in commercial pornographic films in parts of the West. A year before this article was written feminist philosopher Simone de Beauvoir signed a petition against the age of consent (there were a bunch of these in France in the late 70s and most of the French philosophers of the time signed at least one).

It only took a couple of decades for sexualizing children to go from a bit creepy but it happens to the way we see it now.