unknownuser’s argument is that the boy couldn’t consent because he’d be surrounded by people telling him that the only way to be a leader is to take the ritual. The quote, verbatim:

The boy was told by everyone around him if he wanted to be a leader he had to do it, at an age where kids are pretty impressionable and also are dying to make an impression

If that’s all it takes to remove consent, then we might as well isolate every children from other people.

I sincerely doubt anyone in the group would be telling him “you should totally do it! It’ll be awesome!”, but rather that he better think twice before doing it and what to expect in the immediate aftermath of the ritual, not in a “you might feel” but in a “you will feel” way, because those stings are no joke. I wouldn’t be surprised if the boy even went so far as to take a single sting sometime before the ritual just to know how deep in shit he’d be.