The legal age of consent;

[Skandi]

What do you think about the age of sexual consent? should there be one, do you think it is too high or too low in your country?

Sorry it's the same for males and females, because your friendly thread starter is a feminist (as far as it goes)


Age of consent in Europe;

(Stolen from Beornwulfwer's thread)

[Ulf]

If they're the same age, or about year apart I say 15. If it's sex with someone who's considered an adult and one who isn't, I think the age of consent should be 17 or 18. I would say so long as their ages are not too dissimilar, when underage, it shouldn't matter too much. Although something like a 17 y/o with a 14 might be pushing it...

I don't know what it is here, I'm assuming it varies by state. I started when I was 15. My mom had a fit.

[Æmeric]

I would say 18, except in case were a minor is legally emancipated, for example through marriage or by joining the military. Parents need some control over their kids & 18 is the age at which a person becomes a legal adult in the US. Much of the current chaos in society is from the sexualization of minors. Persons 12 to 18 may have the physical ability to be sexuality active but lack the emotional & mental maturity.

As for legal prosecution, That should be restricted to persons more then 3-years older then the minor.

I get the impression from the map that Spain must be a pedophiles paradise. Even the perverts in California - The North American Man/Boy Love Association - who are on friendly terms with the left-winged politicos in that state, have not managed to get the age of consent in California dropped from 18.

Here is a map of the world showing Age of Concent laws:

[Skandi]

Much of the current chaos in society is from the sexualization of minors. Persons 12 to 18 may have the physical ability to be sexuality active but lack the emotional & mental maturity

While I don't really disagree with you here, but I question the rationality of setting the age to 18, here in Britain we have one of the highest ages in Europe but also the highest rate of teen pregnancy. The two appear to have no affect upon each other. Equally I don't see that under 18's lack the maturity required, IF educated properly from birth. Here we will soon have a stupid system, you can get married and have kids at 16 but won't be able to leave school till 18.

[Ulf]

Not everyone who's underage is mentally immature. I first had sex at 15 but I've been monogamous since. Laws and parents wouldn't have stopped us. If the age of consent is raised would I have not been able to buy condoms at 15?

Parents need some control over their kids

I agree, but using consent laws is the wrong way of going about it.

Persons 12 to 18 may have the physical ability to be sexuality active but lack the emotional & mental maturity.

In some cases that age range can be 12-80.

[Psychonaut]

I like the way my home state, Florida, does it. The age of consent there is 16, but if the person is under 18 there can be no more than a five year age gap. So, a 16 year old and a 21 year old is OK, but a 16 year old and a 30 year old is not. This kind of legislation gets rid of those stupid statutory "rape" cases where a high school girl's parents decide to press charges on her high school boyfriend and screw up the rest of his life.

[Pino]

age of consent is more of a way to stop pedophilles, not a law to stop people having sex, has anybody ever heard of two 14 year olds being arrested because they had sex with each other? It's more of a way to stop 40 year old Men from preying on 13 year old Girls.

I see an actual age of consent worthless, I think it should be taught among society that sex before marriage is wrong and social exclusion and the label of slut is thrust upon those who do otherwise (although alot of us including myself are gulity of doing this!.) How to stop pedophilles? Just use common sense, if a 55 year old Men has had sex with a 15 year old Girl then the local community should get together to round to his house and lynch him.

[Beorn]

has anybody ever heard of two 14 year olds being arrested because they had sex with each other?

I have. A few times to be correct. I can't find the articles as I only seem to bring up cases of paedophilia and the sort, but the two 14-year olds were found out to be sexually active by the parents of the girl and the authorities were notified, the boy was charged for having underage sex, and placed on the sex offenders list for an amount of time.

Which is absurd, of course. You are very correct in saying the law is there to help prevent the legality of paedophiles building relationships with minors.

In my eyes the choice is up to the individual.
Echoing Ulf's point, the ages should not differ greater than two, maybe three years above, and obviously both members consenting.

[Æmeric]

Just wait until your daughter is 14, you may not think using age of consent laws to keep teens from having sex are absurd.

Age of consent laws aside, it might be nice if society wouldn't try to make it easy for underage persons to have sex. Girls below the age of consent can get abortions without paretal consent () & condoms are fairly easy to get. Birth control pills or IUDs in some state also, depending on medical confidentiality laws. Not to mention all the sex in media.

[Beorn]

Just wait until your daughter is 14, you may not think using age of consent laws to keep teens from having sex are absurd.

It's going to be a tough one to face, but hopefully I will have instilled some semblance of intelligence within her regarding sex and the consequences.

I'm not really one to shy away from issues like this. The only issue I have is with whom she has sexual relations with, as this can be the breaking off point concerning family ties with me.