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Age Of Consent
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
Captain Slog raised this in the Porn thread, where he said the Age of Consent for sex should be raised to 18 (Captain: can you explain why?)
Personally I think we've got it right now, what do others think?
and do you think that other age restrictions should be kept - legal age to drink/vote/drive?
Personally I think we've got it right now, what do others think?
and do you think that other age restrictions should be kept - legal age to drink/vote/drive?
0
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What's the drinking limit now? 18? If so they should be lowering to 16. Not that it will make much of a difference to those 12 year olds getting pissed though...
As for driving, I actually reckon it should be put up to 18. And get rid of provisional licences while they're at it. It doesn't matter much if you have Michael Schumacher at your side; if you're not properly qualified you are a danger to other road users.
Globally the figure for 16 is 42%. Globally, this is shocking, a huge 6% of men interviewed felt it should be lowered to 12.
However 0% of those were British.
Lowering the age of consent woyld be wrong, it would subject millions of girls who aren't ready for sex to the pressures, and with the added pressure of them being legally allowed to.
Don't get me wrong, but I personally think girls having sex at the age of 14 are less are sluts and asking for trouble. And before anyone says, lads having sex at that age are just as bad.
:eek:
"sluts" is a bit strong wouldn't you say?
I think it just underlines their immaturity and goes back to previous discussions about parental (or guardian) input into their upbringing. It certainly can never be described as a "good" thing.
Its a problem that needs to be dealt with by society, not by raising a law that everyone ignores anyway.
would subject millions of girls who aren't ready for sex to the pressures
And boys... girls put pressue on boys, boys put pressure pon girls....the whole thing spirals and we end up with the worst rate of teenage pregnacy in europe.
I don't think the legal age matters at all, I mean at the moment if 2 12 year olds fuck neither are going to go to prison... What needs to be tackled is why 12 year olds want to fuck in the first place....
Personally (I admit this may not be a PC or popular view) I'm with the new arch bishop -> We should stop sexually exploiting teens. Not just those under 16, but the young 18 year olds as well. I have nothing against looking at fine (and legal) teenagers, but if removing these images from the media would help our society, its a price i would pay.
Incedentally i suport most of what he said when he became the arch-bishop. Except the religous stuff, obviously
<rant>
The sugarBabes (girl band) is a good example. They do not write the music, i'd be shocked if it was them singing, but still we need to have these early teenagers mimeing about wanting sex.
Don't lock up the pornographers, lock up the music producers.
I want to know what the vocalists really look like (I think they are the same for all the songs) cos they really cannot look that bad, and if the early-teenage girls were removed from the marketing i may be temped to buy a single. Not very, granted, but more so than i am at the moment
</rant>
Between the ages of 12 and 15 both participants need a signed letter from their parents each naming their child and the particular partner (i.e. one letter doesn't let you have sex with everyone). From 16 the individual is free to do as they wish.
This ties in with the fact that the age of consent is not to prevent two 13 yos having sex but to prevent those over 16 having sex with those under.
This also means that those under 16 will discuss sex with their parents reducing the risk of STIs, unwanted pregnancy etc. Surely this is better than the current situation where a high proportion of teenagers get chlamydia (or worse) and have sex in unsafe places (e.g. park benches)?
Education is the key to quelling teenage pregnancy. Many countries with low rates have good sexual education, but over here kids are left to learn by themselves. Which means porn and schoolground talking is that educaytion, and so many mistakes are made.
If sex was talked about more openly within a family, and not just left up to the schools to do all the educating, things would be a lot different.
What justifications are there for any of the seemingly arbitrary ages for voting, consent...
Are we really any better off having legislation or restrictions like this in place for the majority of people?
Or.... dare I say it, that we are more or less accepting the status quo handed down from previous generations?
However ages of consent and responsibility exist for many reasons. One of the biggest I can think of, it's far to difficult to have seperate rules, laws e.t.c. that are applied to people of different levels of maturity. For one thing, maturity isn't something that can be measured anyway. It's far easier to implement a law that says anyone under this age is not allowed to do this, this and that.
Some people are ready for sex before they are 16, however the majority, especially girls aren't (I agree, sluts was too strong a word).
The government decided that 16 was an age when most people are emotionally mature enough to make the decision to have sex, and for a while they had got it right.
But now as society descends into chaos the government is being pressured into lowering it. Even though people still aren't emotionally ready.
I remember at 14, I was horny as hell, but noway was I ready for a sexual relationship, and most people aren't. Hence the reason for me waiting until I was 17.
Under 16, teenagers aren't ready for the pressures, trials and tribulations that are associated with sex. They believe all it is is pleasure without cost. Which may go someway to explaining why so many teenage girls are becoming pregnant, and the rise in STI's is predominantly in the 14-18 age group.
Education is one answer, however noone has suggested that the government might actually alter the law so it can enforce it. It's no use having an age of consent if noone gets punished for breaking it, surely?
You have been busy posting, haven't you? Nice to see some mod input, should happen more often, especially when a discussion gets bogged down.
Anyway, enough butt kissing...
Age of consent will always be arbitary, it couldn't be any other way. I do think though that it should be 16 for most things becuase this age marks a rites of passge - its the moemnt that many children leave school and marks the passge to the adult world.
NB. If this was just accepting the status quo then the age would still be alot higher. Successive Govts have reduced ages for various aspect of consenting...
For example, someone I know said he was proud he'd slept with his girlfriend before either of them turned 16. Oh, and he was 17 when he said this.
There was a program on the other night called "Teenage Kicks - the Joys of teen sex", and there were a few teenagers on who had slept with a number of people. There was this one boy who had slept with 30 girls, and was going for an STI test, because his youth group had suggested it. Fair enough. When the results of the test came back, it was found that he had chlamydia. And he didn't know what chlamydia was. He had never heard of it. An 18 year old, who had slept with 30 girls, didn't have a clue what chlamydia was.
*shakes her head sadly and wanders off*
What is the average wage for a 16 year old? Not much. Certainly not enough to support a family. Also, are 16 year olds mature enough to raise babys? Some might say they are, but I doubt that is true for the majority. 16 year olds should really be in school not working to feed a family. An 18 year-old is far more capable both financially and emotionally of supporting a baby.
Looking back through our country's history: In times past women would have married and began to have children as soon as they reached puberty - as young as 12 or 13. The women then managed to run a house, and to look after the children by themselves. I think that younger teens DO have the capacity to be mature enough to have children, but in a way, we're encouraged to be children for as long as we are at school.
Unless they are at college or university, of course.
So should financial considerations be taken into account when considering AoC?
Did you see that lad who was 14 and his girlfriend was the same age, each night i would say into the camera that he was going to do it tonight, by the end of the program i was bored of him saying that! Imagine what her parenst must have thought when they watched it back.
I think the age of consent is fine where it is, if it is lowered i think more people will feel that they should be having sex and rushing into something that they are not ready for, and thats pressure form both boys and girls. If it is hired i don't think it would make much difference people would still go out and do it like they do today.
Age of consent should only be discussed wrt statutory rape. It's the age at which the country feels an individual can make a free choice without feeling undue pressure from a partner. The only time that the age of consent is used in law is when one partner feels that have been taken advantage of and presses charges against the other.
Put simply can a 12yo freely choose to have sex with a 30yo? The emphasis here is on freely, i.e. is the 12yo mature enough to make an independent choice regardless of the pressure applied by the 30yo?
Our government (and as we live in a democracy, the people,) believe that the minimum age an individual is able to withstand such pressure is at 16.
If there is a change to the age of consent it must be because the majority of people believe that an individual must be older or younger when they are fully independent.
Of course this just illustrates how ridiculous it is that the legal age to consume alcohol independently (or to vote) is 18. Surely this choice require less rather than more maturity!
I remember getting Sex education in around 4th grade if not before. And we used to deal with it in school at least once a year. Denmark is as some might know very open about sex, and personally I don't know anyone who has been pregnant under the age of 18 or 19. Even not friends of friends. Though my dad does claim that his friend's daughter goes to class with 2 girls who are pregnant (around 15, 16 years old).
But I remember that it was definitely a sensation, when I started to pick up the English teen mags, and saw "teen girl with twins" on the cover.
i dont get how come *excuse my information if its wrong*
You have to be 16 to have mixed gender sex,18/21 to have gay sex and yet theres no legal age to have lesbian sex?
why should it be alright for one and not the other?
as for the legal age to have sex now i think it might aswell be abolished because no matter how illegal it is people are still having sex as young as 10 and 11 nowadays..
i couldnt believe a 12 year old boy was arrested for rape!
If you are under 13, you are INCAPABLE of giving consent, and, as such, it is statutory rape, i.e. because the girl cannot give consent, the intercourse is without consent- rape.
If you aged between 13 and 15, you can give consent but it is still illegal to have intercourse. It is not rape as the girl is judged to be mature enough to give consent to what she is doing, but she is not mature enough to understand the implications of the act.
The legal age of consent for heterosexual and gay sex is now 16, but there is no legal age of consent for lesbians, for the simple fact a lesbian cannot penetrate. However, a woman who has sex with a girl under 16 can still be prosecuted for indecent assault.
Lowering the age of consent is stupid...just like if the speed limit was raised, people would still speed by 20mph on motorways, its the same with ages of consent. Keep it the same, and it protects immature people from pressure...there is always the pressure to do it as soon as possible, and if it was legal at a younger age more people would do it before they are ready. People in places like Holland have a younger age of consent because they are more able to deal with the resposibility it gives than people in Britain, as they dont have the mentality that sex is something that HAS to be done unless youre a failure.
My son is aware that the legal age of consent is 16 and is merely curious at the moment because his friends talk about sex quite a bit. That worries me, because some of the information he's picking up is, by virtue of these children's age, totally incorrect. They've probably overheard their parents, older sibling or other adults talking and misunderstood. I was also concerned that one of the girls in my son's class stated to all and sundry that she can't wait to "try sex". I couldn't wait to try on a new pair of football boots at her age. I hope that as my son grows up, he continues to ask me questions and doesn't take what his friends say as the gospel.
As for the age of consent, I agree with those who believe it should stay where it is, at 16. I agree with the view that the age is where it is for the protection of younger teenagers. I agree that it's a parent's responsibility to ensure their child has all the information they need to make decisions about sex. We shouldn't leave this issue to our schools, it's too important and I want to ensure that what my son is being told, is how I see the situation. And finally, I agree that if we lower the age of consent, we will just lower the average age of those have underage sex from 14/15 to 12/13.
There's also a medical reason for not having sex too early. I remember reading an article a few years ago which stated that it has been proven, that girls who became sexually active before the age of 16, are at greater risk of developing cervical cancer later in life. Food for thought.
Back to my son, hypothetically, if it transpires that he loses his virginity before the age of 16, there's nothing I can do about it. I'm hardly likely to be there am I? I want to ensure however, that if he does decide to become sexually active, he's armed with the information to protect himself and any partners from disease and/or unplanned pregnancy.
Boy, that was a rant! :eek:
Sadly thsi si why education, both at school and especially at home, ahs to be so much better. Most children learn about sex from peers, magazines and porn on the TV, and those places very infrequently discuss how to have safer sex- especially with porn. Your son is lucky to jhave you to tell him whats inaccurate about what hes been told, he may well go and tell his friends that its wrong what they know and it could get better.