I Question The Age Of Consent

@Mamapolo2016 I didn't advocate [i]eliminating[/i] anything actually; just that as it stands, it's routinely ignored. If anything I just think there should be greater contextualisation. The issue is that's hard to do in a non-intrusive way, I suppose

(yet).

Of all the long-established 'received wisdoms' why is it this particular one you feel driven to question?

@Habby

@Mamapolo2016 I just happened to come across the specific group :P

As @SW-User says here somewhere (above or below your comment not sure they keep jumping lol) there are other nominally arbitrary rules that from time to time we might reconsider, including the age of voting, drinking, driving. There's IMO a bigger argument actually for lowering the voting age to 16 (matching as it happens the AOC) than changing the AOC itself

@Habby I'd vote for that one definitely. You can get married or have sex and children in the uk at 16 but can't vote for local, national or (potentially irrelevant soon) European representatives. Seems bonkers to me.

@SW-User I'd vote for it but I can't...

Here is what happens on issues like this. Lower the age of consent to 14 and there is an argument five years from now about how THAT is arbitrary and there are plenty of 12 year olds who are mature enough to make choices for themselves.

Nobody ever died from not having sex for another two years.

@Habby

Which is why we shouldn't lower the voting age to 16.@Habby

You see, the AOC doesn't only frustrate girls of 16 who want to have sex with 19 yr olds.

It protects 13 yr olds who don't want to have sex with 39 yr olds.

It makes a step toward granting children a childhood.

Laws cannot take every incident on a case by case basis. They can't do background studies and take testimony.

There are women now grown who don't regret having babies too young but there are many more who do regret it. It results in less educated parents (women especially) with fewer options

If the relationship lasts, most find themselves somewhere else than where they dreamed of being. Yes, that happens to everybody, but not at 16. Or 14. Or 12.

At 16, children should be opening the windows of opportunity, not nailing them shut with babies.@Habby

@Mamapolo2016 I think that's fair enough (though not wanting to have sex with someone is covered by other laws, it could be said)

You're talking about rape?

That's theoretically covered under other laws - I don't know British law.

The AOC lifts the responsibility from someome either too young or too bedazzled to make the choice. The pressure that an older, more established,more worldly person can bring to bear on a youngster is considerable and it may not even be necessary.

I just had a massive row with my parents. I hate them. I want out of here. And there is somebody waiting to catch you and encourage you to do something that is not in your best interests. The AOC doesn't stop that, but it's another lock on the barn door if Mr. Smooth knows he could go to jail. Or Ms Smooth.@Habby

@Mamapolo2016 just to explain some British context. Firstly no upper limit unlike other countries. So once your 16 then you legally can have consensual sex with any one regardless of age.

I'll give an example
Boy of 15 years and 363 days has sex with a girl who is 16 years 2 months. The girl is guilty of statuary rape. 3 days later it would not be crime even if he then consented with sex with a 60 year old woman.... assuming she isn't in a position of authority over him, other laws make that potentially a criminal offence, if she was his teacher etc

I get your point, but the line has to be drawn somewhere. It won't damage anyone to wait three days, three months to have sex. Damage is often done the other way.

The key issue of the AOC is not to stop teenagers in the back seat of a car but to stop adults from using younger people before the young people can make competent decisions. Yes, older people make incompetent decisions.

That's no reason to accelerate the failure rate. Maybe the law should be AOC 16 for relations with persons within two years of age. But then the same issue would occur.

Once upon a time people were considered sexual fair game at 11 or 12. That was a different world. Those children wouldn't need to know how to write code or engineer a vehicle or manage a modern city.

Those baby wives often died at 15, too. It wasn't unusual for a man to bury three or four wives.

As presumably civilized people, we have a responsibility to protect the innocent and helpless until they can stand on their own. Whether or not they see the need for or want that protection. @SW-User

@Mamapolo2016 I completely agree with that it is to stop abuse. But what age? Majority of Europe is 14 or 15 the lack of consistency is an interesting part of the argument for change. Although pointless part of the debate for UK now

@Mamapolo2016 I agree with most of what you’re saying, but I’m pretty sure having sex was not directly the reason those baby wives died in their mid teens. They died because we hadn’t yet made a lot of advances in medicine, and doctors didn’t always sanitize their operating rooms and tools and even their hands, so having a baby was a dangerous proposition for a woman of [i]any[/i] age.

My point is that if we were to lower the AOC, there would be no particular reason to expect a spike in teen deaths in childbirth because now we have better, more advanced, more sanitary hospitals with better trained doctors than we had then. As you said, yes, youngsters having sex with older people could potentially cause them to miss out on a lot of opportunities to raise their quality of life, and that’s a good reason to make it illegal; however, we don’t need to hysterically stigmatize sex by telling kids, “If you have sex you’re going to die!” Making it more forbidden (by warning them they will die) will make sex under dangerous conditions seem more enticing.

@JP1119 I didn't say they died because they had sex, although it IS why they died. You can't get a baby (or couldn't then) without having sex and many died in childbirth. Others died because their immature bodies couldn't cope with the baby-making task. Whatever the cause of death on the death certtificate, the real cause was sex and babies too young.