Lowering the legal age?

[SarahP080102]

What should the legal age for consensual sex be?

[OlderAndWiser]

The age of consent should reflect the realities of the physical maturation of teens, the emotional maturity of teens, and societal expectations about marriage and reproduction. In some cultures, girls are expected to be married and having children at a very early age while other cultures encourage girls to wait. Some cultures encourage early marriage because the groom's family must pay a dower to the bride's family and this allows the bride's family to "cash in on their investment" sooner. We should also note that many jurisdictions have "Romeo and Juliet" or "close in age" laws that decriminalize sexual activity between teens close in age, regardless of whether one or both are below the age of consent.

If a culture encourages girls to be married at age 16, the age of consent perhaps should be 14 or 15. But in cultures in which the media pushes girls to sexually develop at an early age, I think we should resist the tendency to go along with that pressure and we should not lower the age of consent.

[allaboutyou2]

I think 13 would be to young, when I grew up in England, we graduated school at 16 and the legal age was 16.
I really don't think that 16 is too young, we were just fine with it.

[allaboutyou2]

I will add that no matter what age is legal there is still going to be the ones that feel they are ready for sex before legal age, I have 15 year old twins and one has talked to me about birth control. So I know she is one of those.

[purplepoppy]

The legal age was set in more religious times when people married younger to ensure that a bride was more likely to be a virgin on her wedding night. It also helps kerb the number of number of young teens who get pregnant and prevents older men taking advantage of young girls.
The problem however with setting any age limit is people develop physically and mentally at different rates. Spend any time on GAG and you'll find woman in their 20s who are so dumb about sex that they really shouldn't be allowed anywhere near a penis until they attend sex ed classes. On the other hand millions of people are having underage sex all ready without harm to themselves or others.
I think a better system would be reducing it but putting more responsibility on to parents regarding contraception and safety. Perhaps even requiring girls have a chat with their doctor first to answer any questions they might have.

[Emii_69]

I completely agree with that. Also, western countries tend to have a much higher age of consent than Asian countries, with the exception of France. (The USA and the rest of Europe has been pressuring France to increase their age of consent, recently, though.) Up until the 1800's, the age of consent recognized by the catholic church was 10! In the bible, the "Virgin" Mary was most likely no more that 11 or 12 years old and Joseph was a much older man at least in his 30's. I grew up in a country where sex education was available when I first became curious about it. I wasn't told that sex was bad or evil by some religious nut.

[PBandJ_Nerd]

I think 16-18 would be fine. Not too low or too high of a law. But I personally think schools should give proper sex education and expand it to teach non-hetero people as well. I mean, you can't expect people to know how to do it when they're older if you don't teach all of the protections and different types of birth control. Especially since people are advocating "safe sex" yet hardly teaching it. Why are people so afraid to teach young people how to protect I will never understand.

[scottyduwop]

Consider the consequences for sex, or at least what could be the consequences for sex. What 18 year old now a days is ready to bear the responsibility of a child... let alone anyone younger than that

[Melindag]

I’m in Australia and here for women it’s 16 and for guys it’s 18. The age difference is because they say women mature at a younger age then men

[sydneyboy]

I thought it was 16 for guys in Aus too... oh well I started at 14. Should be whenever you're ready

[Astarlessnightsky]

13 or 14 with someone with about the same age

[wankiam]

its 16 in the uk and i have always thought that was about right for the uk. where its 18 its also often the case that the society is slightly slower at developing so a 16 year old would still really be a kid emotionally.

[Kaneki05]

I believe in Romeo and Juliet law until 20. I think this would be personally the best. I think been in the same age groups is way better until your 20 then you are mature just to get with someone 45 if you want shrugs.

[Reaperbot666]

depends on the location really. many areas it is between 16, 17 and 18. however select locations it is lower or higher still. and others it is only legal for those who are married and then only with their partner.

• https://www.ageofconsent.net/states
• https://www.ageofconsent.net/world

[Weasly]

I think 18, maybe 21 would be right for completely legal, but for younger people there should also be laws to allow it, with people of similar age /-1 yr or so, to take away the forbidden nature of it for the younger kids. I think there is something like this in most if the the US currently.

For example, I am 32, in my country it is legal for me to sleep with a 16 yo. That should not be legal in my opinion.

[Agape93]

18. No less.

[Ripper_E]

Same as legal adult.

[KirstyW]

I'd raise it to 18.

[British_Empire_1707]

16. So what it is now.

[missmiss3]

17 to 19

[maxflame]

PM me to talk

[missmiss3]

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[maxflame]

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[Iknowbestgirls]

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[missmiss3]

Level is low

[Iknowbestgirls]

@missmiss3 that's ok, you can still follow me back and I can message you, regardless of your level.

[Browneye57]

Uh oh... pedophile alert.

[Skankhunt]

@browneye57 Yes indeed. It's disgusting.

[mich15smith]

At LEAST 18

[Reivel]

In my country if you are 16 and consent a relationship is legal

[genericname85]

i think before we can even have this discussion, we desparately need to have a discussion about when and HOW proper sex education should look like.

i mean i'll take a risk and talk for myself even though i know exactly how everyone is gonna give me shit for that but: i personally do not understand why someone younger than 18 "can not consent".

i mean it's not just me who sees that age as completely arbitrary, as different societies have different ages of consent... so if that age of consent thing would be based on "any rational fact", it would be the same anywhere.

so i guess the question would be: why do we have an age of consent in the first place?

and just to prevent some assholes comment: no, i don't wanna fuck minors, i'm not sexually attracted to them. i'm in social science and i really do not understand why we have this rule.

[SavageGirl101]

It should stay 18😭✋

[aoihewgf]

Should be when theyve hit puberty as designed

[aoihewgf]

If governments didn't create a system where people get financial support and put the onus on the individual to figure things out for themselves, then we should go back to nature's intended design. We use the fact that we are at the end of the day animals when talking about the merits of monogamy as well. That idea is going in One direction and the age of consent is going in the exact opposite. So which one's right which one do we follow?

[aoihewgf]

But whatever we choose let's pick one do we use biology or are we going to use the choice based on societies moralistic beliefs

[Skankhunt]

It should be 21. Sure if you are 18, you are technically an adult, but it doens't mean you are mature and wise enough to make a well considered decision. You've just graduated High school, you don't know nothing about how the world works and all you want is too loose your virginity as soon as possible. That pressure can make you choose the wrong decision.

Sex is all what matter in this world. Don't worry about having sex as soon as possible. Enjoy life, travel, do things you like. Even children are having sex, it's terrible and disgusting. Having sex ate the age of 12 or 13 or even lower than 12 years old. It's disgusting.

[J9inva]

So an 18 year old isn’t mature or wise enough to make good decisions? So then they are too young to vote.

[Skankhunt]

@J9inva Most people don't even care about politics. A lot of people don't even care about voting and won't vote. Politicians just do what they want. There is no such thing as democracy anymore. Never was by the way. If young people vote, 18 - 25 or even older, they vote without educating themselves about the plans of the politicians who run for president.

[J9inva]

My point exactly. They don’t make informed decisions. They vote the way their sports idol or favorite musicians or teachers tell them to. The U. S. was never set up to be a democracy. It’s a Republic.

[Worshop]

16. Any lower would be more likely to be ignorant in regards to sexual education, which would have quite obvious consequences. Any higher would make it harder for teens to practise safe sex: they might be concerned about how to get condoms or morning after pills. That can lead to teens just having unprotected sex.