To think the age of consent needs to be increased to protect children from predators? (title edited by MNHQ at request of OP)

I agree, there's far far too many creepy men who will take advantage of teens and claim the law is on their side.

The vast majority of teen pregnancies do not involve a teenage boy, it's grown predatory men.

There is an active campaign around this called close the consent gap with a petition in parliament. https://closetheconsentgap.com/

Yes - there should be a step change between ages to stop a grown adult having sex with a 16/17 year old

I agree. I’ve always thought age of consent should be 18. However, a majority of teens become interested in sex with one another at age 16/17 (maybe even earlier) so it could disproportionately affect them. I feel it should be staggered consent. So if you are a peer aged 16/17 it’s acceptable, but if there’s a large age gap between you and a 16/17 y/o that ought to be treated differently? Though it may be prone to misinterpretation and confusion I guess!

I do think that under the age of 18 there should be a gap of 2 to 3 years only allowed.

I don’t know how difficult it would be to manage but I tend to agree if you’re 16/17 then it’s illegal for someone t0 sleep with you if they’re older than (made up age for the purposes of naming the point) 20.

I agree that it’s about the age gap, rather than 16 being too young for two consenting 16 year olds to be together. I think a change in the law could actually help bring about the cultural shift we need - so that creepy older men coming on to young girls is no longer seen as socially acceptable.

They have what is known as the Romeo and Juliet Law in the states. So the age of consent may be 18yrs but if the 2 people involved are within 2 - 4yrs apart in age its ok. Should be the same here.

I don't know how you would "police" this, for want of a better word. When I was at secondary school (early 90s) the number of 16-year old girls going out (and sleeping with) guys in their early 20s was quite considerable. Most of their mothers were also well aware. I assume such parents just assumed this was fine because "girls mature earlier than boys". Whether that is still so widespread I don't know.

I don’t think it should be changed no, but I think there should be an age limit, like someone of sixteen can only consent with another 16 or 17 year old and eighteen or above can only have sex with other adults,

Or maybe Men just need to behave better?

See I don't think this will do anything concrete to solve the situation. I think the 3 year age gap rule for 16-18 year olds will be helpful but ultimately, I think the only way to protect young people from adult groomer types would be to protect them for longer than 18 years or do much more in terms of protecting vulnerable adults.

The women I can think of that were very vulnerable were as vulnerable at 20 as they were at 16 in many ways. Some havent matured past their late teens despite being in their 30s now. Some have a diagnosis, most do not, and only one has any sort of legal "guardianship" and she barely met the threshold.

There are many countries that have a ' Romeo and Juliet' law around the age of consent where both parties have to be around the same age for consent to be valid until the age of 18, so I can't see any reason why we can't do the same. I didn't realise there was a petition. I'll sign it.

It's that age so that 16/17 year old boyfriends/girlfriends don't end up being criminalized for having sex. If the age of consent was 18 then there could be huge numbers of 16 & 17 year olds then facing very serious consequences & a life time label as a sex offender. 16 & 17 year old are going to experiment with sex.

The age of consent is lower to protect against that. I agree it is wrong for an adult to be having sex with a 16 year old but where do you draw the line. A 17 & 18 year old in a relationship where one is a few months older than the other?. A 1 year age gap, a 2 year age gap?

It's blindingly obvious that a grown adult in their 20s plus should not be having sex with a 16 year old & most men would understand that but I don't know changing the age of consent would achieve that. David walliams was allegedly having sex with a 15 year old so the age of consent is meaningless to someone like that.

Agree and I’m staggered to discover that the age of consent in some EU countries like Austria and Germany is only 14. Insane.

David walliams was allegedly having sex with a 15 year old

Not according to any of the reports published today he wasn't. All the girls he had sex with with - so far - were over the age of consent. There is a claim he kissed a 15-yr old girl on the breast.

I'm not defending him one iota, he's a sleaze. But we should keep to the claims as currently made in discussions for obvious reasons.

I dont think you can change the age of consent but msybe look into amending the law
There is nothing wrong with two teenagers of say 16 and 17 having consenual sex
Its when one party is much older it becomes predatory

People with post-pubescent bodies and the sexual urges that come with them should not face criminal charges for acting on those desires with age appropriate, enthusiastically consenting partners. What should be in place are restrictions on age differences within teens and bans on adults having relationships with teens. There can be a phase-out window to deal with the transition from teen to adult.

I don't agree the age of consent should be raised across the board as that just criminalises young people who have sex, as they inevitably will.

I would support romeo-and-juliet style laws, but to be honest I don't think it's the answer - grooming and sexual abuse goes on aplenty despite it being very illegal now. I suppose if it deters a small number of abusers it's worth it but it's not a magic bullet.

I think it's much less widespread and much more frowned upon by their peers, for example for a college kid to be dating a school age girl.

However where it gets fuzzier is probably where the boy/man isn't surrounded by peers like that who would provide social pressure.

That was definitely the case when I was a teen in the 1970s, and none of my friends would have considered going out with a boy of the same age. I knew exactly what I was doing when I had boyfriends who were several years older than me, as did my friends - we weren’t naive and unworldly , and there was no way any boyfriend would have coerced me or groomed me into having sex with them if I hadn’t wanted to. I always looked a lot older than my age, and lied about my age, so my boyfriends never realised how old I was. I think things have changed a bit over the years, and ther was less of an age gap between my daughter and her first boyfriends, and she even went out with boys who were still at school, which is something I would never usually have done.

No, I don't think so. 16 year olds are generally capable of consenting to sex and many do happily. What should be captured - whether by law or guidelines is the huge imbalance of power between young teens and much older predators.

It all assumes the girls or boys will complain and it will be policed. And the obvious how does anyone know how old someone else is. A 16 year old on a night out could pass for 20 and a twenty something could pass for 18.

Cant wait for all the people who met their husband when they were 17 and he was 28 and actually 'i was very mature for my age' and 'im actually the one who wears the trousers' and they've been happily married for 40 years with three kids and so that makes it TOTALLY FINE that their husband was a fully grown adult man chasing a teenage girl and its NOT CREEPY and nothing bad ever happened to them come onto the thread.
Bonus points for if they wouldnt let their own teenagers date a man of that age because 'it was different back then, I was more mature, it was normal'.