Why is a 16 year old still legally a child but they can consent to sex?

[Anonymouse2019]

Serious question.

Also, a person needs to be 17 to drive, 18 to buy alcohol, but at 16, they can consent to sex? Are these things an issue for parents when raising teens?

My kids are still young but I worry about what their youths will be like with inconsistencies like these.

Its a case of educating your teen from an age they understand. My daughter was 16 when she first had sex, i was first person she told. She was informed and knew what she was doing, physically and emotionally.I raised her that way. They used condoms etc. xx

I remember seeing Peter Stringfellow (57 or something) interviewed in the Sun talking about his 16 year old 'girlfriend' and not letting her have champagne in the hot tub because she was too young. All still legal.

This sounds like excellent mother/daughter relationship. Similar situation to me, but l was 15 when mum found out and the daughter. Mum was cross when she first found out l was having sex. Not that l was having sex per se, but that l hadn’t confided in her. She was a great mum.

No real advantage now, but there was not all that long ago. Young women who would have had their babies stolen if they hadn't married.

In my view it is upside down, I can envisage nothing wrong with driving at sixteen, but there can be everything wrong with sex at this age. What is considered to being sex could be looked at, penetrative sex should be put back to at least eighteen in my view. Less than this should perhaps not be considered as being sex. No intimacy could too easily be the cause of desperation, and good decision making is not the product of such a state.

And we will shortly let them vote, there really needs to be a standard definition and age at which you are no longer considered a child

No they don't they ares supposed to stay in some form of education or training which is often not school .

What really irritates me is when I have to pay an adult price for my 16 year old son but he does not count as an adult for supervising my 8 year old son AT THE SAME ATTRACTION!

Sex thing is by the by. Teenagers are going to teenage

The gap between the age of consent for sex and the age that young people are considered adults is only 2 years. That's pretty small.

The age of consent used to be 13. It was only raised in Victorian times after campaigns against child exploitation. The incident which really caught the public's imagination was when a shock journalist wrote an account of how he had bought a girl off her mother.

The voting age in the UK used to be 21. It was only lowered to 18 in the 60s.

So the gap used to be 8 years. I think the ages we have now seem pretty sensible.

Perhaps an adolescent should be considered an adolescent, so neither an adult or a child. Those in education are more likely to vote the way they vote for intelligent reason than those older folk that generally tend to vote for what might put more money in their individual pocket. Perhaps being a child is not all negative, and on the road their reflexes will be sharp. Having past their test I would advocate to L plates for the first several years of motoring. I would also advocate refresher courses for everyone every ten years. Those L plates, that could apply to all ages, so no reverse prejudice required.

When I was 16 I was doing all three. Fuck em!

Same reason why kids with competence can make decisions around their own healthcare treatment but shouldn’t be in charge of a motor vehicle that can kill people.

It is still legal to marry in Scotland at age 16 and in Northern Ireland at 16 with parental consent. Unless and until this is changed, I don't think you can change the age of consent for sex.

Imagine a Scottish married couple where one is only aged 17. They move to England for work/study/family reasons and suddenly it's illegal for them to have sex! I don't see how it could work.

I have a slightly different take - most legal ages have been raised, this one is just left behind.
Used to be younger children drank (at some points in history legally), worked, left school, got married, fought in wars. Now we've clamped down on most of those but not having sex.

Voting is a bit of an anomaly as it used to be older, but a lot of the other things didn't exist historically (smoking, driving).

In my view they should be restricted from having sex with all ages, and abuse is present with all ages, younger, older, as well of course the same age. There will be far more relationships which are abusive within five years of disparity because the vast majority of relationships fall within five years of disparity. If you are a nasty person at thirty chances are that you were a nasty person at sixteen too. The nature of the relationship can finish up as being as much of an issue as the years of disparity where a victim is concerned. What one of course cannot do, and no matter the circumstance, is to frighten off a potential mother that requires medical support.