To wonder why the age of consent is different in different countries?

[ahhhhhpushit]

What do people think about this?

I've always wondered why some countries have it so different to others - with ranges from 12 to 21 (essentially the whole of puberty).

See here:

www.avert.org/age-of-consent.htm

Some interesting ones -

Bulgaria 14
Egypt 18
Nigeria 13
Spain 13

Interesting that quite a few countries have different ages for girls and boys (with girls usually 2-3 years younger).

What factors do you think come into play? Do you think there is a right age. Have we got it wrong?

My opinion is that is should be 18. A friend from another contry made me laugh once by saying it is funny how in the UK you can be old enough to have a child with your MP but not old enough to vote for them.

Thought provoking!

Also, less well developed countries generally have a lower life expectancy.

The majority of Europe has an age of consent of 14/15 (including France, Germany, Italy etc) so it's not only 'poor' countries with low ages of consent.

I'm going to go against the flow: if a girl of 13, who has passed puberty, has consensual sex with her 14 year old boyfriend and takes precautions to make sure she doesn't get pregnant then no, I don't have a huge problem with that. (Juliet is 13 in Shakespeares play... and her father is under pressure to marry her off.) In particular, I certainly don't think it should be illegal.

I suspect that countries that have much lower ages of ocnsent in Europe, actually have other laws on their books which can be used to prosecute exploitative sexual encounters betweeen young girls who have passed puberty and much older men with criminalising teenage experimentation. Some, for example, may have a different age of consent if there is a large age gap between the two parties.

I think it's wierd that you can get married and have a baby at 16 but you can't buy a knife or glue.

The age of legal consent is 16 and there are no legal restrictions on working as a prostitute or using the services of a prostitute in Switzerland from the age of 16. Canton Geneva is one exception to this norm.

I agree notso when me and DH had been married 18 months they wouldnt allow him to buy a packet of razors in wikos. He showed foces id and they said he was too young and to get his mum to buy them for him. He said he was married, in the forces and 400 miles from home! Still wouldnt let him though.

The age of consent is a balance between two things, one is the right of the individual to choose what they do, and the other is to protect them from outside influences (and they're own immaturity in making those choices). However there isn't an age at which you become "mature" enough to make the choice, so an age really isn't a very good determinator of maturity. It will deny the rights of individuals mature enough to choose, and will fail to protect those of the age but still immature.

Because of those reasons there's quite a strong argument for a low age of consent, and other laws to ensure that those who need protection are - essentially acknolwedging that abuse can happen to anyone of any age and stopping the abuse rather than simply making it easy through age. That does of course need to be balanced against how easy it is to prove a case made against someone purely by the age law.

Laws that restrict the right of the individual are always difficult, personally I think 16 is reasonable, especially as the formal "close in age" laws common across Europe are often informally enforced here by it rarely being in the public interest to prosecute.

I agree with the Weasley triplets () - setting an age is necessary for simplicity but should be taken with a pinch of salt when assessing individual cases. Someone under 16 could be perfectly capable of consenting to sex (we have Gillick competence as a concept to deal with medical consent), and someone else who is 16 or over might not be capable of giving consent under the particular circumstances.

Since no children live in the Vatican State, their AOC is rather arbitrary and meaningless, and historically makes sense anyway.

I presume the vatican law was made when you marriage could take place at the age of 12 years.

Actually the terms of the set up of the Vatican State meant assuming the Italian laws of 1924, and they never changed it as there is no need.

I found this when googling; "The only significance of the age of consent is that, in cases of alleged rape or sexual assault, the fact that the alleged victim was below a certain statutory age when the act took place, is itself deemed to be proof that the victim did not consent. This is called "statutory rape" and a charge of rape is proven even if it has been proven that the under-age victim willingly took part in the act without any force, threats or inducements."

So I think 16 is a sensible age.

Sweden though, coldtruth, was traditionally a sparsely populated rural country, which would have made early marriage a desirable thing.

I would have a massive problem with my 14 yr old son having sex with his 13 yr old GF.
For one thing, sexual relationships can become all consuming, to the detriment of other things in life, particularly when young.
Also, when I was 13 I couldn't remember to take my homework to school, let alone take the pill.
Lastly, sexualy relations between boys and girls are often sort of unequal until you get a bit older.
I have so many friends who were very sexually active at 14/15, often with older boys, and at the time they were acting full of bravado "I love sex, me".

15 years later every one of them has since told me that they were really clueless and got hurt a lot, felt used etc.

The age of consent shouldnt be just about physically protecting girls who are too young to have a child, but also about emotional welfare.

16 seems right to me, and I think there should be "close in age" laws for under 18's too.

I was a bit astonished to see spain was 13 dont know why but it sort of shocked me ,

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but in Muslim countries obviously there is no sex before marriage, so there is no age of consent for sex, but the age when you can marry is after you hit puberty, or at least, the age when you can have sex with your wife is after she hits puberty. At least that's how I remember it being taught to me in my Islam lessons at school. Once a girl hits puberty she is considered capable of the maturity required to be a good subservient wife. The men then, as their duty, have to look after their wife and allow special considerations if she is still young.

Also, I think men cannot marry until they have hit puberty.

I agree with iggly2 - the age should be set at least at 16 to make it more likely that young people will have the maturity to understand the physical and emotional implications, use contraception, and not accept a partner treating them badly. Some people will be ready before age 16, but a lot won't.

I don't really see the justification for having the female age of consent lower than the male age, especially when girls potentially have more to lose through sex (unwanted pregnancy), and more likely to be pressurised into sex or end up having sex when they don't really want to do it.

There's something to be said for Romeo and Juliet laws, though.

It's because 'what is a child' is different in many cultures and throughout history. Western childhood as we take it for granted is a very modern day thing. In many cultures it is very normal for a young girl to have a husband or baby. I think we have got it about right around 16. But I am very influenced by my own childhood and culture.

It's crazy that the marriage age is 16 in the UK, too. A young person is deemed mature enough to marry on their 16th birthday (with parental consent), when the previous day they were deemed not mature enough to consent to sex.

I grew up in a place with AoC = 18, which I think is ridiculously too old & leads to lots of "criminal" behaviour as the AoC is widely ignored. I have always thought 16 was a perfect balance, down to 15 would be ok by me, too. I feel funny about

if the age of consent in Spain for instance is 13, are 13 year olds there generally more sexually active than in the U.K. I wonder?

In scotland that girl doesnt need consent melpomene

I can remember a girl i was at school was 16 in april left school end of may and was married the saturday after she left to an older and very creepy man , i hadnt seen her in 20 years met her and she was divorced she said he was awful with her she stuck with him 10 years ,

I think the 'close in age' thing is involved in many countries? It makes sense to me - I don't think its helpful to criminalise two 15 y/os who sleep together, very different from a 30 y/o sleeping with a 15 (or 16) y/o.

Approaching it from the other side, I don't have any problem with the age of consent being 16 (tho would also see arguments for lowering it to 15). BUT I think that 16 y/os should be able to vote. IMO once you are past school leaving age and potentially working and paying taxes you should have a say in who runs the country.

@Northernwreck. Maybe I expressed myself badly - it's true that I would be worried if my own son or daughter were in that position. Much as I would be worried if they were failing to do their homework, playing up in school, talking back to teachers or sitting up till 3 in the morning playing video games. I would probably have stern words with them about it and expect to be backed up by other responsible adults.

But I wouldn't expect it to be a criminal act that in theory could give rise to a hefty prison sentence and being placed on the sex offenders' register with all that that implies for your future. I'm sure that if your teenage son were actually prosecuted as a sex criminal for consensual sex with a girl of his age you'd find that excessive and unfair. Of course in practice, that would never happen - sexual intercourse between teenagers is de facto legal in the UK as there is an unwritten consensus that cases of this sort will not be prosecuted. So in practice there is no difference in the age of consent between Britain (the age of consent is 16, cases of consensual sex between participants of similar ages will not be prosecuted) and Germany (age of consent is 14, except when one of the parties is much older.) I personally prefer the German solution because law and practice are closer - there's no guarantee in Britain that a teenager of either sex can't be prosecuted for sleeping with his or her partner. But it's far closer to the British solution than one would have thought.