No, 12 year olds cannot consent.

[lyson]

twitter.com/wrong_speak/status/1618590726782353411?s=46&t=mtT5I3nmNkfIwzYPvhTInA

Link to a video on Twitter where a man is saying that there could be "exceptional" 12 year olds who could consent to sex with an adult.

Where is all this heading?

For a man (as in over 18) it's of course very wrong, most countries do have "close in age" exemptions so we aren't criminalising 2 14 year olds though. Age of consent varies across Europe from 14-18 depending on country

Age of consent varies across Europe from 14-18 depending on country

You know that parents don't have to shrug and say, "well it's legal in France so..."

The video is on twitter is classed as 'age restricted content'. To be able to see it you need to have your DOB on your twitter account (well a DOB not necessarily yours, any will do)

Lots of people are happy to take their children to Drag Queen Story Hour. I believe (although I'd be happy, delighted, to be wrong) that they even perform in schools. Think about it, erotically dressed men who want to hang out with kids.

People take their children to Pride parades, they even have children's areas there. I think some Pride marches are great and retain the original ethos, but others are just public displays of kinks and, imo, not suitable for children.

Horrific

so it stands to reason it's only a matter of time before the government lowers the age of consent in order to not appear to be discriminating against paedophiles.

But that would be going counter to the global trend of raising the age of consent over the past century. So, I don’t think that is reasonable extrapolation.

I thought so too.

The problem is that ends up with pregnant 13year olds or 13year olds with STIs. You can not facilitate it but it’s really only a sensible choice if your sure that your 13 year old is accessing protection from somewhere and knows how to use it.

By all means don’t condone it and make your feelings known as well as pointing out all the reasons it’s a terrible idea, but the reality is some (not all) kids are going to experiment anyway and always have done so you do need to be a little realistic about the consequences of that.

That’s a very different situation to adults having sex with children though.

I know, contraception is a delicate and complicated issue and I'm not saying you should withhold it. By facilitate I was thinking more about allowing overnight stays and hanging out with the door closed etc

Bloody men. Sometimes I wonder what the point of them is (although I know lots of lovely ones).

But really, thinking a 12 year old can give informed consent. IT’s pretty disgusting as well as pathetic

Absolutely agree with that. I think it’s a very difficult line to tread as parents of 14-16 year olds.

@EasterIsland i agree. And I’ll be honest it’s very very hard for me not to thoroughly dislike men as a whole sometimes - through both personal experiences and wider experiences. Every bad thing, everything that causes suffering in the world seems to be perpetrated and continued by men - violence, war, sexual abuse, drugs etc.

Mix the bigger stuff in with the relentless stream of unacceptable male behaviour I experience on a daily basis and I really have to remind myself there are some ok ones out there, but it’s hard.

Peter Tatchell, national treasure, speaks approvingly of sex between a 9 yo boy and an adult man.

The receipts are on the FWR board.