How are we just raising marriage age to 18?

[Whattodonut]

Just that. Amazing its taken so long!

Yes was just thinking this!! It’s 2023 who thought 16 year olds getting married was ever a good idea 😳

Exactly. I see my nephew who is 15 and think there is no way in hell he is anywhere near old enough to make that commitment.

Emotionally or financially!

Still 16 in Scotland. My DS is 16, no way should anyone of that age be allowed to marry.

But what if someone is pregnant at 16 and wants to get married? Age limits are totally arbitrary anyway.

It was only 16 with parents permission to be fair. I guess it was to allow for some cultural marriages which are younger. Doesn’t necessarily mean it was ok of course

Sorry- hadn't realised it wasn't Scotland. Or Northern Ireland (for different reasons).

I would be interested though in any statistics for how many 16 year olds did get married each year!

Why does being pregnant suddenly mean you’re able to make better/more informed/safer/more responsible choices?! What if a 12yo were pregnant? Should she marry?

I think it’s roughly around 150 a year. I’ll try and hunt down the data.

What's arbitrary about the age limits?

I remember seeing a documentary about it a few years ago (probably more than 10...or 15...). It was reasons like pregnancy, or a boyfriend on the Armed Forces being posted abroad, or an escape.

This is why it's such a shame that evolution hasn't kept up with social change and life expectancy. I wish we didn't have periods until in our 20s so that no one could get pregnant until their own brain was fully cooked and they were mature enough to make good decisions about marriage and sex.

I wanted to get married at 16, I had to wait and we were married 22 years until I was widowed. My DD, 37 has been with her partner since they were 17. Some people are old enough, or were in previous generations. I don't think that there's any harm in the age going to 18, but laws shouldn't change unless there's a reason, which in our times now, there is good reason.

I don't agree. Brain development slightly makes a difference to reasoning and impulsiveness etc, but not to the extent it is made out on here. Many people in their early 20's are mature enough to make those decisions and be good parents. There isn't just one way to live.

Marriage is a massive life affecting and financial contract, i wonder if either the age should be even higher or there should be some mandatory education or legal consultation first.

The problem is not two 16 years old getting married.

It's the 16 year old who gets married to the 40 year old bloke without adult rights. It happened more than you would think and was always pretty disgusting to see even if it was legal.

Often young girls could be brought into the UK on a visa and then married by much older men.

Glad that it has been changed.

Good.

Id like to see the age of consent raised to 18 to.

With some caveats

I know at least three teenage girls who have married at 16 in the last two years.
And more who will be marrying in the next year...they only have to pop to Scotland or Ireland, like in days of yore, to get around the law change.

Same here.

@Ostryga - I'd be interested to know too, also what the trajectory has been like over the last few decades.

Absolutely this. This site is obsessed with brains not being fully mature or developed until 25, but that isnt the case, its a simplistic way of looking at brain development

Its an evolutionary development for brains to be more elastic, more impulsive when younger because it means that the younger fitter more robust members of society are better at thinking outside the box, doing things that older people might be cautious of and while there are pros and cons to both types of behaviour, no civilisation or society manages to develop if everyone is too cautious to move forward or do something with risk

The problem is, its been interpreted to justify infantilisation of older teens and young adults to essentially mean we have lower expectations of them and waste all of that opportunity.

Won’t most of them still come up to Scotland and get married there? Or is there a law stopping this too?

In a world where you left school at 14 (or possibly even earlier) and where sex and having children out of wedlock was a shame and a scandal, it made perfect sense.

Scotland should follow suit.