Should the age of consent be raised to 18

[mids2019]

I have never really thought deeply about consent laws in England until my daughter's reached their teenage years and to my (maybe old) mind 16 seems too young for consent. I know the age is probably chosen woman at arbitrarily to balance protection against the reality of teenagers and young people engaging in sexual contact but to my mind it seems strange that a 35 year old male would be quite rightly criminalized for having sex with a 15 year old but that protection suddenly stops at 16.

At 16 in the way of the law you are a child so what protections are offered for 16-18 year old girls in this regard. There are laws about sexual exploitation but are they sufficnet? To my mind the 16 figure is planting an idea of maturity in some young people that some simply don't have. I know children get plenty of sex education but it you still have the age of 16 for legal consent then does this give a kind of legitimacy for older men to hit on under 18 year olds?

I would agree with you. My 15yo still seems quite young to me. Possibly some sort of Romeo and Juliet law so two 16yo would be ok but not some pervy 40 yo. Are there not some existing rules about persons in authority teachers, step parents 🤢 where ghere might be an element of coercion and it’s 18 already? I feel like that could be extended to all over 21s or whatever.

Scandinavia has some of the lowest ages of consent worldwide. 15 in some places. It's also an area that statistically has very low rates of teenage pregnancy and high levels of gender equality. Almost no instances of child marriage etc
Basically its a place that indicates very clearly that age of consent laws have nothing to do with the wellbeing of women and girls.
Look at the places in the world that have the highest age of consent laws.
Think about what life us like for women and girls there. It tells you something

Did you know that the age of consent in Japan is 13-16 (varies in areas). Germany is 14. Italy is 15. France is 15. Sweden is 15. Denmark 15. Norway 16.

Just putting this out there as I absolutely do not think raising the age of consent protects girls i think it takes away agency and adds to the responsibility for make sexual behaviour
The issue isn't 16 year olds wanting to have sex. Many 16 year old girls will want to have sex and that's natural and normal.
The issue is male predatory behaviour.
You tackle that with education and with actually holding men to account.

This! Restrictions aren't the solution. Education and culture change are. Explicitly teaching healthy masculinity in schools is a step forward, and that is going to happen. We need to look at countries which have low rates of teen pregnancy and higher ages of first sexual activity and follow their lead, not go to US style repressive puritanism.

Oh, shall I divorce my husband of 20 years then?

Teenagers being teenagers either other teenagers is fine. It’s age gaps that are the problem, I don’t see why that couldn’t be written into law.

I was targeted at 16 by a man in his 50s. He knew me from the age of 13, but only stepped up the grooming at 16. I was very naive, and also slim and under developed. Of my friend group it was obvious why he had selected me. It was so blatant but also legal.

Yes, I agree 16 is too young and would like it to be higher.

So a first year student couldn't date a third year student?

Do the countries mentioned above have age gap laws of other legal protections aboard expoitation? If not they need to have debates about how paedophilia is defined .

Taking a picture of a naked 16 year old girl is quite rightly against the law and the reason for this is as a society we view the 16 year as a girl and predominantly men should not take sexual pleasure in its view. How do you square this with an age of consent of 16 with no age gap law? I was reading about the ex grange hill star jailed for significant time for relations with young girls and I was thinking of the girls in question were 16 there possibly (or probably) wouldn't have been a case.

It is difficult to produce legislation when it is natural for teenagers to date and you can't change human nature. However a raised age of consent sense a signal that girls are girls and we can afford legal enhanced legal protection against exploitation.

If a 17 year old dates a 15 year old what is the problem of waiting a few months? Maybe though there may be an element of decrimilisation in this case a raised consent age might make the couple think.

They should enshrine the “half your age plus seven” rule in law

It’s not necessarily even first/third years though. When my DD started uni she was 19. The age range on her course was 18-24. So by that definition she couldn’t have dated someone actually on her course, who she’s spending half her days with and working closely alongside.

Namechanged for this...

think it should be raised.
Kids are always going to push the boundaries a little early which means sex at 14/15.
Ifnit was raised to 18 maybe those who do it earlier may end up being 16/17.

I was a very quiet, shy teen and started dating my (now DH) at 15.
It actually makes me feel sick now thinking of what we got upto at 15 (and this was 25 years ago) I have no idea how I didn't get pregnant and there is also camcorder footage somewhere, i have no idea where :(

I think kids these days have even more access to cameras etc. And you can see from the problem of 'nudes'and people being bribed with them, kids of 16 just arent equiped mentally to deal with sex.

I look at my daughter who is 17 and cring to think that I had been having sex for almost 2 years at her age :(

See, I find this unbelievably creepy and controlling.

'she went behind my back' it isn't something you need permission from your parents for.

Children grow up.

However I do think there should be an age difference rule for U18's . Because a 40 year old and a 16 year old is grooming.

I always thought it was because most girls had been through puberty by 16 so could physically have sex (pelvis development etc).

Saying that I have a daughter and want her to be protected!

Girls have agency. Why, on a feminst board, do people think girls and women don't know their own minds?

I agree with this. And why is it continued to push shame on to women and girls. The narrative that only men want sex is damaging to women and girls and stops them from being able to talk about it.

I cannot imagine trying to police a raised age of consent as a parent. DS and gf were determined DETERMINED from 13+ but as it's hugely illegal at that age both sets of parents had to try and police it. Horrendous times - my blood runs cold just thinking about the rows. I didn't even agree with the law, but was somehow made responsible for enforcing it. No way would any of us still be speaking if we had to drag it out for another two years!

When my oldest started secondary school the parents were invited to an information evening on the sex ed that would be taught over the 5 years. What I heard shocked me. Another parent was a pastoral lead at another school and said that it’s a very rare year 10 (not year 11) that’s not sexually active and it’s not uncommon in years 8 & 9.

I do think this varies by location and the “culture” of the area another town with a high number of military personnel reports differently. I’ve heard from other parents locally that the children their child mixes with is sexually active.

I think that raising the age of consent won’t really help. 14 and 15 year olds are already shagging (and have been for generations) but what might help is education about sex, about consent, coercion etc.

Agree with this.

We’re also in danger of infantilising young women

I think 16 is about right, but I think there needs to be a small age gap clause for teenagers.

You'd have to feed most of my ds' 17yo mates bromide if you expect them to stop having sex. 😁

That’s ridiculous. Teenagers aren’t having sex because the law says it’s ok. They are having sex because they are reaching the age where they are attracted to each other and wanting to explore.
And if you think your teenagers aren’t having sex/ don’t want to have sex at 16 you’re in denial. Changing the law will change nothing other than criminalising teenagers unnecessarily.

So you think that someone who is old enough to vote, join the armed forces/emergency services, live away from home, and get married, should not be legally allowed to have sex? That's the funniest thing I've read on here today.

This.

I think it’s extremely infantilising and patronising to say that 16 yr olds don’t know if or who they want to have sex with.
I don’t like the idea of rolling consent by age either because it’s not based on whether someone has capacity to make the decision at 16, it’s based on people feeling uncomfortable about age gaps and feeling they should be able to dictate what can/can’t happen.
16yr old is old enough to have enough understanding of sex, contraception etc… they either have capacity to make the choice for themselves or not, - I don’t think it needs a series of clauses and complications added on.
I hate how people keep saying the brain isn’t fully mature until 21, ffs let’s ban teens and early adults from all decisions. My brain as I get older might deteriorate, maybe I need to stop having sex as my brain isn’t as developed as once was!!!!!

Isn't there a need to balance liberty with protection though? 16 is an arbitrary limit that is required for law....you arguments I presume would stand for a girl 15 years and 11 months old presumably and yet we as a society deem sex with a girl this going wrong and any older man quite rightly would be prosecuted as a paedophile. We react with disgust at make groomers but is it right that suddenly grooming stops at 16?

We need to draw lines somewhere between childhood and adulthood for protection of society. 16 to my mind is still a child and indeed you are a child under law. You cannot drink or enter a night club for instannce. Ironically you can't get married now at 16 due to forced marriages but you can consent to sex, so rather perversely if you are 16 and wish to get married and have sex you can't but if you just want sex fill your boots. Child pornography laws exist to protect under 18 year olds yet it's fine for a 35 year old to sleep with a 16 year old (as long as he doesn't take a picture of her naked).

The law seems a bit of a mess and maybe a legacy from earlier times when people married young to bear children because life was brutal and short. iMHO society has changed, we have woken to the full horrors of CSA, and girls nature more slowly (which is a good thing so that they can enjoy adolescence)

I think if you did raise the age of consent there would be a fair amount of reconciliation to protect teenagers from being prosecuted but it would give a signal that we take the protection of children seriously and in that vein age gap laws would be a good idea!