Sex & Gender Age of sexual consent?

What do you think is the ideal age of sexual consent?

  • 12

    Votes: 3 6.1%
  • 13

    Votes: 1 2.0%
  • 14

    Votes: 1 2.0%
  • 15

    Votes: 6 12.2%
  • 16

    Votes: 16 32.7%
  • 17

    Votes: 3 6.1%
  • 18

    Votes: 11 22.4%
  • 19

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 20

    Votes: 1 2.0%
  • 21

    Votes: 7 14.3%

  • Total voters
    49
Why? Can you give us a little more than that please :)
 
Simple. I believe 15 is the age where one reaches the point of sexual and emotional maturity. And a 15 year-old could be ready enough to understand the consequences of sex. After all, didn't a lot of teenagers lose their virginities at age of 15 to their same-age partners in America?

Japan's legal age of consent used to be 13 before the lawmakers recently changed it to 18. Also, South Korea and Spain's legal ages of consent are 13.
 
Thank you, now we will probably get some debate going...
 
In most european nations it's around 16-18.... i think that's an acceptable age.
 
13 in spain.. wow, suprissed i am about it! i think 16-17 is a nice age... already a couple of years on highschool... not the first year!!! and yeah time to experiment with sex.. i think sometimes people start on a to young age like 12-14...

in my country we have sexual education * flowers and the bee's etc etc.. stupid movie they showed us about it , i expeced the REAL stuff. all we saw is stupid childish cartoons... * on highschool in the second year... but the goverment is thinking to lower it to junior highschool, when kids are 10-12.. i think this is going to far!!! as doing this, will make this younger kids, wanting to do it even more early then it is now.. so yeah i think doing it when kids go to highschool, to start with this, so they at least can F.U.K save * well, if they are not drunk, this is also gettinng to young.. but thats another story haha*

also i am wondering, who do you think is responsible for teaching kids about sex? the parents? or the goverment, with there beautifull education systems!!!

Interresting thread it is indeed my lord zauriel!!! what is the age of consent in the Phillipines??
 
Zauriel said:
Japan's legal age of consent used to be 13 before the lawmakers recently changed it to 18. Also, South Korea and Spain's legal ages of consent are 13.
As for age of consent, is the following not current but outdated ?
wiki said:
China: 14
Hong Kong: male homosexual 21 (and both the older AND younger partners can be prosecuted and liable to imprisonment for life) (gay sex laws recently overturned by court), lesbian unknown, heterosexual females 16, heterosexual males 18
...
Japan: 13 nationwide*, 16 to 18 in most prefectures; however, age of marriage for a female with parental approval is 16.
...
South Korea: 19
Another question that might be relevant to the subject: how strictly are the laws adhered to ?
 
**old Up-tight Answer**

I'd make young people wear metal underwear with a lock to prevent sex till they had a job that would allow support of a child, and finished classes on how to be a good parent. Bet that would make "lock picking" a worldwide hobby, LOL.

Frank

:blush:
 
Frank D. White said:
I'd make young people wear metal underwear with a lock to prevent sex till they had a job that would allow support of a child, and finished classes on how to be a good parent. Bet that would make "lock picking" a worldwide hobby, LOL.

Frank

:blush:

have u been watching to much Robin Hood or something :?
 
15-16 sounds okay to me (and then of course that if you're older than 18, you can't have sex with a minor).

They should also put more effort in sex and STD education... There have been a couple of documentaries on the American abstinance movement and to me it just sounded ..hm... slightly weird. Not abstinance itself but the fact that they would rather tinker facts about sex and STD rather than give correct information if any at all. The result seemed to be that teens had sex anyway but they didn't have accurate information. How can you be responsible if you don't even know what you can get involved in if you have sex? Sex isn't always even nearly as dangerous as incorrect information. :worried:
 
Zauriel said:
Simple. I believe 15 is the age where one reaches the point of sexual and emotional maturity. And a 15 year-old could be ready enough to understand the consequences of sex. After all, didn't a lot of teenagers lose their virginities at age of 15 to their same-age partners in America?

Japan's legal age of consent used to be 13 before the lawmakers recently changed it to 18. Also, South Korea and Spain's legal ages of consent are 13.

I think it depends a lot on the local culture (which evolves with time). For instance, Southern Europeans tend to have sex earlier than Northern Europeans.

this article says that the average age for Belgian people lose their virginity is 16.9 (as opposed to 17.1, 5 years ago) and that only 9.1% of boys and 19.4% of girls have had sex in the 15-16 age group. I'd say it is what the impression I had. In fact, I'd say that 18 year old is the normal age for most people going to university. That's definitely later than in the US or Japan, although people typically start dating/kissing around 15-16 for boys and 14-15 for girls.

I find it strange that a country (like Japan) should raise the age of consent nowadays as people are having sex earlier and earlier. But maybe that is because of the "enjo kosai" (teen prostitution to buy brand clothes/bags) in Japan that the law has been changed recently.
 
Dutch Baka said:
in my country we have sexual education * flowers and the bee's etc etc.. stupid movie they showed us about it , i expeced the REAL stuff. all we saw is stupid childish cartoons... * on highschool in the second year... but the goverment is thinking to lower it to junior highschool, when kids are 10-12..

Really ? We had "real" sexual education classes when we were 12 (first year of junior high), although I think it may have been a bit early in consideration of the local culture.
 
This is what my views boil down to:

You can start having sex whenever you're prepared to take care of whatever might happen.
 
It's an interesting debate.
In the UK the age is 16, which personally I think is about right. My reasoning is that youngsters are bound to want to have sex earlier than whatever legal age that is put on it. (In the UK, I don't know I'm only guessing but I would think most people have sex between ages 12 and 16?? but that's another issue.) I mean, physically (and sometimes emotionally/mentally) I think people are ready for sex at around age 14 - 16, but of course it depends on the individual. Because everyone is different in their rate of physical and emotional development, I think it's fair enough for the age of consent to be at the "higher end" so as to protect (or at least attempt to/make a show of protecting) those people who are not yet ready for sex at ages 15 and under.

Plus, if you lower the age too much, there are always going to be those people who attach status to being the earliest, and therefore drive the "actual" age of youngsters having sex, to even younger. For example, when I was at school there was definite kudos to being "early" and it was always asked "what year were you in when you first had sex?" If you said year 8 or 9 (age 12 or 13) that was pretty OK, whereas if you were in year 10 and were still a virgin (or admitted to it, which is a different thing!), you'd get laughed at. Of course, kids lied, but there are always going to be a number who feel pressurised. And if the age was 14 (for example), then some kids might well feel unduly pressurised at ages 10 or 11, which IMHO is too young.

In the UK no-one takes the "age of consent" thing seriously unless pressing charges against someone for child abuse or some such misconduct.

As to sex education, I guess that's another topic, so I'm not going to attempt to set the world to rights here. :relief:
 
I think 18. In this country it is legal for a 30 year old man to have sex with a girl who's still at school. That can't be right, can it?

When I was at school, most girls lost their virginity at 13 or 14 to boys 18 or 19. I only knew one boy who had lost his, when he was 11 - and I'm sure if the boys had been having sex we would have known about it!

I waited until I was 16, as I assumed that there must be a reason behind the age of consent, so I should respect the law. Looking back now, I feel that was too early. Even though I was always very mature for my age, I didn't understand the consequences of having sex, and I wasn't very careful. I mean intellectually I understood them, but emotionally I doubted it could happen to me. It only clicked with me when my cousin got pregnant at 16.

I have four friends who are 16/17, and I don't feel that they will be ready for sexual relationships for another year or two. Although they are good kids, they would really struggle to cope with the possible consequences of their actions. Plus, for anyone under 18, getting an education and learning social skills should be their first concern. Doing anything that might end up in them getting tied down is a bad idea.

Having said all that, whatever the age of consent, kids are going to have sex before then. But I feel that a lower age will push down the actual age further, so I'm in favour of putting it unrealistically high.
 
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I'll avoid the lengthy version, and get down the "bare bones" of the matter as I see it. To the younger readers: please understand that I do not mean to be offensive in any way!

I think the age should be 18 at the minimum (simple version). My reasoning is this: young people want to be "grown-up" and seen as adults. At least they were when I was young. Many adults are more than willing to take advantage of this fact of growing up.

Teenagers are not as mature as they think they are, something that they will never understand until much later. But since they want to be adults so much, they will let themselves be taken advantage of much easier than someone who actually is an adult.

Of course the actual age of "first contact" is not limited to the legal age of consent. But I think the legal age should be higher to protect our children from predators. As I understand it, if an adult has intercourse with a person below the legal age of consent he or she is automatically guilty of statutory rape (at least in the US). If two children both below the legal age have intercourse, statutory rape is not an issue.

Please correct me if I'm wrong.:bow:
 
It really doesn't matter what you set the age at...people will continue to do what they want, when they want to do it! With that said, I would say 16 is a good age. The average age that you are legal to marry in the US is 17(some States are as low as 14).
 
Dutch Baka said:
13 in spain.. wow, suprissed i am about it! i think 16-17 is a nice age... already a couple of years on highschool... not the first year!!! and yeah time to experiment with sex.. i think sometimes people start on a to young age like 12-14...


Interresting thread it is indeed my lord zauriel!!! what is the age of consent in the Phillipines??

I dunno. Probably it's 18 for both boys and girls according to a Filipina acquaintance of mine. but some sources including Wikipedia and Avert.org indicate the age of consent for boys in the Philippines is 12.


lexico said:
As for age of consent, is the following not current but outdated ?
I dunno. I had found other sources that contradict wikipedia's information.

http://www.avert.org/aofconsent.htm
 
The average age of consent in the United States is 16. In some states, it's 18. In some other states like Illinois and Missouri, it's 17. In some states, it's 14 for males. In other states, it's 16. The U.S. military's age of consent is 16 for both males and females. The age of consent for travelling American citizens abroad is 18. For example if an American citizen had sex with a 13-year old in Japan, he will return to the states only to be prosecuted.

I heard that a century ago, the age of consent in U.S. was ten years-olds.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/REage.htm

In the 1860s the age of consent was twelve years old. Some people such as Josephine Butler and Barbara Bodichon were concerned that young girls were being sold to brothels. They became involved in the campaign against the white slave trade and in 1875 the House of Commons agreed to raise the age of consent to thirteen.

Campaigners were not satisfied with this change and continued to argue for further reform. In 1885 William Stead and Bramwell Booth of the Salvation Army joined forces to expose what they believed was an increase in child prostitution. In July 1885, Stead purchased Eliza Armstrong, a thirteen year-old daughter of a chimney-sweep, to show how easy it was to procure young girls for prostitution. Stead published an account of his investigations in the Pall Mall Gazette entitled Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon.

In September, William Stead and five others were charged with unlawfully kidnapping a minor and committed for trial at the Old Bailey. Stead was found guilty and was imprisoned for three months in Holloway Gaol. As a result of the publicity that the Armstrong case generated, Parliament in 1885 passed the Criminal Law Amendment Act that raised the age of consent from thirteen to sixteen, strengthened existing legislation against prostitution and proscribed all homosexual relations.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ephebophilia

Another society with tolerance for such relationships is Brazil, where ageism or prejuidicial treatment on the grounds of age has been forbidden by the Brazilian Constitution since 1998. In 1999, 28-year old Marcio Garcia, a nationally famous actor, dated 14-year old model Daniella Sarahyba for over a year in which period the relationship was accepted by the Brazilian mainstream media and by the television network which he worked for. Also in the 1990s 13-year old Kelly Key, who would become a famous singer, started dating 23-year old singer Latino, whom she married later on. Before that, in 1982, 40-year-old Caetano Veloso—a famous Brazilian singer and composer—began a relationship with 13-year-old Paula Lavigne, though he was already married at the time. He divorced and married Lavigne 3 years later. Their marriage lasted 19 years, ending only in 2004. The relationship was respected and he was not persecuted by the media or music industry. None were named as pedophiles, an accusation that could be considered as slander in Brazil.
 

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