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The premise of the Age of Consent is when a person at a certain age is considered to be competent enough to consent to sexual acts, which is 16 in most places. This has been criticized as being an arbitrary concept but I think nature says that the average age of consent is indeed just. At 16 puberty usually ends meaning that people are sexually mature but more relevant to the subject is that cognitive abilities are fully matured at 16.
With I that said do you believe that 16 is the appropriate age to consider someone to be competent enough to consent to sexual acts?
Broadly speaking, sixteen is not a terrible place to draw the line. But I would add, with regards to citations above, that a person's level of cognitive development is only one of several factors to consider.
Another important factor is the difference is power between partners. A sixteen year old may have the required level of cognitive development to consent to sex with, say, a 35 year old. However, the sixteen year old is likely to be in a far more vulnerable position financially, socially, legally, etc. That would make it easier for a 35 year old to exploit a 16 year old than another 35 year old.
I'm inclined to say yes.
However, there is a caveat.
We don't teach kids about sex and relationships.
Sure, we tell them what sex is, and how it happens, but we don't go into any more detail.
What good is knowing all the presidents of the USA, or being able to speak many llanguages, or a maths wizard if you're completely unprepared for all the things that sex and relationships can throw at you ?
16 makes sense in the context that in the US, that's also the most common age when an adolescent is legally allowed to drive.
Both driving and sex can have deadly consequences- one usually much quicker than the other. Although the brain truly doesn't mature until the mid-20s, IMO, if someone's responsible enough to operate a vehicle, they are probably responsible enough to consent.
18 should be the age of consent. Except for driving, you have to be 18 to do be able to do anything else. So the same should be applied to having sex with older adults.
18 should be the age of consent. Except for driving, you have to be 18 to do be able to do anything else. So the same should be applied to having sex with older adults.
You can join the military at 17 with parental consent(in the US), drinking age is much higher(in the USA) but as low as 16 in other countries, and medical consent is 16. The driving age average is 18 worldwide though but I think it is makes no sense to make the age of consent higher than the driving age since car accidents are the leading cause of death among young people in the US.
Quote:
Originally Posted by foadi
isn't 16 that avg in the US? i thought most states were 16?
And worldwide as well. I mentioned it already in the original post.
The first thing to remember about age of consent laws is that they exist specifically to regulate the sexual behavior of adult males as that behavior pertains to adolescent females. While adult female/adolescent male and same-sex incidents are occurring more frequently, they are seldom viewed with the same level of cultural disdain or legal consequence.
Sixteen is the typical standard age of consent in The United States. All states have additional language which moves the age of consent to eighteen when the older individual is in a "position of authority" in regards to the younger participant. Most states also have laws which flex the age of consent based upon the difference in age between the two participants.
States with a standard age of consent above sixteen have traditionally been the more socially conservative states (Utah, for example). However, over the last couple of decades, feminist activists have been able to successfully lobby for changes to the ages of consent statutes in more socially progressive states--in New York, the age of consent is now seventeen and in California it is now eighteen.
Internationally, ages of consent fall within a very narrow set of ages: 12-18, with the vast majority of them being 14-16. Many European nations have an age of consent of 14 or 15 (Spain is 13). In Brazil the age of consent is 14, while Bolivia merely requires that the younger individual has reached puberty (there are additional laws which punish sex with someone under 17 if that sex is obtained by use of "deceit")
With the exception of a couple of fundamentalist Islamic societies which allow marriage (and therefore, sex) to a female child, no country has an age of consent which includes clinically-defined children. The question has always been in regards to what level of adolescent development has been reached by the younger individual.
Whether we like it or not, puberty is setting in at increasingly earlier ages and the level of sexual sophistication of a typical fourteen year old is probably beyond that of a typical eighteen year old a couple of generations ago. In my opinion, fifteen seems to be a reasonable unrestricted age of consent. However, I do feel that an initial consensual encounter with a younger adolescent should, legally, be of misdemeanor proportions. Nor do I think that consensual sex with an adolescent should brand one a "sexual offender".
I think if the age of consent is 16 then the age at which she gives consent to should be set at most at 21 or something. The idea of a 40 year old going after a 16 year old gives me shivers.
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