The intent of the law that says that we can not have sex until we are over 18 years of age is to make sure people who do have sex are smart enough to know what they are getting themselves into. It would not be ridiculous to say that people who are 17 or even 16 can fit the criteria for having sex.
What is the lowest age that you think people can have sex at. It can differ for men and woman. Nature says it is once we hit puberty. Though that was before we had social consequences for the act and before AIDS. Not that nature would even care about AIDS. Though to build a better and more advance society we have to control nature.
What do you think the age for sex should be. Can a 12 year old girl be allowed to have sex if she knows what she is doing? Keeping in mind, that for this argument she does know, regardless of how impossible that might seem to you.
Actually, statutory rape laws are different from state to state. Only a few are as high as 18. One site with a list. And there’s Age of Consent.com (scroll down to see the US list). 16 is probably the most common age; a few states go as low as 14. And I think most of them have exceptions, i.e. a 17-year-old having sex with a 16-year-old wouldn’t be a statutory rapist.
I think 14 would probably be the bare minimum, no pun intended. While having the laws vary between states can be silly, I don’t think a national limit would be any more sane.
Individuals vary and, whatever half-way reasonable “age of consent” you pick, you’ll always have some who are emotionally and psychologically ready for sexual relationships before that age, and some who are not ready well after that age. And, of course, it’s not a black/white ready/not ready state of affairs; becoming a psychosexually competent adult is a process, not an event.
Furthermore, the age of consent is relevant only to criminal prosecutions for sexual intercourse. Criminal law is not the same thing as socially acceptable morality or as common sense, prudence or good judgment, and the criminal law is not the only, or the most important, social control we have over sexual behaviour. An act of intercourse may be not criminal and yet still be widely considered entirely inappropriate.
There’s no “correct” age of consent; the age of consent is just one tool - and a pretty crude one, at that - which we use to control and direct sexuality.
Well I think we’re battling with two different criteria here you got the biological then you got the mental capacities. Considering that we are an enlightened species, I’d have to say that the mental capacities should take presidence over the biological. However BOTH should still be met.
Personally, I can’t really see how a 12yo you be ready in a mental capacity but since the OP is asking this as a hypothetical question; Sure if a 12yo girl is mentaly sound enough to make this decision AND she has hit puberty; have at it.
Actually now that I think about it. The question the OP ask is somewhat of a paradox. In the fact that any 12yo girl who has the maturity to have sex and realize all that it entails; is going to know that she’s got her whole life to have sex and that 12yo probably isn’t the best time to do it.
How do you figure that? Why should a person ready to have sex not have sex if she so wants and know what it entails – though I doubt any such 12 year old exists? You too have your whole life to have sex.
The age of consent is 15 in Denmark. The rules for sex below that are dependent on the age of the person he/she’s having sex with. An 18 year old can have sex with a 15 year old but not with a 14 year old. However one 12 year old can have sex with another 12 year old. At least according to the law, the father may have a different idea.
There is another factor in “is she (or he) physically and mentally mature enough” and that is “do we live in a socieity where it is accepted and we deal properly with consequences.”
In the Twin Cities we have a large Hmong population. Traditionally, girls in that culture marry quite young (11 or 12) - and it worked for them in Southeast Asia. It hasn’t worked well here.
Here in the US we tend to keep our children children for a lot longer than strictly necessary. Which make it difficult for not only most 12 year olds to deal with the complications of sex (not limited to pregnancy and STDs, but the emotional baggage sex often creates as it gets confused with love, the physical or emotional coersion that frequently is a part of it for young women, etc.), but also makes it difficult for most adults to deal with the thought of twelve year olds having sex.
Just curious here. Do girls actually crave sex at 12yo? I was always under the impression that they didn’t. I thought the actuall cravings for sex didn’t start till around 16 or 18 for women. Seems like I remember very vaguely reading this or seeing it on a documentry or something. Of course the memory is so vague I could be way off base all together.
I can’t help but laugh at this…what gave you that impression? Yeah I can remember being 12 and having “cravings,” as you put it.
I was 15 when I first had sex, and I was ready and I don’t regret it. I easily could have had sex at 13 and been OK, as long as the guy wasn’t too much older.
However, when I think of my female teen cousins having sex, I get shocked! I still think of them as babies
I don’t think there should be a minimum age, but adults should not have sex with minors (ever, period, end of story), and between minors there should be a maximum age difference as a percentage of the younger person’s age. If two nine year old kids want to experiment, and both are willing participants, I don’t see any crime taking place there.
So 19 + 18 could be against the law, but 18 + 15 (depending on the percentages you pick) is okay? I don’t think that makes things any easier. I’m wondering if adjusting this system more might make it too complicated to be practical…
Well, I was getting my rocks off (so to speak) to Jean Auel books from the age of 11, and this was years before Britney came on the scene. I don’t think I was ready for sex at that age, and certainly didn’t seek it out, but I think your ‘documentary’ must have been a pretty selective study. On the other hand, I don’t know if I would have admitted sexual fantasies to an adult researcher at the time.
As for the OP, I have always thought that 15 is an appropriate, if arbitrary age of consent, with a 2-year ‘Romeo and Juliet’ window. Any younger and doors are opened for taking advantage of the very young (not that adults can’t take advantage of each other, of course), and any older and we’re just fooling ourselves.
I think Traci Lords showed the world that 15 is not too young.
In Florida, we used to have an odd statutory-rape law (don’t know of other states have a similar one): It was no crime if the girl was not of “previously chaste character,” i.e., a virgin. Naturally, that was a loophole through which you could drive a truck (or whatever). That was amended a couple of years ago – now, the rule is that it is rape if she’s younger than 18, regardless of virginity (except that a male 24 or younger can lawfully have sex with a female 16 or older). And the level of the crime goes up (I forget how much) if the girl is 14 or younger.
Please don’t ask me how I know about all this . . .
Reread the posts. We’re not talking about adults having sex with 8 and 9 year olds (that would indeed be nauseating).
We’re talking about whether or not it is OK for 8 or 9 year olds to have sex. (As in, with their peers, if they were so inclined at such an age). Or, rather, whether there is an age below which it is not OK for people to have sex.
Or, rather, we aren’t discussing childhood sexuality specifically in terms of sex with older, postpubescent and/or adult people. Not that it hasn’t come up at all during the thread.
No, most of the discussion relates to the “age of consent”, which is a feature of criminal law and (in most jurisdictions) is only relevant where an adult or near-adult has sex with someone below the specified age. For example, if the “age of consent” is 15, and two 14-years-olds have consensual sex, in most jurisdictions this is either (a) not a crime, or (b) as a matter of policy, not prosecuted.
The “age of consent” is, therefore, primarily about sexual relations between older and younger people.
