I know that this is more of a Great Debates question, but I really wanted to do a poll, so I’m hoping we can keep an honest, lively discussion going and have tabulated results to see where people stand.
Simple question really, how old do you think the age of consent should be? Age of consent meaning the age you are legally capable of consenting to sexual acts with another person, regardless of their age or sex.
If you believe the age limits should be different for males/females or heterosexual/homosexual relationships, mention that as well.
I think there should be some consideration of the difference in age between participants. If the age was 16, I don’t think a 16 year old having sex with a 15 y.o. should be treated like a 35 y.o. having sex with someone 15. So I voted for no black/white cutoff.
Kidding. I voted 18. I do think age of consent laws should take into account the age of both parties involved, though. A 19 year old in bed with a 16 year old does NOT belong on the sex offender registry.
18, across the board, in all states, with an exemption of 3 years age difference for anyone under the age of 21, So, for example, a 19 year old can have sex with a 16 year old, and an 18 YO with a 15, and a 17 YO with a 14, without being treated and prosecuted as a sex offender.
As much as I would like to say that the age of consent should be specific to the person and should be driven by that person’s actual maturity and actual ability to understand and meaningfully consent, such a rule is practically impossible to adjudicate in any fair and reasonable way.
How would such a rule actually work in real life? It boggles the mind.
E.g.:
John (16) : “I got my Certificate of Maturity and Capacity to Consent to Sexual Activity yesterday and now can legally have sex.”
Mary (15) : “Oh. I got denied mine. The evaluator said that my Maturity Questionnaire demonstrated a markedly elevated Fangirlism rating and the evaluator thought that my Sexual Desires freeform essay was too immature because it failed to include enough references to contraceptive use and had too many heart marks on it.”
John (16) : “Oh, what will we do? I so much want to make love to you.”
Mary (15) : “According to the form, I may make an appeal of my maturity rating by obtaining an evaluation from a psychiatrist or licensed clinical psychologist qualified in Sexual Health Counseling within 60 days of my denial, or else the denial will stand for 6 months, after which time I may reapply.”
Also, my view is that there are a large number of people in their 20’s who are too immature in a real world sense to be having sex, but adjudicating the matter is another question entirely. What happens if they fail their Maturity Evaluation year after year? Are we going to have Government-Ordered 50-year-old virgins still desperately trying to pass the test?
Actually, the thought of an 18 YO with a 15 YO, or a 17 YO with a 14 YO squicks me out, but I still don’t believe charges should be brought in those cases. Counseling maybe.
robert, as absurd as it may sound… your idea may be worth consideration. I think your comment about 20 somethings not being mature enough to consent to sex is a real problem too.
Yeah. I agree that it sounds absurd when you try to wrap your head around how it would actually work in a practical sense. Could you suspend or revoke the sex licenses of 20 year old unmarried college girls who got pregnant without a parenting plan too many times, just like a driver’s license can be suspended for too many tickets? Might you have a graduated licensing system where you first got your Condom-Required License, then had to have an additional evaluation/test for an Unprotected License? There are so many things to consider.
I know we couldn’t get away with this, but does anyone think the AoC should be different for boys and girls? It’s really not a level playing field, consequences wise.
I feel it is very individual, and you get into the situation is it 2 adults, 2 kids or a adult/kid situation, so very hard to judge, but absolutely inappropriate and irresponsible to make a hard and fast rule based on age alone.
What our society does not have is a ‘right of passage’ into adulthood, what we do is more like a extension of childhood (to 18 or 21), after which you are a adult which is quite different.
Haha, and judging by the quality of individuals who queue up down at the DMV, I can only imagine the caliber of people waiting in line to get their licenses at the DSI - Department of Sexual Intercourse
The consequences of sex are much more serious for a girl than for a boy.
But the overall message being sent if we had a lower AoC for boys would probably overshadow any benefit that might derive from it. I was just throwing that out there as a thought.
There should be absolute ages and age differentials written into law, because you don’t want to have to try to prove any given individual teenager is capable of giving consent every time some kid’s parents are mad that their kid had sex with another kid. It’s just that there shouldn’t be a single age. You probably need one absolute lower cutoff, a range where the difference in age matters, then another age at which you can consent to sex with anyone.
Ballpark, I’d say that 14-18 makes reasonable sense as the range, and 1-2 years as the differential (maybe starting at 1 and moving to 2).
I just started watching the PBS airing of Prohibition, and one comment I was surprised to hear was that the age of consent in the US used to be 10. Wow.
I many countries in Europe, 14 is the age of consent with some being at 15 and the rest at 16. I know when I was living in Germany, where male and female prostitiution is legal, age of consent there was still 14. I believe the same is true in Italy as well.
I voted 17, but I believe in a “Romeo and Juliet” exception: consenting sex should not be considered statuatory rape if there is less than 3 years age difference.
The three years is slightly arbitrary but I think reasonable. A 16 year old who has sex with a willing 14 year old should be viewed differently than an 18 year old who has sex with a 14 year old (and of course a 32 year old who has sex with a 14 year old, regardless of how willing, fuhgeddaboutit).