I’m linking to this neo-conservative forum for a reason. The issue being discussed here is mainly, the lowering of the age of consent (in the USA) to twelve. This view is supported in the much criticized book Harmful to Minors by Judith Levine, in which she outlines how the conservative/Christian mainstream is hellbent on preventing adolescents from their inherent sexuality. My question to you is: how do you feel about the age of consent? In most of the United States it is 16 or 18 depending on state, and differing according to sexual orientation (http://www.ageofconsent.com).
Granted, a fair percentage (majority) of visitors to this forum are probably under or on the fence of this policy. I myself am a bit unsure. While also opening up legal sexual activity amoungst minors, it also would probably open up sex between a minor and an older person, which sometimes blurs the lines of consent (confusingly, non-consentual sexuality occurs as much as if not more between two minors). However, a general age of consent like 16 or 18, aside from being rediculous, judges maturity and responsibility based on age, something that can be a terrible mistake.
After considering the facts, I think that lowering the AOC to 12 wouldn’t be a terrible idea. Being raped by a fellow minor is no worse than being raped by an older person, and I think we are precluding “minors” from an entire area of life for reasons we don’t understand.
teens’ll fuck. Its a fact of life. The best thing people can do is provide the proper education and protection. Age of concent should be 15 imho… high school you know. Though there are people that do it earlier than 14, but that’s just sick tho. I say 14-15 because by then, sex ed is pretty prevalent and its obvious that hormones will be flaring by then.
Er, I completely disagree with your last paragraph about rape. I don’t think it should even be said that one form is supposedly “not worse” than another. Maybe I’m the only one that’s disturbed by that.
I think that adolescents will do it no matter the age of consent. They have for so long anyway.
To me, the problem with lowering the age of consent (from say, 16 to 12) is not people of the same age experimenting with each other but the idea of adults taking greater advantage of younger, more immature people. It seems that having the age of consent where it is adds options in prosecution of cases where an adult took advantage of (read it as rape, if you want) a minor; I see it as more of a protective measure than anything else. I’m not saying anything about individual levels of maturity, but I can say with some degree of certainty that a 14 year old generally will have less worldly and emotional experience than a 22 year old or an 18 year old.
I’m sorry, but I can’t get the sick image of some grown man getting in some 12 year old’s pants out of my head.
If we absolutely MUST make the effort to change the age of consent at all, Sin’s recommendation of 15 is good enough for me. Though I don’t have any strong objection to it being what it is currently, other than my preferring it be uniform nationwide (not 16 here, 18 there, etc. but one age everywhere. Less confusion that way).
Nobody ever wanted to sleep with me at any age anyway, so why should I care?
I don’t mean that consentual statutory is as bad as non-consentual adultxchild rape, I mean that non-consentual rape by another minor is just as bad as non-consentual rape by an older person. If you still disagree I am confused.
As for twelve, not exactly my proverbial bag, but I think one would be competant enough at that age to know whether or not they want to have sex.
No, I’m not in favor of lowering the age at all. True most teens will go ahead and ignore the law, but I don’t think this is something the law should be endorsing.
However, I don’t feel the age of consent should be lowered farther than 16. If that.
The problem is, maturity is hard to define, and some mature faster than others. I’ve seen 15 year olds who are more mature than some 30 year olds.
I have nothing against homosexuality (and in fact do get annoyed when people bark abotu equating homosexuals with pedophiles.), but it is distressing.
But what can you do? The best prevention a kid could have is a strong, good, and loving family who will teach them what is right and what is not.
Some of teh replies disturb me though. I don’t think a 13 year old boy should be punished as a 33-year old man. (That’s the implications I got from some of the posts), seeing as chances are, they will nto be the same level of maturity, and while the physical results are the same, chances are the 13-year old did not know better.
Originally posted by Silhouette
In most of the United States it is 16 or 18 depending on state, and differing according to sexual orientation (http://www.ageofconsent.com).
I found this to be very strange. If it is in fact true, then I’d say the law shouldn’t be discriminating based on sexual orientation in things like this. Imagine… to think that having sex with one gender requires more or less maturity than the other… -_-
I’m not really sure where I stand on the issue. In California, the age is 18, and that seems too high to me. 16 seems about right, but I can see why there might be reasons for lowering it beyond that. I think that curbing statutory rape is more important than just stopping kids of the same age (no matter how young) from having sex.
In Sweden it’s 15 years old, and I’m fine with that. However, I don’t think there is ANY excuse for rape, and it need to be punished for what it is. Of course, a 13-year old wouldn’t be sent to prison, but definitely needs a lot of psychiatric work to understand what the hell he did.
>As for twelve, not exactly my proverbial bag, but I think one would be competant enough at that age to know whether or not they want to have sex.
Absolutely not. A twelve year old can easily be coerced into having sex by an adult when he or she does not really want to.
They should keep the age of consent at 18, simply because the courts would lose the opportunity to legally try older men who are sexual predators if the age of consent was lowered to 15. True, teenagers are going to have sex with each, but you still want to have legal recourse to be able to punish the real bad guys.
I do think this country is a bit too afraid of its own reproductive system, but thats mainly due to the religious asscrunch’s that run our country.
I don’t think it should be 12. More like 13 or 14. I don’t even know what it is now -_-;;
Lemme tell you a story.
The first sexual relationship I had that lasted more than a hookup was with a girl that was 18. I was 14 at the time, and it was a bit of a worry of ours that if my mom found out what was going on, would she press charges. I knew exactly what was going on between both the girl and I, but the law is the law, and while my mom wouldn’t exploit the girl, I knew she wouldn’t stand for what was going on. We didn’t stop having sex, but we did wonder if anything could happen to her. Could a girl be charged with stuatory rape?
Probably so, but still, that is something that is usually applied to men, in the eyes of the law.
So yea, I think it should be lowered, but not by much.
Sex sells, I don’t want to make this sound like a cheesy after school special but, just watch MTV, hell gives 12 year olds another reason to be horney and think they are thugs so they can fuck there ‘bitchtes’ if you go to the middle school in my town most of the kids there thing they are hardass thugs.
Most kids do drugs now adays, or underage drink. I don’t condone it, although I do marijuana, and I do underage drink. But I’ve never been interested in sex. Yes I am gay, and most of the gay guys I’ve met are horney bastards.
Sex plays a big role in life. And kids are just living to fast these days.
They shouldnt lower the age.if you think about it, that basically lets hormone driven 12 year olds a reason to do something they may not fully understand.Hell, half the 15-16 year olds I know are less than fluent in their sexual education, and for this, we can actually believe that 12-13 year olds aren’t?I’m not saying every pre teen and young teen is immature, but a lot of them are, and if the consent is lowered(mind you, i;m just staing my opinion, this is happening in the states is it not?I live in Canada) it might act as some kind of law, that you HAVE you lose your virginity by age 14, or that its ok for a girl to go through her pre teen years on her back…probably girls who have not started their period, and by the time they do, they’re totally mislead on what the consequences can be, of result of casual sex.A lto of kids that age are not educated, are generally horny and are not willing to slow down and take time to think over just what they’re doing.To be less intelligent, the thought of 12 year olds hopping in the sack with each other, or someone much older is gross. At the age of 12, 13, 14 (generally speaking) kids are still vunerable to “corruption”(take that any way you want) and are still in the process of fiding out about their own sexual health and well being.I cant even list all the possible ways that a minor having sex with someone much older, can distort their well being.To me, it just isnt right…
ETA:Yeah lots of kids and teenagers have sex nowdays, and that’s fine.It’s their choice, but for kids who arent fully mature, lowering the consent is like taking away a 12 year old’s rights or something, I guess.They might feel it’s okay for someone older to sexually take advantage of them.
I think some of you are expressing views somewhat disconnected from reality. Most kids don’t lose their virginity till the age of 16 or 17, and still a sizable chunk don’t lose it until they get to college.
