Is the age of consent flawed?

[btbc92]

Firstly it's about intent. The age of consent laws is only flawed because people don't know what sex is and sex ed is telling it wrong. And marriage can't happen without parental consent until 18. Sex is a marriage and marriage is all about having sex. A 15-17 is a young adult. 18 is the age of the majority. But adulthood has 0 to do with age, but maturity. And not everybody at 18 is an adult. And not everybody who is 16 of the same mentality. Brain growth has 0 to do with that. I came into this world knowing a lot of things even ADULTS didn't know. I could have married at 13 if it was legal. But here is the problem. It's not LEGAL. Society cannot tell me I'm too young yet their way older and still don't have their lives together. However, majority of 13 years old don't want responsiblity, they want sex, and sex is supposedly to be fun. So they're doing it for 'fun', not for stability like I would have wanted. Thank God I kept my virginity and still have it.

"To say that a 18 year old is a sex offender bc they're dating a 16 year old is flawed." No. It's the law. An 18 is an adult. A 16 is still a minor. Not yet an adult. That's why you marry, THEN have sex. Otherwise, it can be considered rape. Premarital sex is still premarital sex. And most 18 year olds sleep with 16 years old to take advantage of them, though a good amount of 16 years old would do the same. It's again about INTENT. NOT just beliefs or what is unfair. For an example:

Why should a 16 year old have sex, yet don't want to marry? Because they want to fool around, gain so-called experience, yet get upset when the relationship ended. Why? You wanted experience, you got it, don't get upset. You got what you wanted. The same attitudes is seen in a person's 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, and even 80s till they die. It's a person's choice how they want to live, but how you live your life does affect other people. It affects your family, your children if you had any and or got pregnant, society at large is affected because you had no offspring, everytime you get sick your affecting others just like this pandemic is killing so many just by contact alone. Your tax dollars affects the economy. If there is no money then your broke.

Your not children per se, no. BUT you have to learn to be more accountable and learn responsibility. Rebellious people hates authority and responsibility no matter what you try to tell them. That's whysmart people start away from rebellion, but they end up usually as the butt of the world's joke and are shunned from society. There is a good reason why the age of consent and in my opinion should be higher. Because until people start waiting for marriage to have sex, yoru messing yourself up and people like me who would have gotten a family and healthy marriage, can't because there isn't anyone reliable or kept themselves either, yet is upset at the laws. If the laws allowed sex between 10 year olds, your pissed. Yet you want to make it legal to have sex at so and so age. You can't have it both ways. The only way you can make a good change is by living the life you say you want by also respecting the laws.

[Bee-Hatch]

Probably. But it's a line in the sand. In the uk our age of consent is 16. Many experiment earlier. You have to pick a point where you agree that going younger is not in the best interest of the person involved. Otherwise your argument drawn to its logical conclusion could see kids barely in their teens or even earlier being allowed to have sex. And that requires an adult decision, that beyond a certain lower limit the person simply isn't equipped to make. So we pick an age that all things considered is reasonable as being appropriate.

[andreasderjuengere]

In the majority of countries, the age of consent is below 18.
Can it be that you confuse something here?
Perhaps your question is rather about (legal) adult/minor issues.
However: sooner or later people need to be responsible for their own and on their own; no one can hide behind Mom's apron for ever. If that's 18 or if that's 21... it does not really matter.
Law isn't stiff in this respect - in borderline cases (age-wise) a judge will usually consider the circumstances.
Outside of law-issues: those of 'us' who are a little ahead are familiar with your idea since centuries - and handle it in a sufficiently appropriate manner.

[MrHopper]

It is just "a number" its 16 here and i had sex at 17 which was quite late for most kids, but i was not an adult or even felt like an adult till my 20s when i felt mature enough to look after my self.

Everyone is different i guess, sex is sex when you are older, it gets to a point where its really not important and no one really cares when or how you did it, but as a kid its like Alcohol, that taboo thing you not suppose to do, but as you grow up its just something thats there and everyone does it

[tartaarsaus]

Yes. It’s flawed in the sense that different people develop differently. But it’d be borderline impossible to have clear laws if you just let it depend on the “mental capacity of someone to make those decisions” because those at those ages may think they do, but they don’t. Plus, how would you even know if the other can give consent if it’s assessed afterwards by something you cannot at all check?


So yeah, it’s flawed. But making a policy that firs everyone perfectly would not be feasible.

[BCA6010]

In my opinion, we should just have a singular age where someone is recognized as an adult, and all age-restricted privileges come with it.

And I'm inclined to say that in the USA, most 18yr olds are nowhere near mature enough to be treated like adults. Hell, some people my age still act like they're in high school...

[TeeBar]

One has to draw the line somewhere and the age of consent was chosen after very extensive research. Like any cut-off point, there are those who fall on the wrong side but such is life. Study the concept of The Standard Distribution for enlightenment in decision-making.

[Anonymous]

they think u can make decision about sex. pregnancy , inheritance, money, the night u turn 18.
funny in my opinion
but doesn't mean i am advocating 16 year olds to have sex.
They may have done some research and found that most kids mature by the age of 18. so they made this law that u can have sex, drink, inherit ancestral money or property when u r 18.

but imagine an 18 year old person inheriting money and estates worth millions. they r likely to become crazy , do weird shit and loose all that.

They needed some number, they came at 18, there must be scientfic backing to this

[DWornock]

The age of consent should be about 13 with added restrictions if someone is mentally retarded or when their is a power difference, such as employee/employer, stepfather/stepdaughter, doctor/patient, or teacher/student. In more enlightened times, the age of consent was much younger such as 10 or 12.
See discover-the-truth.com/.../

[Xochitl2021]

Legal adult is 21 in the United States, that means you can legally go to a bar and get a drink, go to an adults tittie bar etc. Anything under 21 is a minor. That should be the guide for everything else, including voting in an election. Also if you are 21 but you are still living with your parents and you can't support your basic expenses like car insurance, car payment, food , medical and dental , college, then you are not considered an adult until you can legally support yourself, that is a term from the Journal of Psychology who decided when a human is considered mentally capable of being an adult in a court of law. There was a case where an 18 year old was considered an adult because he worked, sustained his three little sisters and owned a car, judge granted custody if his three sisters and he was a legal adult at age 18.

[Anonymous]

18 is chosen for simplicity's sake. It is near impossible to prove someone's maturity level, but we can generally agree that everyone is mature enough by 18. And even then, that's partially because we need soldiers and it's hard to make the argument that you can wear a uniform and carry a gun to a foreign country and represent your nation on a battlefield, but you can't have sex. Somehow we can't apply that same logic to alcohol, but America has always been weird about mind-altering substances.

[jennifer_bloom]

I don’t believe a person is mentally mature enough for adult relationships until they are at least 20-21 years old. I view 19 year olds the same way I view 13 year olds - Undateable children who don’t know their left hand from their right.

[Anonymous]

The problem is, what idea would you replace it with?

[Anonymous]

It goes as low as16 in America but yes it's not really based on anything other than arbitrary number

[DizzyDesii]

Yea the age of consent should probably be 20+ because you can still be 19 and under in HS. Now if they flunked a grade, thats their fault lmao

[OddBeMe]

We have to draw the line somewhere. But four years of high school helps.

[Anonymous]

Not too sure I know where I live the legal age of consent is 16 also a 16 can legally date anyone 16 or older if they wanted to dated a 30 year old they could and there is nothing the police or the law can do as the legal age of consent is 16 you can even leave home at 16 the only thing you can’t do until you are 18 is but alcohol smokes go night clubbing gamble and play the pokies

[MsLivy]

I think it's fine as is

[Quackthulu]

A lot of laws are flawed. What’s your point?

[GAGSucksBalls1]

Yep!