Should the federal age of consent be decreased?

[InsecureLivesMatter]

Over here it's 18 (the USA, though some states have it at 16 or 17)

Yes

No

It should be increased

[Leopard23]

I think we need a clear cut uniform nationwide law for sex like Britain has without romeo Juliet laws or loopholes like some states have that involve getting written permission or if you married her first or that sex is OK if both are under the age of consent. The law should be no sex under the age of 16 period, if your over 16 have sex with whoever you want age16-120.

[RolandCuthbert]

Absolutely not. It is funny how these charges of pedophilia work. The states where they are trying to legalize teenage marriage somehow escape notice.

[InsecureLivesMatter]

so should it stay at 18 or be increased to an age like 21 or even 25?

[RolandCuthbert]

I don't think we will ever get an age limit set at the federal level. When you do that, the crazies scream deep state, the gumberment is taking over, the libs are pushing their values, etc.

Most states have it set at 18. A few states have it set lower and there are folks who want the ability to marry teenage girls, on the claim that's when they are supposed to be having children.

[Gummy_Cluster]

Hell no! The federal government's job is to protect us from foreign enemies, and they can't even manage that. Don't put more on their plate, because it will confuse them.

[Tyrael]

Your legal drinking age needs to come down. You can fuck at 18 but you can't have a beer? You can go to war, get married, have kids, smoke, own guns, but you can't have a beer? It makes no sense lol

[abc3643]

Fucking doesn't cause car accidents; drunk driving does.

That's why the drinking age became uniformly set to 21 in 1984 although it took some time before all states made it 21.

[Tyrael]

That doesn't prevent drink driving so I'm not sure how that's relevant.

[abc3643]

It's relevant because it doesn't prevent drunk driving but it cuts down the number of incidents..

Most drunk driving accidents are due to young people because, comparatively speaking, they have less responsibilities, less maturity, and less at stake. So, they are more likely to go out, have fun, get drunk, drive, and then die and/or kill.

One other problem at the time... Because states did not have uniform drinking age requirements, kids in one state who could not drink legally,, would drive to another state and get shitfaced there. Then, driving home, they'd get into an accident.

So, Mothers Against Drunk Driving and the insurance industry got fed-up with this so they lobbied Congress to create a national minimum age for drinking and set that to 21 which was considered reasonable given the adverse impact it was going to have on bars in college towns. And, it got enacted in 1984. Constitutionally, the Federal Government is not permitted to set a minimum drinking age, but they can withhold highway funds to states that don't set the minimum drinking age to the Federal standard. That was challenged in the US Supreme Court in the case South Dakota v Dole in 1987. South Dakota lost so all states have had 21 as the drinking age since then.

(more)

[abc3643]

Anyway, it worked. For example, here's an excerpt from 2010 paper in The Journal of Safety Research.

Journal of Safety Research
Volume 41, Issue 2, April 2010, Pages 173-181

TITLE: The effects of minimum legal drinking age 21 laws on alcohol-related driving in the United States
Author: Anne T. McCartt, Laurie A. Hellinga, Bevan B. Kirley
Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, 1005 North Glebe Road, Arlington, VA United States
...
Results
(Minimum Legal Drinking Age) MLDA laws underwent many changes during the 20th century in the United States. Since July 1988, the MLDA has been 21 in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Surveys tracking alcohol consumption among high school students and young adults found that drinking declined since the late 1970s, and most of the decline occurred by the early 1990s. These were the years when states were establishing, or reinstating, a MLDA-21. Among fatally injured drivers ages 16–20, the percentage with positive BACs declined from 61% in 1982 to 31% in 1995, a bigger decline than for older age groups; declines occurred among the ages directly affected by raising MLDAs (ages 18–20) and among young teenagers not directly affected (ages 16–17). Almost all studies designed specifically to gauge the effects of drinking age changes show MLDAs of 21 reduce drinking, problematic drinking, drinking and driving, and alcohol-related crashes among young people.

[abc3643]

Forgot the URL:
www.sciencedirect.com/.../S0022437510000174

[LiamJHayden]

Some? Most states have an age of consent of 16. Dark Blue = 16; Olive = 17; Light Green

[Dargil]

It's OK where it is. In the Vietnam days, you could die in combat at 17 but not buy liquor.

[Guy13]

It should be 18 National

[OddBeMe]

If anything raised and ensured at 18 or 19.

[In_Trance]

Doesn't matter either way

[exitseven]

18 is young enough.

[Anonymous]

Hell NO.