Should Be Lower The Age Of Consent To 15 ?

[mikey4444]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-24976929

I can't really make my mind up on this one. If 10,000's of 15 years olds are having sex and we can't seem to stop them, perhaps it shouldn't be a crime. But what of the 14 years olds ? Will there be a campaign in another few years to make that the age of consent ?

[Sqad]

Lazygun.....underage sex has never interested me as a topic and no, i don't have any examples. However when any of these cases come to the attention of the media, it is the male that is prosecuted and not the female....providing of course that the incident is consensual.

[Sqad]

shoota....just read your post. I see, so lowering the age wouldn't be a big deal, the 15year olds then would just carry on as 16year old girls are carrying on now.

[LazyGun]

@Sqad But you made a point of 2 15 year olds having consensual sex and suggested that the law would favour the girl and penalise the boy. I have seen no evidence that this is actually the case at all. I have seen cases where the an underage boy, say 15 years old, has been arrested and prosecuted for having sex with a girl under 13 years of age, as an example - but that is effectively statutory rape, since at 13 years and under the girl is considered a child an unable to give consent at all.

This is a completely different scenario to the one you first suggested, surely?

[shoota]

Essentially yes Sqad.
Dropping the age to 15 would be a similar exercise to raising the speed limit to 80 - it merely decriminalises a common practice.
Always assuming that there are no concerns about the ability to consent of course ie mental capacity.

[mikey4444]

As his 'onour Fred is not about this morning, I looked this up :::

http://www.sarcplymouth.co.uk/default/index.cfm/historic/consent/

As it appears to be a crime for a 15 year old girl to have sex, I'm not sure why the men or indeed boys concerned are not being charged with rape. Gym slip mothers are a problem in the UK but I never hear of anybody being charged or prosecuted. Presumably the girls has also committed an offence ::::

http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2011/feb/22/teenage-pregnancy-rates-england-wales-map

The link also says that a child aged or younger must have been raped, as they are not deemed to be able to give consent.

[jno]

it seems many European cuntries have lower ages fo consent than we do. I wonder why they're less worried about their children than we are? Do they know something we don't? (Or do we know something they don't?)

[Sqad]

LazyGun.........still can't understand the significance of age, but will accept that your explanation is the correct one.

[jno]

good grief. *countries*

[Sqad]

mikey........so a girl aged 15 cannot be charged and hence has no case to answer even if the intercourse is consensual, it is rape?

[shoota]

In Delaware (U.S.) in 1895 the age of consent was 7 (seven).....

[237SJ]

I tend to agree with it. Even when I was at school, girls were having sex at 15. My friend`s daughter recently got pregnant at 15. There might be more help and information for kids of that age if they are not breaking the law.

[shoota]

http://www.fpa.org.uk/factsheets/law-on-sex

[shoota]

England and Wales

The age of consent to any form of sexual activity is 16 for both men and women.

The Sexual Offences Act 2003 introduced a new series of laws to protect children under 16 from sexual abuse. However, the law is not intended to prosecute mutually agreed teenage sexual activity between two young people of a similar age, unless it involves abuse or exploitation.

Specific laws protect children under 13, who cannot legally give their consent to any form of sexual activity. There is a maximum sentence of life imprisonment for rape, assault by penetration, and causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity. There is no defence of mistaken belief about the age of the child, as there is in cases involving 13–15 year olds.

Read more at http://www.fpa.org.uk/factsheets/law-on-sex#ubFXI5gmp1xsKd0L.99

[Sqad]

LazyGun, I understand your post now.;-)

[anotheoldgit]

hc4361

/// A paedophile would not be interested in a 15 year old girl - paedophiles go for girls who have not gone through puberty or very young boys. ///

Call them what you like, do you think that if the age of consent was lowed to 15 years. it would be quite acceptable for an adult of say 40, to have sex with a 15 year old girl.

If you do, then there would be many celebrities who are now facing prison for doing such things, being cleared of all past charges.

[mikey4444]

Sqad...I am not entirely sure, which is why we need fred this morning. As I see it, and I think I have it correct, if the girl becomes pregnant at 12 or under, then she can't be charged. But if she was 13, 14, or 15 she could.

I am unhappy about any change to the law for one good reason. Not enough application of the law appears to be used at present, so I can't see any reason why a new law would help. According to the Guardian article, over 7000 girls under 16 became pregnant in 2009, a large proportion of which had to have abortions. That is 7000 too many in my opinion.

We should be applying the law as it stands at present, before we consider changing it. Somebody has used the analogy of the 80 mph speed limit. I see idiots driving at 80 and 90 mph most days when I drive along the M4 in South Wales, an area with a noticeably high amount of speed cameras. God only knows what it would be like if we raised the limit to 80 mph.

[Sqad]

Shoota......it would seem that 13 years old for the female is the important marker here as it does not depend on con sensuality.

From 13yrs to 15 yrs for consensual sex, bugger all is done about it, so why not lower the 16 year point to 13 years and make just one age?

[mikey4444]

AOG...I agree wholeheartedly ( again) !

[Sqad]

mikey

\\\\As I see it, and I think I have it correct, if the girl becomes pregnant at 12 or under, then she can't be charged. But if she was 13, 14, or 15 she could.\\\

That is how I see it, but according to shoota's posts and links, girls of 13,14,or 15 are very rarely charged..........so why have the age of 16 years at all?

[mikey4444]

Sqad...by your token then, it is logical to reduce the age down to 13, at the same time as we raise the max speed limit to 100mph !