Spain Considering Raising Age Of Sexual Consent To Sixteen.

[andres]

A 13years old Spanish girl was murdered by her 38yrs old lover. The age of consent for sex in Spain is at present 13yrs.The Health minister in Spain would like the age of consent raised to 16yrs.in order to stop the ' legal sexual abuse of children'.
One of our UK barristers thinks the legal age of consent should be lowered to 13.
In light of the recent Jeremy Forrest case do you agree with the barrister or should we keep the age as it is at 16.

[Slapshot]

Didn't mean to hit return there...sorry.

I know it's not practical but I also think this arbitrary number is wrong however, i don't have any better idea how to address it.

[hc4361]

How about puberty being the benchmark rather than age?

[2sp_]

hc, the problem would then be that some children can hit puberty at 9, while some are late developers and can be over 16 when it happens to them.

[ummmm]

hc - some children under the age of 10 hit puberty.

[March-Hare]

At the risk of being controversial .... I don't believe the sentence for Jeremy Forrest is appropriate (and I realise this was not the question) The girl may not have been 16 at the time, but he did not abduct her, she was not taken against her will and from what I have seen of the case, seems to have agreed to everything that happened.

To answer the question - reducing to age 13 is ridiculous - 15 or 16 is correct

[Old_Geezer]

I think 16 sounds good as long as one ensures young folk don't incriminate each other with poorly chosen underage consensual sex. Girls ought not be risking pregnacy before then anyway, and neither gender ought to be taking on the possible responsibilities at that age.

[Old_Geezer]

The thing is, March, it's not so much the age difference or even that the girl was consenting and almost 16, it's to do with a teacher knowing they are in a position of responsibility, and thus need to be mature enough to not go down that route. It's the trust betrayal that causes concern.

[AlwaysConfused]

You can bring a child into the world at 16, but cannot be trusted to drive until 17 or buy alcohol until 18 years, etc. If a child is not mature enough in the eyes of the law to hit the pubs, vote, own a credit card etc they are not mature enough to raise a child.

[Khandro]

Does consent at 13 mean that the girl herself is eligible to decide, - which is far to young - or is it so that older male predators can attack her with impunity?

[emmie]

16 is right, don't understand how Spain thinks 13 is right at all.

[emmie]

i have heard of girls as young as 9 reaching puberty, surely one wouldn't consider that a sensible age for sex. They may change bodily quicker now, but that doesn't mean the head follows suit.

[atalanta]

The age of consent is to stop very young girls being turned into prostitutes. It is not there to stop 2 fifteen-year-olds getting horizontal. But for fifteen-year-olds to learn a bit of self-control wouldn't be a bad thing

[trt]

Today girls of 14/15 are much more mature than they were years ago and lots are having regular sex.

15 sounds about right and I agree with march-hare about the teacher, the girl was in care and very mature and wasn't forced to have sex or run away.

[pixie373]

I'm not convinced that teenagers are more mature nowadays. They learn more from social sites/ internet than i used to. But i wouldn't call that 'maturity'. I would say, if anything, teenagers have less responsibility than they used to many years ago. A lot of my elderly clients left school at 14. Was normal then. Joined the army or worked. People used to get married, have children , at a much younger age, etc. They mature physically faster, with good diets and healthcare, but I'm not convinced they are actually "more mature."

[emmie]

seem more mature, isn't the same thing as being so. If the girl had been mature, she would not have been persuaded by this man to run off like that.

[hc4361]

If we are to believe the reports, em - she 'persuaded' him to run off to France, threatening all sorts if he didn't.

[tab69]

omg it should be higher at 18. my daughters 14 and not started her periods even, girls bodies aren't ready for sex at 13 its wrong, they aren't mentally or physically ready, the barrister is sick to lower it. its as good as child abuse