Yes |
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71.5% (181) |
No |
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19% (48) |
Other, please clarify |
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9.5% (24) |
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Gone Gonzo  Posts: 1652 Joined: 2 Nov 2008     | |
Muckraker  Posts: 256 Joined: 10 Jan 2009     | The thing about consent is the maturity level. Young children dont exactly know right from wrong, and having sex at 13 can really mess up someones life. (Like 75% of the kids in my school =_=) But the opposing argument is that it depends from person to person. Some people just never get mature... =/ But they've probably already had sex. Yay for making this short.. I've got to go to sleep now, or I never will! |
Anonymous Source Posts: 8 Joined: 13 Jan 2009     | Huh. Well this thread seems to have had little traffic so far, but my opinion is a bit conflicted on this one. On the one hand allowing two people who want to have sex with one another to do so without the threat of legal repercussion makes sense. But, on the other hand... you know what? No I changed my mind I am going to agree with you on this one fullmetal. Our society has far to many qualms about sex. I dislike the idea that, just because some people find it offensive, two people can get in serious legal trouble for wanting to have sex. And sure, some people do have sex at too young an age and get "messed up" because of it. But, I feel like that comes more from the fact that our culture says that it's wrong. If you've had sex at that age and then everyone tells you that you've done something horrible then it is bound to mess with your head. I feel that with more sex education people should be able to make their own decisions about sex when they become sexually mature. I guess I just expect a lot of people. |
Gone Gonzo Posts: 1652 Joined: 2 Nov 2008 |
Wait, why does having sex at a young age mess you up? |
Red Guard  Posts: 4931 Joined: 14 Oct 2007     | I believe there should be an 'age of consent' as a guideline and to prevent say, child sexual exploitation. However, I believe that there needs to be serious thought about the definition of the crime. Consent is key here, not age. |
Pulitzer Laureate  Posts: 985 Joined: 20 Oct 2008   |
One word: Babies. 13 year old parents, that's messed up. |
Gone Gonzo Posts: 1652 Joined: 2 Nov 2008 |
Okay, that is indeed a good point, but in my opinion, that's more of a problem with sex education than age of consent. |
Red Guard Posts: 4931 Joined: 14 Oct 2007 |
This is where sex education comes into it, or at least knowing about contraception. |
BANNED  Posts: 6317 Joined: 29 Nov 2007     | I think the age of consent needs to be 18. It's FAR to easy to trick a thirteen year old girl into thinking she wants sex if you're twenty-two.
Yeah, because teenagers are just JUMPING on the idea of condoms.... Yeah.... Sex ED doesn't work in America. You can't teach someone to use something they'll never use. User was banned for: The hypocrisy is KILLING me.. (Permanent) |
Anonymous Source Posts: 8 Joined: 13 Jan 2009 | I am still in agreement with fullmetal here. I feel like making laws against younger people having sex is way less effective than teaching them how to avoid the negative repercussions of it. I like Labyrinth's point of an age of consent being a good idea, but the punishment being different. Nothing messes you up like having to explain the Statutory Rape charge to every prospective employer. |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 3664 Joined: 21 Jan 2008    | While I have believe I don't have the right to tell people what to do in their bedrooms, I'd prefer that the age of consent be kept at 16, to allow for the completion of sexual maturity ( and I suppose I'd just prefer it be kept at 16). That said, I hate how the age of consent is 16, yet it's a criminal offence for a 18 year old to engage in sexual relations with a 16, or even 17 year. If you have consent laws, keep them universal. |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 2338 Joined: 5 Nov 2008   | I am a virgin so this is mostly conjecture on my part. I do not believe in premarital sex anyway. Age of consent laws provide a necessary protection because if, for example, a 15 year old boy had sex with his 30 year old teacher it could influence his opinion of what sex should be like when he becomes an adult. Presumably he would find having sex with a person of approximately the same size to be different from what he experienced as a 15 year old which could render the concept of sex with other adults unpalatable and afflict him with a disorder. People also need time to learn about the negative consequences of sex such as extramarital pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, like AIDS. |
Gone Gonzo Posts: 1652 Joined: 2 Nov 2008 |
Why would the age of consent change how easy it is to trick a girl into having sex with you. Or a boy for that matter, that gender seems to always be forgotten in these kinds of discussions. It would still be sexual harrassment, it all depends on the circumstances. As far as I know, condoms are generally popular in my area, maybe it's a problem with your sex ed? Also, may I mention that the age of consent in Canada is fourteen, practically the same as Japan. You don't see us doing that. Wait, also, why do rape charges dissappear because the Age of Consent is gone? That's like saying, because heterosexuality is legal, so is rape if it's heterosexual. And isn't it the other way around? Currently, a 16 year old and an 18 year old having sex IS considered rape in a lot of places but once you take the age of consent out, there's no defense unless it was actually rape, in which case it would be treated exactly as rape cases are treated right now. |
Gone Gonzo Posts: 2338 Joined: 5 Nov 2008 |
Exactly! |
Gone Gonzo Posts: 1652 Joined: 2 Nov 2008 |
That's really, really stretching it. That's like saying you're going to have a sexual disorder if your boyfriend/girlfriend is taller than you/shorter than you. Actually, that's what you did say. Also, I had all my sex ed classes by the time I was 15, I knew quite a bit. I knew about HIV (AIDS is a symptom not a disease), that condoms and pills aren't 100% fool proof, where babies come from and how they grow. I learned about drugs, and pregnancy and all that. But what is the difference between an informed 14 year old and an informed 20 year old? What if it's actually the 20 year old that's misinformed? The whole idea behind the Age of Consent seems to be based on the idea that age = wisdom, which, I have often seen to be plain untrue. |
On the Record  Posts: 5491 Joined: 13 Aug 2008   | I think that yes, there should be an age of consent. But at the same time, there needs tobe something done about certain things. For me, being 18 means I can't be with someone that's 17. One year's difference and it's utterly illegal. |
Muckraker Posts: 256 Joined: 10 Jan 2009 | With my comment I was thinking more mentally.. But I guess that's just for me, as I'm so sensitive and ideal about the entire thing...(sensitive being a wrong word for it, but I can find no other) |
Paperboy  Posts: 49 Joined: 7 Jan 2009  | There's some JPN show called Mother At 14. |
Gone Gonzo Posts: 1652 Joined: 2 Nov 2008 |
True... But you're over the age of consent so your own feelings can't count for this, since the age of consent doesn't "protect" you (Although, how it did before, I have no idea). |
Anonymous Source  Posts: 6 Joined: 15 Dec 2008    | who has the right to tell you when your ready to have sex? when did mankind say " your too young to do that" people now days have so much forced on to them i say that the more mankind goes the more messed up it will get as the young can find the info more easily and at a much younger age. please tell me if u think i am mad. |
Gone Gonzo Posts: 1652 Joined: 2 Nov 2008 |
Okay, the weird thing about age of consent laws is that people under it can have sex with each other, so that's not an issue. edit: By that's not an issue I mean, if the law was really about that, it would just make sex illegal for young people, but it doesn't. |
Paperboy  Posts: 46 Joined: 13 Jan 2009  | I do kind of believe in an age of consent, but just to prevent child exploitation. I think that there should be a "grey zone" around the ages of 15-20 where sex is okay within the zone, but not out of it. That would protect relationships "on the border" of conventional ages of consent. But, of course, proper education is everything. There's not really anything we can do about making teens wear condoms/use pills. We can present them the material and have them ingrave it in their skulls, but we can't make them apply it. |
Copy Clerk Posts: 110 Joined: 4 Dec 2008  |
It isn't there to punish, its there to protect. Also parents have the right to tell their children what to do. |
Gone Gonzo Posts: 1652 Joined: 2 Nov 2008 |
What's it protecting from though, seriously. And I disagree with the parents thing, it depends on the parents. Personally, I don't think it should be legal for parents to indoctrinate their children into their beliefs, but that's a whole other can of worms. |
Pulitzer Laureate  Posts: 926 Joined: 13 May 2008   |
^-- That. I personally think yes, there should be an age of consent law (by the way it's 16 out here, 18 if you are a homosexual male - I don't know why they make the males wait longer - unless things have changed without my knowing in the few years since I studied law (or my memory is shot XD). Seem to remember something about over 18's hooking up with under 18's, can someone dig it up? Anyway, I think that there should be an additional rule applied to it. The rule I, and every guy in my "circle", applied by was 2below4above (i.e. 2 years younger up to four years older). On a scale there should be some sort of geometric enhancement of this (i.e. a 30 year old can get with a 90 year old if they want, or a 22 year old) as the years progress, but I think the ruling would hold quite true. The point I'm trying to eliminate is a 25 year old sleeping with a 16 year old, or a 21 year old sleeping with a.. ahem... milf. It's not going to stop people to be sure, but I think that if we're going to arbitrarily decide that I'm 17 and 364 days old and thus can't drink for another 24 hours, then we should start providing some leeway somewhere. But not just to young people, let's start eliminating 18 or 19 year old gold diggers as well (sorry ladies, don't mean to offend). That's just my $0.02 AU, it's really hot here in SA so I might sound a little disjointed. Cheers |
Gone Gonzo Posts: 1652 Joined: 2 Nov 2008 | Well, so far, all I've been hearing is, basically, "Because they shouldn't". Honestly, that answer doesn't cut it for me. I'm going to bed, hope there's a better answer up here in the morning. |
Pulitzer Laureate  Posts: 884 Joined: 19 Sep 2008    | It would be a very bad idea to remove the age of consent, though each case should be looked at differently as there is no precident that can be applied to all. However, as a thread said a few days ago, its always heavily biased against guys.
He/She could be two weeks underage and it would still be illegal, which to me misses the point of the laws entirely. Still, we have it quite lucky. In some countries you can still go to jail just for holding hands with someone of the same sex. Strict consent laws seem pretty liberal compared to that. |
BANNED  Posts: 1201 Joined: 18 Sep 2008 | I'm not sure how this would work, but i think people should be tested to see if they're mature enough (and intelligent enough) to have sex and the like, I'm sorry but if you're stupid you shouldn't have kids and you shouldn't be bamming, just in case you have kids by accident, or, just sterilise immature morons, that'd solve it. User was banned for: WOW: a wtf moment. (Permanent) |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 2108 Joined: 13 Dec 2007 | There are many, many reasons why age of consent is a good idea. |
Copy Clerk Posts: 110 Joined: 4 Dec 2008 |
From people that might try and sleep with them obviously. There are those who would try to trick children into having sex, the rule is in place so that, hypothetically, the people involved are both mature enough to make the decision. Yes the age is arbitrary, but maturity level is not something easily measure and going at it case by case would be impossible so there has to be some kind of blanket protection. Parents have the right to lay down rules, its their job. Parents teach their children how to act, what is right and wrong. Parents own the house, the car, pay for the kids room and board, they make the rules. Obviously there are those who abuse their power, but just because some will abuse it does not mean you take it away. |
Beat Writer  Posts: 127 Joined: 25 May 2008   | As a devout Catholic, I simply cannot refrain from informing everyone of my faith's opinion. Pre-marital sex is sinful, and that will always be enough for me. However, since you all have such an enormous throbbing hard on for rational thinking, I'll try to justify my position without any help from the divine. I hope we can all agree that teen pregnancy is a sad and troubling thing. I can't help but think that if there was no age of consent, we would have more young (by that I mean inappropriately young) pregnancies and things would start to get pretty pear-shaped (pun intended!). Yes, I know that most teenagers don't care what the law says and will be humping 'till the cows come home anyway. But the act is still taboo for them and they know it. For every teenager who finds that a good enough reason to abstain, and therefore reduces the chances of another teen pregnancy, I call that a win for the law. |
Beat Writer  Posts: 160 Joined: 1 Jan 2009 |
Sexual maturity. There are kids who don't understand what they're getting into; for example, an eight year old who can have sex described to them and say, "That sounds fun!" Anyway, kids are stupid, easy to manipulate, and eager to please. There are many people who are manipulative, sinister, and seek to fulfill their own pleasure. This is a bad mix, and children need to be protected until they are both mentally and sexually mature. |
Gone Gonzo Posts: 1652 Joined: 2 Nov 2008 | edit: Anyway, like I said, I'm going to bed, I'll reply to the rest of you peoples when I get up... |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 2809 Joined: 7 May 2008     | I've known plenty of kids who've had sex at a young age, and the effects are nearly always the same. The male will start to see sex not as something two people do when they love each other, but as a bit of mindless fun. He will abandon the girl, who will wonder what it is she did to make him just ditch her like that, and then eventualy begin to see herself as being less than other people. The male will then probably go ahead and catch an STD/knock some poor girl up, and the female will probably never get rid of that feeling of self-hatred, possibly leading to her catching an STD/getting knocked up. I've never seen the effects of homosexual underage sex, but I imagine it's similar. Y'know, without the pregnancy part. I reckon the age of consent should be sixteen. Mental maturity plays a big part in how you handle sex, and it's a lot safer to wait until someone has obtained mental maturity through physical maturity, rather than through intelligence. Um... Yeah. I'm done now. |
Muckraker  Posts: 321 Joined: 31 Oct 2008  | Yes there should be and adults who knowingly have sex with minors should be subject to punishment. But I don't think that they are predators persay (we're talking about teenagers here not 5yr olds). That said I think that minors who as willingly and knowingly as a minor they are able has sex with adults needs to be given counseling and not punished exactly but I'm very tired of seeing teenagers escape when someone else is listed as a sex offender for the rest of their life. There should also be attention paid to age difference 19 and 17 shouldn't count in my mind. But here's the thing is that there has to be a cut off and I'm not sure where that should be. Perhaps attention should be paid to the circumstances as well, for example is the offending adult someone in a position of power, like a teacher or a coach and therefore be much more able to coerce (and I mean coerce not threaten) the minor into the activity? I think that type of situation should be judged more harshly than peers or acquaintances. |
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This is probably a pretty touchy subject, don't want any flame wars here please, if you have an opinion, please back it up. Also, I searched this up and I didn't find anything like this. A couple threads about hentai but that's about it.
edit2: Okay, I've changed my mind. There should be an Age of Consent law, if only because it would be too vague and confusing to legally define sexual maturity. However, I still disagree with it morally, but since morals don't stand up to the law in real life... Well, you get my point right?
This is more or less because I can't think of a clear, definite law regarding sexual maturity. The following points still apply in terms of my "moral" values, if that makes sense.
edit: Please state why you think there should be an age of consent if you reply, I want to know.
-How does the law protect the children.
-If it's protecting from sexual predators, they would do it anyway wouldn't they
-This law does NOT protect against teen pregnancy as some of you here seem to think, mainly because under age people can still have sex with other under age people, which could potentially be worse since neither side knows what they're doing.
-Yes, having sex at a young age can have negative consequences, now tell me, what does this law do about it, I can't see a thing stopping under age kids just having sex with other under age kids, hence the law is moot in that case as well.
In my humble opinion, I think it forces an unnecessary legal barrier between people for no truely justifiable reason, except perhaps to appease parents. I know Age of Consent differs from country to country, even between say... The United States and Canada, which I believe are 16-18 (US) and 16* (CA). It apparently even differs within the same country according to Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ages_of_consent_in_the_United_States
Sorry if I'm excluding any important Age of Consent laws from other countries, please put them in your post if you feel it's necessary.
If two people love each other, or hell, even if they don't, so long as it's consensual (this is where it gets a bit vague but bear with me please) and both parties are sexually mature, then why not?
Charge rape as rape, sexual harrasment as sexual harrasment, but why charge two consensual human beings when there has been, in my opinion again, no crime.
The Age of Consent laws don't truely provide protection against what needs protecting from either, sexual predators will harrass, and have always harrassed, regardless of these laws, and though they will eventually be prosecuted, hopefully, for their crimes, what exactly did the Age of Consent law do in that situation?
Seriously, could someone please enlighten me, I'd love to know, with a logical explanation please.
*Apparently, the law is more complicated in Canada than I thought, basically, it's 16, but you can have sex with anyone within 5 years but no younger than 13, unless the person is in a position of authority, in which case the bar is lifted to 18 years. Apparently, if you meet a 15 year old in a bar and you're, say, 25, however, age of consent doesn't affect you because they shouldn't be there in the first place.
I think I like Canada a lot more now <3
edit: I noted that I probably sound like a pedophile, however, I would like to say I am just 17, and I do think that abusing children for personal pleasure is a horrible, horrible crime. I'm just saying I think the Age of Consent is redundant and only harms people who shouldn't have been punished in the first place.