The Age of Consent

A friend of mine was telling me the other day about his five-year relationship with his girlfriend. He’s twenty-two and she’s nineteen. And as he went on about the sturm and drang of their daily interaction, it occurred to me that three years ago he was only nineteen and she was sixteen. Which, by law, makes him a Sexual Offender. (Yes, he confessed to having sex with her at the time.) Technically, therefore, he should have his picture posted on every available website, electrical post and community center within a two billion mile radius of where he lives. He should be completely ostracized from the community, tarred and feathered, and should, in theory, be having trouble finding work anywhere. But he’s not because no charges were brought against him and, frankly, most rational thinking people realize the ridiculousness of our Age of Consent laws in this country. Which is why I found the discussion now taking place in Scotland so interesting. Scotland is giving serious consideration to lowering their Age of Consent to thirteen. (And before you feign shock and disgust consider that in France and Malta it’s twelve. And they don’t have nearly the sexual deviancy we have here in the states.) I’ve long been a proponent of lowering the Age of Consent in the United States. And it has to do more with the practical application of the law than with any prurient desire to go out and cruise Junior Proms and coffeehouses. Kids today are having sex and they are doing so at younger and younger ages. And by adjusting our laws to address this new reality we can prevent that small minority of older teens from having their lives destroyed. But we can also send a message that to our children that if we are mature enough to recognize that sex is a natural and healthy part of maturation maybe, just maybe you, our children, will recognize that sex – in all of its magnificent glory – comes with a level of responsibility that we are willing to entrust with you.
--MOC BLOGGER