My friend and I recently had a conversation about the Age of Consent (AOC) in the United States and elsewhere, and I thought it would be a good idea to receive different views from other people. Why is it that the USA had one of the highest (18), while many parts of Europe are 16? Should there be a universal AOC? If so what age? Do you think it should be wrong for people who consent to do as they please?
Be reasonable people, and keep spam to a minimum. Discuss?
Here in Australia the age of consent is sixteen. I'm sixteen and my girlfriend is fifteen. It doesn't really matter if you're slightly under the AOC because at the end of the day, you really don't get in any trouble if you have sexual intercourse under the AOC because no one is really going to know about it. Your mate doesn't go to the Police and say, 'yeah look my friend is fourteen and they're going at it. Arrest them' - it doesn't happen.
If you, for whatever reason, do want to play it by the book, in my opinion, eighteen is way too old. Humans are biologically meant to mate when they hit puberty. There's no physiological reason (other than unplanned pregnancy) to prevent people from having sex younger. Proper sexual education is the problem there.
I agree with the sex education part, that is what I think the problem is in the US.
Look around though, seriously... so many teenagers are doing stuff behind closed doors, there is really no way to track it, and no way to really enforce wide-scale so why do they even bother?
One thing that bothers me is if you are over the AOC and your partner is under. He/she (after a bad breakup) can pull the "rape" card, and even if the partner is a month away from 18, it's still considered statutory rape no matter what the true story was, you're then branded a sex offender, registry stuff and you're basically fudged for life...
You'd have to do some crazy crap to have them playing the rape card. And I guess if it goes to court, you'd have a good chance of winning. Pull the straight face and just be all like, "I didn't rape the bitch, okay? Can I go home now?" - works every time. But seriously, the AOC does crap to prevent people from going at it.
I've talked upon this in so many different forums I honestly don't have the motivation to speak about it anymore lol. I have had so much to say with depth and great insight on this topic though. In sum I think age and maturity aren't related so having an age restriction is unethical, regardless of how well you can judge someone's maturity. Propaganda is put in our way that parties are meant for having fun and getting drunk, while I believe in a different picture about the whole concept. You see it all the time though; movies, advertisements, books. Most drinking scenarios are either at a party or at the bar and there's always that odd one person that seems to be really outgoing or slightly intoxicated.
(12-30-2011, 11:07 PM)AceInfinity Wrote: [ -> ]I've talked upon this in so many different forums I honestly don't have the motivation to speak about it anymore lol. I have had so much to say with depth and great insight on this topic though. In sum I think age and maturity aren't related so having an age restriction is unethical, regardless of how well you can judge someone's maturity. Propaganda is put in our way that parties are meant for having fun and getting drunk, while I believe in a different picture about the whole concept. You see it all the time though; movies, advertisements, books. Most drinking scenarios are either at a party or at the bar and there's always that odd one person that seems to be really outgoing or slightly intoxicated.
We're talking about sex here, not drinking. ;)
(12-30-2011, 11:30 PM)King Wrote: [ -> ]We're talking about sex here, not drinking. ;)
I was trying to talk about age restrictions in general but got a bit off track lol... Maturity... But that's a bit misleading now that I read my post. Usually though they can be tied together. Drinking and Sex are related in quite a few cases. But there was a time where people would get married at the age of 13. I think today's trend of people have just learned to grow up at a slower pace then we used to because now we have technology, there's less responsibility in some cases. You're not asked to go down somewhere to go give someone a cheque, we've got online banking, which is accessable by cellphone now.
Age of consent though is another topic that i've spoke about before though quite a bit on other discussions. My mind today just isn't 100% focused though, don't be surprised if I embarrass myself by speaking off topic again lol. Maybe tomorrow i'll be able to clear my mind. You have no idea what i've been going through lately.
(12-30-2011, 11:38 PM)AceInfinity Wrote: [ -> ]I was trying to talk about age restrictions in general but got a bit off track lol... Maturity... But that's a bit misleading now that I read my post. Usually though they can be tied together. Drinking and Sex are related in quite a few cases. But there was a time where people would get married at the age of 13. I think today's trend of people have just learned to grow up at a slower pace then we used to because now we have technology, there's less responsibility in some cases. You're not asked to go down somewhere to go give someone a cheque, we've got online banking, which is accessable by cellphone now.
Age of consent though is another topic that i've spoke about before though quite a bit on other discussions. My mind today just isn't 100% focused though, don't be surprised if I embarrass myself by speaking off topic again lol. Maybe tomorrow i'll be able to clear my mind. You have no idea what i've been going through lately.
Haha, fair enough. Want to post about it? I wouldn't mind sharing some advice.
It's a long story, i'm sure if I posted it again (everything combined that I have posted in the past) would be all jumbled up. Things are good though, I just don't think anybody could comprehend what i've been tackling in life the past while lol. I write a lot, but even this was quite a bit for me. I think I removed it (I have posted on my own forum, but I deleted it a while back).
(12-31-2011, 12:01 AM)AceInfinity Wrote: [ -> ]It's a long story, i'm sure if I posted it again (everything combined that I have posted in the past) would be all jumbled up. Things are good though, I just don't think anybody could comprehend what i've been tackling in life the past while lol. I write a lot, but even this was quite a bit for me. I think I removed it (I have posted on my own forum, but I deleted it a while back).
Well, if you've got nothing better to do, I would love to hear your story.