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Although laws seem to only consider age, this makes little sense given the wide variety in puberty. Some 19-year-olds look 15, and some 13-year-olds not only l

Although laws seem to only consider age, this makes little sense given the wide variety in puberty. Some 19-year-olds look 15, and some 13-year-olds not only look 17 but they have probably matured over their peers to the point of being physically closer to the average 17-year-old than the average 13-year-old. It is certainly possible for a 17-year-old and 13-year-old to seem physically similar and be attracted normally to one another. Society shouldn't be able to auto-condemn a relationship at one point in time, and magically become OK with it 5 years later (when the two people may not even look that different). It gets even worse when absolute age is considered. It's insane that two 17-year-olds can meet and date and want to have sex, yet people come with pitchforks to prosecute the first one unfortunate enough to turn 18!?

StavrosK 11y ago
I actually think Greece got this pretty right, the age of consent is 15 and if the people involved are within 3 years of age from each other, it's legal. The one dark spot here is that the age of consent for homosexual relationships between men is 18 for both participants, but here's hoping that will go away soon too.
- anotherevan 11y ago
  I had half written a post about how the laws in Australia are similar to what you outlined for Greece. I certainly agree that they make a lot more sense than no (legal) consent being considered possible for adolescents. But in the end I dropped it because it struck me that while the legal ramifications of this situation may be considered stupid, the far overriding worry to me is how unhealthy this situation is: for those involved, for their community, and their culture. The focus should be on the far more difficult problem of changing that. While legislation may be a part of that, I doubt if that alone is the solution. How do we fix this?

StavrosK 11y ago

I actually think Greece got this pretty right, the age of consent is 15 and if the people involved are within 3 years of age from each other, it's legal. The one dark spot here is that the age of consent for homosexual relationships between men is 18 for both participants, but here's hoping that will go away soon too.

anotherevan 11y ago
I had half written a post about how the laws in Australia are similar to what you outlined for Greece. I certainly agree that they make a lot more sense than no (legal) consent being considered possible for adolescents. But in the end I dropped it because it struck me that while the legal ramifications of this situation may be considered stupid, the far overriding worry to me is how unhealthy this situation is: for those involved, for their community, and their culture. The focus should be on the far more difficult problem of changing that. While legislation may be a part of that, I doubt if that alone is the solution. How do we fix this?