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"Only a century ago human body was perfectly capable of having sex and reproducing around the age of 14, and it was a norm. What happened with human race since

"Only a century ago human body was perfectly capable of having sex and reproducing around the age of 14, and it was a norm. What happened with human race since then?" We've evolved as a society. It's the same reason women and minorities can vote. "Pleas, just stop treating young boys and girls as immature idiots, and empower them with the trust. You might be surprised how capable and responsible they could grow up." To be honest, this creeped me out (unless you are a ~14 years old). What would we possibly gain, as a society, by lowering the age of consent?

wjk 13y ago
What would we gain by raising the age of consent?
- ck425 13y ago
  It makes it far easier to prosecute people who prey on teenagers. I don't disagree that two under 16 year olds having sex is perfectly natural and ok, though not everyone agrees. But with the age of consent being 13 sexual predators could easily seduce under 16s and claim they consented when in fact being so young they had no idea what they were doing.
  - wjk 13y ago
    Sexual predators could easily seduce 16-20 (hell, even higher) too. Why not increase the age of consent even more if you're going by with that argument.
    - notahacker 13y ago
      Because the circumstances in which a 13 year old may be sexually and emotionally mature enough to consent to sex with an adult and not be a victim of manipulation are extremely unusual. That is considerably less likely to be the case in 16-20 year olds, for reasons which have as much to do with biology as prevailing social opinions I'm assuming you agree there should be some age cut off point, unless you think sex with infants is fine and dandy so long as infants aren't looking to testify against the paedophile.
      - thaumasiotes 13y ago
        > I'm assuming you agree there should be some age cut off point, unless you think sex with infants is fine and dandy so long as infants aren't looking to testify against the paedophile. Just up front, the form of that argument will lose you a lot of respect. Here are three approaches to sex with infants that don't involve a cutoff age at all: - Physical maturity threshold, e.g. menstruation / ejaculation. In a sense, this is the approach we use to drinking and driving. - Mental maturity threshold -- an infant is not capable of anything, and so is guaranteed to fall on the banned side of the line. The biggest use of this kind of thing that I'm aware of is trying juveniles as adults. - Just figure that nobody wants to have sex with infants. (This isn't, in the literal sense, true; I believe the youngest documented mother was two. However, it can easily be so-close-to-true-that-enforcement-is-a-loss-to-society.) This is the approach we use to prevent people from bombing trains, subways, museums, city buses, and pretty much everything else except airplanes.
  - itengelhardt 13y ago
    Shouldn't that be handled by existing laws - i.e. you charge the perp with rape and let the court decide?
- rmc 13y ago
  Stop vulnerable and emotionally immature people from being taken advantage of.
Shish2k 13y ago
> We've evolved as a society. It's the same reason women and minorities can vote. One could give the same defence for global surveillance. "We have changed to do X" does not necessarily mean that X is a good thing. (Often it is, but in those cases we generally do X because it is good, X is not good because we do it)
itengelhardt 13y ago
The question should never be "What's the benefit of NOT prohibiting something" - that's why we call it a free society. That being said, I think that the spanish law is rather reasonable by not strictly enforcing 16 and allowing exceptions when everyone is about the same age. IMHO that is one problem with the age of consent: There need to be exceptions for cases where both teenagers are about the same age. E.g. what happens when a 15yo boy wants to have consensual sex with his 17yo girlfriend? What when she is 18yo? What happens when they have sex and afterwards his parents find out and call the police?

wjk 13y ago

What would we gain by raising the age of consent?

ck425 13y ago
It makes it far easier to prosecute people who prey on teenagers. I don't disagree that two under 16 year olds having sex is perfectly natural and ok, though not everyone agrees. But with the age of consent being 13 sexual predators could easily seduce under 16s and claim they consented when in fact being so young they had no idea what they were doing.
- wjk 13y ago
  Sexual predators could easily seduce 16-20 (hell, even higher) too. Why not increase the age of consent even more if you're going by with that argument.
  - notahacker 13y ago
    Because the circumstances in which a 13 year old may be sexually and emotionally mature enough to consent to sex with an adult and not be a victim of manipulation are extremely unusual. That is considerably less likely to be the case in 16-20 year olds, for reasons which have as much to do with biology as prevailing social opinions I'm assuming you agree there should be some age cut off point, unless you think sex with infants is fine and dandy so long as infants aren't looking to testify against the paedophile.
    - thaumasiotes 13y ago
      > I'm assuming you agree there should be some age cut off point, unless you think sex with infants is fine and dandy so long as infants aren't looking to testify against the paedophile. Just up front, the form of that argument will lose you a lot of respect. Here are three approaches to sex with infants that don't involve a cutoff age at all: - Physical maturity threshold, e.g. menstruation / ejaculation. In a sense, this is the approach we use to drinking and driving. - Mental maturity threshold -- an infant is not capable of anything, and so is guaranteed to fall on the banned side of the line. The biggest use of this kind of thing that I'm aware of is trying juveniles as adults. - Just figure that nobody wants to have sex with infants. (This isn't, in the literal sense, true; I believe the youngest documented mother was two. However, it can easily be so-close-to-true-that-enforcement-is-a-loss-to-society.) This is the approach we use to prevent people from bombing trains, subways, museums, city buses, and pretty much everything else except airplanes.
- itengelhardt 13y ago
  Shouldn't that be handled by existing laws - i.e. you charge the perp with rape and let the court decide?
rmc 13y ago
Stop vulnerable and emotionally immature people from being taken advantage of.

Shish2k 13y ago

> We've evolved as a society. It's the same reason women and minorities can vote. One could give the same defence for global surveillance. "We have changed to do X" does not necessarily mean that X is a good thing. (Often it is, but in those cases we generally do X because it is good, X is not good because we do it)

itengelhardt 13y ago

The question should never be "What's the benefit of NOT prohibiting something" - that's why we call it a free society. That being said, I think that the spanish law is rather reasonable by not strictly enforcing 16 and allowing exceptions when everyone is about the same age. IMHO that is one problem with the age of consent: There need to be exceptions for cases where both teenagers are about the same age. E.g. what happens when a 15yo boy wants to have consensual sex with his 17yo girlfriend? What when she is 18yo? What happens when they have sex and afterwards his parents find out and call the police?