• From: Portland, Oregon
  • Registered: 04-15-2010
  • Posts: 10

Topic: Lowering the age of consent

I have noticed that your discussions and points cover a variety of things but they tend to avoid this one. I would like to know if there's anyway we could get more active about this topic as well because it is important. It affects our privacy, our freedoms, and I find this law to be a bit offensive. I have researched it quite alot and discovered different takes on the law and reasons that it is implemented. I understand that its taboo to talk about "sex" sometimes but this is one of the main reasons that I beleive in a push for youth rights.

I have looked up the terms and found out a variety of deffinitions, all of which are patronizing. They claim that teens and people under the age of 18 can't "understand" the consequences and implications that sexual activity has on their bodies and futures but that's not true. They claim that "the mentally disabled and minors (under 18) can't consent fully and must have an advocate. -They claim that children would get "taken advantage of" if the law was lowered.  But this is not so. It's true that there are some children that can't handle that responsibility and freedom, children who are very sheltered. But it is also true that age (from my expereince) doesn't and shouldn't  define most people.   

I know from experience that having a  healthy relationship with someone older isn't always a bad thing and although I have not been sexually active with this said person persay (because I love them and don't want them locked up) I have broken the law before and I don't feel "victimized" or "taken advantage of".
(And hey, the age of consent is 14 in France and they seem fine)

I want to someday live in a world where me and my partner can walk downtown holding hands, -were I can introduce him to my mother (cause I know that she'd love him if he were my age) and where I won't be judged just because I like someone whose a few years older then me. I want to at least help make that world possible for the future and so that is why I beleive that we should take a stand and at least discuss this "taboo" idea of free love.

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  • From: California
  • Registered: 01-08-2011
  • Posts: 3

Re: Lowering the age of consent

I completely agree, and I know I'm not the only one here. There is a reluctance to make it an issue, at least in any radical way, because of the stigma the media associates with youth and sex. But we have an argument, and a position paper is underway.

I personally think the age of consent should be lowered to the age when a person biologically becomes sexually active, meaning puberty. But consent has to be informed, and the sex ed system in this country is dysfunctional. And for a YR association to get involved in this, we've had to start small, lowering the age of consent by increments or with caveats like close-in-age restrictions. But I think ASFAR's official position should be as I stated above, because ideologically, it's consistent with YR. And that last paragraph of yours - that's why this is important. Our rights need to be respected too.

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  • From: Southern California
  • Registered: 06-11-2011
  • Posts: 21

Re: Lowering the age of consent

Re:  The Case Against Adolescence by Robert Epstein and Harmful To Minors by Judith Levine.  Read.  Study.  Use.

I note that the two above posters are from the United States, as I assume most--if not all--of us here are.  One of the main issues is that people from the United States are egocentric to a fault.  Most, it seems, think that our way of life is inherently to be valued over other cultures and times.  Ask the average American anything (not necessarily related to aoc or liberation in general) about the history of sex, families, cultural values, and they may just give you a blank stare.

Education is always a good starting place.

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  • From: Mountain View, CA
  • Registered: 04-23-2011
  • Posts: 57
  • User Karma: 1

Re: Lowering the age of consent

Indeed. The United States is stupid; it is shipping off its stupidity to other countries, and this is its only export.

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  • From: Southern California
  • Registered: 06-11-2011
  • Posts: 21

Re: Lowering the age of consent

I do not believe in any age of consent.

But...good places to start may be:

Mormons believe that the Age of Accountability is age 8.

Jews believe that at age 13 you become responsible for your actions, thus the Bar and Bat Mitzvah.

Mormon boys, in good standing, are ordained to the Priesthood at age 12.

Baha'i says age 15 is a time when the child becomes responsible.

"In certain states in Ancient Greece, such as Sparta and Crete, adolescent boys were expected to enter into a mentoring relationship with an adult man..."

Islam:  "[Children] should be encouraged to begin praying at the age of seven..."

"In the Shinto faith, boys reach religious maturity between the ages of 11 to 17, with a Genpuku ceremony. Girls receive a ceremony called mogi, between the ages of 12 – 14 years of age."

All quotes above are from:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coming_of_age

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  • Registered: 04-12-2012
  • Posts: 1

Re: Lowering the age of consent

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  • Registered: 04-19-2012
  • Posts: 1

Re: Lowering the age of consent

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  • Registered: 05-01-2012
  • Posts: 1

Re: Lowering the age of consent

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