The Student Room Group

Your views on a 20yr male sexting a 16yr old girl.

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Reply 60
Original post by ZuluK
Aren't 16 year old allowed to get married? Yet they're still deemed as children who can be manipulated?

Doesn't make sense tbh... :s-smilie:

So you're right, it is inconsistent. :h:


Married with parental consent yeah.
Reply 61
Original post by BicepPeak
Married with parental consent yeah.


Still married though, still a contract and more of a decision and life altering then sending a nude, you could say.
Reply 63
Original post by ZuluK
Still married though, still a contract and more of a decision and life altering then sending a nude, you could say.



Marriage these days means nothing really, you can get divorced very easily and most couples do, especially those who marry young.

A 'nude', however is something that wil stay online forever and potentially ruin lives. I doubt a parent would consent to their 16 yr old daughter sending or recieving 'nudes'.
really gross, there's something wrong with a 20 year old who is interested in a 16 year old
Original post by Ethereal World
I think there's a big problem with the law here tbh. If it is illegal for a 16-17.999 year old to sexualise their bodies i.e. By taking and sending nudes, irrelevant of how old the recipient is, then it should be illegal to sexualise their body by actually having sex.

If people believe this law is fair then I would be surprised if you don't support raising age of consent to 18, since that's apparently when you're adult enough to make decisions about what to do with your own body.

At 16, admittedly, I was ready to do neither and thus did neither (probably cause I had a Nokia 3210 :rofl: as well). But if I had a choice about whether to have sex or send a nude at 16, in terms of the least effect on me mentally/emotionally if I wasn't ready, I would choose the latter. Hence why I believe the law is clearly quite inconsistent.


Nope... I think its fine if they sext in that age gap! :biggrin: As long as they do not engage in a physical relationship, without the female's consent! :biggrin:
Original post by Minnie Mouse.
Nope... I think its fine if they sext in that age gap! :biggrin: As long as they do not engage in a physical relationship, without the female's consent! :biggrin:


Well yeah but what I'm saying is for all the people who don't think it's fine ?!

I think age of consent at 16 is right and so should sexting age in line with that.
Reply 67
Original post by BicepPeak
Marriage these days means nothing really, you can get divorced very easily and most couples do, especially those who marry young.

A 'nude', however is something that wil stay online forever and potentially ruin lives. I doubt a parent would consent to their 16 yr old daughter sending or recieving 'nudes'.


Which parent would consent to their son or daughter getting married at 16?

And a divorce can potentially ruin lives too... And yeah, marriage is taken as a joke nowadays ngl but a nude can stay on the Internet and get lost too and forgotten. Being married and divorced, you won't forget that.
Original post by Ethereal World
Well yeah but what I'm saying is for all the people who don't think it's fine ?!

I think age of consent at 16 is right and so should sexting age in line with that.


No, there is a problem with the law there! 16 years old is not an age for even having a relationship, even with the parents fricking consent for the boy and their daughter to do it.....
Reply 69
Original post by ZuluK
Which parent would consent to their son or daughter getting married at 16?

And a divorce can potentially ruin lives too... And yeah, marriage is taken as a joke nowadays ngl but a nude can stay on the Internet and get lost too and forgotten. Being married and divorced, you won't forget that.



Much more likely to consent to their 16 yr old child getting married then sharing pictures of their genitalia with people....


You hear of teens committing suicide because their nudes have been leaked. I doubt there's anywhere near as many cases of teens committing suicide because of divorce.
Reply 70
Original post by BicepPeak
Much more likely to consent to their 16 yr old child getting married then sharing pictures of their genitalia with people....

You hear of teens committing suicide because their nudes have been leaked. I doubt there's anywhere near as many cases of teens committing suicide because of divorce.


It's all about how mature that teen is and it's all about social stigma. For example, if I sent a nude when I was 16 and it got leaked, the first thought would be, "omg what would the people At school say..." Then the shame and so on... Which then, bullying takes place.

But, suicide is because the individual can't handle the repercussions. You hear about the suicides, but not about the people who survived.
Reply 71
Personally I believe the age of consent should be raised. You can still keep the distinction in law between 13 and under 13. It would help to make it more streamlined to have it at 18
Reply 72
Original post by Ethereal World
I think there's a big problem with the law here tbh. If it is illegal for a 16-17.999 year old to sexualise their bodies i.e. By taking and sending nudes, irrelevant of how old the recipient is, then it should be illegal to sexualise their body by actually having sex.

If people believe this law is fair then I would be surprised if you don't support raising age of consent to 18, since that's apparently when you're adult enough to make decisions about what to do with your own body.

At 16, admittedly, I was ready to do neither and thus did neither (probably cause I had a Nokia 3210 :rofl: as well). But if I had a choice about whether to have sex or send a nude at 16, in terms of the least effect on me mentally/emotionally if I wasn't ready, I would choose the latter. Hence why I believe the law is clearly quite inconsistent.


It's not just about the capacity to consent, but also the consequences of the actions and the age in which they can truly grasp those consequences.

A sexual act is a private act between consenting individuals, and as such doesn't necessarily have violations of privacy beyond bragging about it to people. Sexual imagery, on the other hand, has the capability to 'leak' and spread uncontrollably across the internet. The consequences of it are far more reaching than anything that could be mustered up by a single consenting sexual act, therefore the legislation has that age difference to provide a buffer period between being capable of consenting to sex and being able to consent to sexual imagery of yourself being produced and possessed.

The laws themselves haven't really been updated to take into account technological changes. Infact, the law is so far behind with new communicative media that prior to Section 67 of the Serious Crime Act 2015, there wasn't a specific statute banning a minor receiving sexual messages online from an adult. As a result, it's relying on statutes primarily designed for pornography regulation, such as the Protection of the Children Act 1978. It creates a whole range of unusual results, including cases involving minors being charged with producing and possessing child pornography of themselves.

On a personal level, I do agree with the age of consent and sexual imagery consent distinctions. My social work research specifically looks at online child protection issues, including grooming, and there's a variety of potentially career (and emotionally) destroying consequences to sexual imagery leaking. Consenting to have sex with an individual might be a bad idea in hindsight, but it's between you and that individual. Consenting to sexual imagery being taken is a whole different ball game, as it allows others to possess considerable power over your own right to privacy.

What is ridiculous, however, is how young people are being placed at risk of being put on the sex offenders register because of out of date statutes. It's technically true that young people are producing child pornography of themselves, but having a sexual offence like that on your criminal record is life destroying and only diminishes somebody's ability to reach out for help if and when things do get out of control, such as a picture leaking around a school or college institution.
(edited 7 years ago)
20 and 16 sounds a bit excessive to me. 4 years isn't a massive gap at all but in this case it is. A 20 year old would be a uni student and a 16 year old would be doing/just completed their GCSE's.

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