This discussion is now closed.
Check out other Related discussions
- my 16 year old girlfriend wants me to go prom with her
- 43 year old friend is seeing an 18 year old, your opinion?
- 14 Year old's consenting to 13 year old's in Germany and it being illegal.
- Am I allowed to book a hotel room and get condoms at 15?
- 18 year old having sex with a 56 year old?
- Why does people on reddit always criticizes a 21-23 year old dating someone 18/19?
- At what age do you first have sex?
- Going out with a 45 year old.
- cant get any girls
- i’m cheating i need advice
- Oldest a 17 year old can date
- Should a 13 year old date a 16 year old?
- NHS trust says transgender milk just as good for babies as normal milk
- JK Rowling in ‘arrest me’ challenge over hate crime law
- I'm a furry, ask me anything!
- Is it alright if my boyfriend slaps me?
- Teenage girls as horny as teenage guys?
- gay boy
- im a 17 year old female who is dating a 31 year old female
- Students accused of rape at university bringing lawyers to hearings
Does the legal age to have sex mean anything to anyone
Scroll to see replies
I did a speech on lowering the age of consent for a public speaking competition that the rotary club runs and i think that noone listens to the law how it stands. This was a couple of years ago so not the best speech in the world but here it is:
Should the age of consent be lowered?
Imagine you are fourteen, you do well at school, your peers and teachers like you, you enjoy sport and you have girlfriend. You are having sex. You are a criminal. Is this right? You are a normal fourteen year old boy, yet you are a criminal. This is the current state of affairs. However, the Government is proposing a new bill detailing that the age of consent for sexual intercourse should be lowered to fourteen.
Present legislation states that it is illegal for any persons under the age of sixteen to have consensual sex. But most do. This is a fact that today’s society has been choosing to ignore. Statistics show that the average age teenagers lose their virginity is fifteen. Our law brands these people as criminals, our law states that what these people are doing is so wrong that it is illegal. Is this right?
Teenagers are becoming more and more interested in sex. They are not the famous five anymore. Maybe in your youth you all skipped around in meadows and picked flowers for your parents, but we cannot hold onto this idealised image of young adults anymore. Teenagers do have sex. Over 50% of teenagers in Britain lose their virginity before sixteen. I believe that this a fact that we now need to face.
Any parent here will know that teenagers will do what they want, even if they’re told not to. That is how they regard the law at the moment. I don’t know one person who when deciding to have sex takes the law as a viable reason not to. The law is just not a factor anymore.
Some of you may be thinking that lowering the age to fourteen won’t make teenagers take any more notice of the law either, and I’d be the first to agree with you. However I believe that there are multiple benefits of the proposed change.
Firstly, I believe the main advantage of changing the law would be the change that this would allow in education. Many of you may think that it should be the parents’ job to educate their child about sex. However, most parents don’t. Teenagers tend to receive most of their sex education through the media or their friends, both of which are notoriously unreliable, as I’m sure my friends can tell you..
Therefore the only other outlet where teenagers can receive vital, reliable information is at school. Coming from a person who has recently received the total sum of sex education available, I know that there is not enough sex education in our schools. There needs to be more and it needs to be taught at a younger age.
Sure we get told about sex, but not what we really need to know. My first encounter of sex education consisted mainly of a naked family playing volleyball on the beach in the 1970’s. I didn’t really learn anything about sex from this, however I have to admit I have since decided to become a naturist in my free time.
I didn’t receive useful education until I was fifteen. With children having sex as young as twelve don’t you think that this is a little late? At fifteen I thought I knew most of the dangers and consequences of having sex, but the education I received taught me a lot I didn’t know, for example about HIV and many other sexually transmitted infections. Many didn’t realise that you had to pinch the top of a condom, many of these people had already had sex. This vital education just comes too late.
Educating our teenagers will not encourage them to have sex; it will allow them to make an informed decision on when they feel ready.
You may think our current law is protecting today’s youth and stopping them from having sex too early. Wrong. Our teenagers are having sex whilst they are uninformed and unaware. Education can stop this.
There would almost certainly be a dramatic drop in our teenage pregnancy rate, which as it stands is the highest in Europe. There are numerous examples of countries that have a low age of consent but also a low pregnancy rate. Why? Because they educate their youth.
Holland allow teenagers to have sex at fourteen, yet through education the average age that people lose their virginity is seventeen. On top of this they have one of the lowest teenage pregnancy rates in Europe. What do you imagine when you think of Holland? Drugs? Prostitution? Crime? Surely this sounds like the country that should have the highest pregnancy rate in Europe? Well it doesn’t. We do.
If this law is passed it might actually encourage our teenagers to think and wait before they decide to have sex. The ones who do will have the knowledge to enable them to do it safely. Isn’t this what we want for our teenagers?
Another advantage of lowering the age to fourteen would be the reduction in the social stigma that exists about sex. Many teenagers feel that they cannot talk openly and frankly about sex with their parents. As the law stands a fourteen-year-old who was had sex is told that they have done something wrong. If they tell their parents they may get into trouble, get shouted at or be punished for something that is now a regular occurrence.
Imagine dealing with this potentially traumatic situation, the turmoil of deciding not to tell your parents and worrying about how they might react if you did. There should be no need for this secrecy. Teenagers should not have to view their parents as enemies. The change in the law would allow this child to feel that they hadn’t done something so wrong that they must keep it a secret. I firmly believe that lowering the age would allow greater communications between families.
There would be no reason for a fourteen-year-old to feel ashamed of the feelings they are having, which are medically recognised as completely normal. It is time for the law to recognise that these feelings are normal also.
Thirdly, the way that the law works at the moment means that a sixteen-year-old male can have consensual sex with his girlfriend and be convicted of statutory rape. Why? Because his girlfriend is a couple of months younger then he is. The girl’s parents could take her boyfriend to court for raping her. Even though the sex was completely consensual. It has happened. Imagine if that was your son? How would you feel if your son was on trial for a rape that he didn’t even commit but by law he could go down for?
Many of you may say that fourteen is too young to start having sex, but the fact of today’s society is that many fourteen year olds would disagree with you. And we can’t stop that. What we can do is help educate teenagers to make better decisions and act out these decisions safely. We can encourage teenagers to talk about their experiences and feelings with their parents. To ask questions. We can make this happen. If we lower the law.
Hope you enjoyed that even if you don't agree. We got through to the next round of the comp with this. Was soo funny to see the look on the highly conservative faces judging me. xx
EDIT: i didn't actually become a naturist
Should the age of consent be lowered?
Imagine you are fourteen, you do well at school, your peers and teachers like you, you enjoy sport and you have girlfriend. You are having sex. You are a criminal. Is this right? You are a normal fourteen year old boy, yet you are a criminal. This is the current state of affairs. However, the Government is proposing a new bill detailing that the age of consent for sexual intercourse should be lowered to fourteen.
Present legislation states that it is illegal for any persons under the age of sixteen to have consensual sex. But most do. This is a fact that today’s society has been choosing to ignore. Statistics show that the average age teenagers lose their virginity is fifteen. Our law brands these people as criminals, our law states that what these people are doing is so wrong that it is illegal. Is this right?
Teenagers are becoming more and more interested in sex. They are not the famous five anymore. Maybe in your youth you all skipped around in meadows and picked flowers for your parents, but we cannot hold onto this idealised image of young adults anymore. Teenagers do have sex. Over 50% of teenagers in Britain lose their virginity before sixteen. I believe that this a fact that we now need to face.
Any parent here will know that teenagers will do what they want, even if they’re told not to. That is how they regard the law at the moment. I don’t know one person who when deciding to have sex takes the law as a viable reason not to. The law is just not a factor anymore.
Some of you may be thinking that lowering the age to fourteen won’t make teenagers take any more notice of the law either, and I’d be the first to agree with you. However I believe that there are multiple benefits of the proposed change.
Firstly, I believe the main advantage of changing the law would be the change that this would allow in education. Many of you may think that it should be the parents’ job to educate their child about sex. However, most parents don’t. Teenagers tend to receive most of their sex education through the media or their friends, both of which are notoriously unreliable, as I’m sure my friends can tell you..
Therefore the only other outlet where teenagers can receive vital, reliable information is at school. Coming from a person who has recently received the total sum of sex education available, I know that there is not enough sex education in our schools. There needs to be more and it needs to be taught at a younger age.
Sure we get told about sex, but not what we really need to know. My first encounter of sex education consisted mainly of a naked family playing volleyball on the beach in the 1970’s. I didn’t really learn anything about sex from this, however I have to admit I have since decided to become a naturist in my free time.
I didn’t receive useful education until I was fifteen. With children having sex as young as twelve don’t you think that this is a little late? At fifteen I thought I knew most of the dangers and consequences of having sex, but the education I received taught me a lot I didn’t know, for example about HIV and many other sexually transmitted infections. Many didn’t realise that you had to pinch the top of a condom, many of these people had already had sex. This vital education just comes too late.
Educating our teenagers will not encourage them to have sex; it will allow them to make an informed decision on when they feel ready.
You may think our current law is protecting today’s youth and stopping them from having sex too early. Wrong. Our teenagers are having sex whilst they are uninformed and unaware. Education can stop this.
There would almost certainly be a dramatic drop in our teenage pregnancy rate, which as it stands is the highest in Europe. There are numerous examples of countries that have a low age of consent but also a low pregnancy rate. Why? Because they educate their youth.
Holland allow teenagers to have sex at fourteen, yet through education the average age that people lose their virginity is seventeen. On top of this they have one of the lowest teenage pregnancy rates in Europe. What do you imagine when you think of Holland? Drugs? Prostitution? Crime? Surely this sounds like the country that should have the highest pregnancy rate in Europe? Well it doesn’t. We do.
If this law is passed it might actually encourage our teenagers to think and wait before they decide to have sex. The ones who do will have the knowledge to enable them to do it safely. Isn’t this what we want for our teenagers?
Another advantage of lowering the age to fourteen would be the reduction in the social stigma that exists about sex. Many teenagers feel that they cannot talk openly and frankly about sex with their parents. As the law stands a fourteen-year-old who was had sex is told that they have done something wrong. If they tell their parents they may get into trouble, get shouted at or be punished for something that is now a regular occurrence.
Imagine dealing with this potentially traumatic situation, the turmoil of deciding not to tell your parents and worrying about how they might react if you did. There should be no need for this secrecy. Teenagers should not have to view their parents as enemies. The change in the law would allow this child to feel that they hadn’t done something so wrong that they must keep it a secret. I firmly believe that lowering the age would allow greater communications between families.
There would be no reason for a fourteen-year-old to feel ashamed of the feelings they are having, which are medically recognised as completely normal. It is time for the law to recognise that these feelings are normal also.
Thirdly, the way that the law works at the moment means that a sixteen-year-old male can have consensual sex with his girlfriend and be convicted of statutory rape. Why? Because his girlfriend is a couple of months younger then he is. The girl’s parents could take her boyfriend to court for raping her. Even though the sex was completely consensual. It has happened. Imagine if that was your son? How would you feel if your son was on trial for a rape that he didn’t even commit but by law he could go down for?
Many of you may say that fourteen is too young to start having sex, but the fact of today’s society is that many fourteen year olds would disagree with you. And we can’t stop that. What we can do is help educate teenagers to make better decisions and act out these decisions safely. We can encourage teenagers to talk about their experiences and feelings with their parents. To ask questions. We can make this happen. If we lower the law.
Hope you enjoyed that even if you don't agree. We got through to the next round of the comp with this. Was soo funny to see the look on the highly conservative faces judging me. xx
EDIT: i didn't actually become a naturist
I lost my virginity when i was 18. And i could never have seen myself losing it at 15 cause at that age i was completely not emotionally ready for such a thing. I guess it depends on the person, but for many of my friends who lost it at 15, it was always for the wrong reasons.
lessthanthree - there are so many people like your friend and it worries me so much - like girls who write into teen magazines asking if they can get pregnant after giving oral sex etc. I'm so glad that there are people like me and you, maybe our generation of children will be better informed when they are making such vital decisions.
I never told my parents about having lost my virginity - we never had the 'talk' they think i lost it to my current boyfriend, although we've never spoken about this either. I feel because of the law and stugma if we ever get round to having the talk i can't tell them it happened at 14 because i know they will be disappointed in me, even though the way i did it was much better than an 18year old having a random shag.
The sex education i received was good, it just came too late - i know many girls in my year who have had abortions/babies and i think lowering the age of consent could help stop it. If only i ran the world ay?
I never told my parents about having lost my virginity - we never had the 'talk' they think i lost it to my current boyfriend, although we've never spoken about this either. I feel because of the law and stugma if we ever get round to having the talk i can't tell them it happened at 14 because i know they will be disappointed in me, even though the way i did it was much better than an 18year old having a random shag.
The sex education i received was good, it just came too late - i know many girls in my year who have had abortions/babies and i think lowering the age of consent could help stop it. If only i ran the world ay?
M@255 - that's your opinion and i respect that, but it's a very individual decision - i was mature and ready and i don't think you have the right to say otherwise. Feeling cheap is linked to the way in which you have sex i.e in an uncaring and flippant manner and that's not how it is with everyone. I was well informed about my decision and i loved my boyfriend, i wouldn't change my mind if i could go back. xx
It's wrong as far as british standards and law go. Being ready isn't hitting a number, being ready is having the emotional and physical maturity, and understanding the consequences.
totally spot on 
As for people growing up very quickly. That's what almost every 14 year old girl I've ever known has always thought. They're all convinced they're way more mature than their age. How many truly are? How many when they're 20 or 30 are going to look back and think "Yes at 14, I was fully capable of making that decision".
If you're a 13 year old guy/girl and you're being pressured into sex by your partner, if you know almost nothing about sex because that's not something you've ever talked about in an adult way, how are you supposed to know if you should or shouldn't? The age of consent is quite pointless but it's there to set a standard. At least, when you're 13, you'll think "maybe I am too young".
Some people would claim that you just know if you're ready or not. That's not true. There are loads of social aspects to being sexually active and you need to understand them. If you were brought up in a culture where having sex at 10 years old was the standard, you wouldn't find anything weird about that. Sexually-abused kids end up thinking that what happens to them is perfectly normal. At least their molesters convince them that it is.
It's because of social values that we know if we're ready or not, not some weird intrinsic concept in our mind. In the UK, people don't talk about sex openly. Kids have no social reference for sex so some standard, such as the age of consent is better than nothing at all.
The fact of the matter is that in the UK, we're totally immature when it comes to sex because of many centuries of "uptightness". Most kids think it's more a game than anything else. You can't compare the UK to European countries like Holland where sex is spoken about more openly and always has been. There, kids grow up understanding what sex is socially: who do people have sex with? Why do people have sex (other than for reproduction)? By a certain age, kids understand the implications of having sex, social implications, religious implications: how will I be perceived if I have sex with a certain person? How will that person perceive me? How will it affect my relationship? Here it's just a "naughty thing" that noone talks about, unless it's in a conversation where you can talk about "naughty things".
Sex is still quite taboo, and you can't expect that to change over night. People's mentalities are slowly changing but more information on contraception, sex-ed will do little to change those mentalities immediately.
If you're a 13 year old guy/girl and you're being pressured into sex by your partner, if you know almost nothing about sex because that's not something you've ever talked about in an adult way, how are you supposed to know if you should or shouldn't? The age of consent is quite pointless but it's there to set a standard. At least, when you're 13, you'll think "maybe I am too young".
Some people would claim that you just know if you're ready or not. That's not true. There are loads of social aspects to being sexually active and you need to understand them. If you were brought up in a culture where having sex at 10 years old was the standard, you wouldn't find anything weird about that. Sexually-abused kids end up thinking that what happens to them is perfectly normal. At least their molesters convince them that it is.
It's because of social values that we know if we're ready or not, not some weird intrinsic concept in our mind. In the UK, people don't talk about sex openly. Kids have no social reference for sex so some standard, such as the age of consent is better than nothing at all.
The fact of the matter is that in the UK, we're totally immature when it comes to sex because of many centuries of "uptightness". Most kids think it's more a game than anything else. You can't compare the UK to European countries like Holland where sex is spoken about more openly and always has been. There, kids grow up understanding what sex is socially: who do people have sex with? Why do people have sex (other than for reproduction)? By a certain age, kids understand the implications of having sex, social implications, religious implications: how will I be perceived if I have sex with a certain person? How will that person perceive me? How will it affect my relationship? Here it's just a "naughty thing" that noone talks about, unless it's in a conversation where you can talk about "naughty things".
Sex is still quite taboo, and you can't expect that to change over night. People's mentalities are slowly changing but more information on contraception, sex-ed will do little to change those mentalities immediately.
jessicarabbit
Did u know in certain parts of the states, there are 100 yr old laws that are still around like " you can not have sex in any other position than missionary", or "oral sex is illegal". They're just laws that came about hundreds of years ago, and no one has bothered to take em out of the law books.
Quite right to!. How disgusting.
Bring back the birch I say.
M@255
The legal age to have sex matters to me in the sense that I certainly wouldn't sleep with someone under the age of 16, but then I broke the law with the two I've been with (neither were 18)...but that law is just stupid.
Certain laws regarding sex and the age of consent are stupid, which is why people disregard them. Unsure how people might feel about 14/15 year old girl with 18 year old guy. The way I see it, as long as oen of them is too young then it doesn't matter, but then people's view differ on what is too young.
timeofyourlife
presuming they're under 16, i wonder if the poeple that are 'much older than them' are proud of committing statutory rape.
Sorry to ask this again, but i've looked through my books and the web... Can i see the authority for this? A crime of statutory rape, as far as I can see, exists in some US states, but it's all covered in the UK by the SOA 2003, which does not mean anyone sleeping with someone 13-15 is automatically committing rape.
queenselphie
my ex thought he had "fallen in love" with a 12 year old.
He's 21.
*shudders*
He's 21.
*shudders*
, did you manage to talk him out of it?
I don't think it makes any difference to many people, if you're gonna do it, you're gonna do it. I think it's more important to make sure it's done carefully!!
I mean, I have a friend and when we were 13 she liked a boy who was 18 and she managed to convince him she was 15 and he slept with her. Okay, she offered it on a plate and he did not take much convincing! And I'm not saying that anyone who does this automatically becomes a typical sl*g but she did. She's now still only 16 and has slept with 13 boys. She's also had an abortion. I think men/boys should pay more attention to the age restrictions and also how old the girl actually is!!!
But if you think you're ready, just do it carefully!
I waited til I was nearly 18 and am glad about that coz I know I was mature enough, whereas I don't see how a 13 year old can be.
I mean, I have a friend and when we were 13 she liked a boy who was 18 and she managed to convince him she was 15 and he slept with her. Okay, she offered it on a plate and he did not take much convincing! And I'm not saying that anyone who does this automatically becomes a typical sl*g but she did. She's now still only 16 and has slept with 13 boys. She's also had an abortion. I think men/boys should pay more attention to the age restrictions and also how old the girl actually is!!!
But if you think you're ready, just do it carefully!
I waited til I was nearly 18 and am glad about that coz I know I was mature enough, whereas I don't see how a 13 year old can be.
, did you manage to talk him out of it?
yeah, I told him if he was in love with her, he would wait to date her til she was 16. I said that it was only in HIS best interests to go out with her now, not hers. I dont know how convinced he was, but the more time he spent with her the more he realised she was just a child, emotionally, and I dont even wanna *think* about wether or not he was attracted to her physically >_< eek! but either way, he realised it wasn't ever going to be a good thing.
gonnabavet
She's now still only 16 and has slept with 13 boys. She's also had an abortion.
Used abortion as a form of 'contraception' did she?
wow this really is a hot topic and i am glad to see that many peole have opinions on this because im 15 and i have a boyfriend who i am really close to and i feel no pressure at all to sleep with him. i think it is the matter of finding the right guy who respects you for who you are and what you believe in
Related discussions
- my 16 year old girlfriend wants me to go prom with her
- 43 year old friend is seeing an 18 year old, your opinion?
- 14 Year old's consenting to 13 year old's in Germany and it being illegal.
- Am I allowed to book a hotel room and get condoms at 15?
- 18 year old having sex with a 56 year old?
- Why does people on reddit always criticizes a 21-23 year old dating someone 18/19?
- At what age do you first have sex?
- Going out with a 45 year old.
- cant get any girls
- i’m cheating i need advice
- Oldest a 17 year old can date
- Should a 13 year old date a 16 year old?
- NHS trust says transgender milk just as good for babies as normal milk
- JK Rowling in ‘arrest me’ challenge over hate crime law
- I'm a furry, ask me anything!
- Is it alright if my boyfriend slaps me?
- Teenage girls as horny as teenage guys?
- gay boy
- im a 17 year old female who is dating a 31 year old female
- Students accused of rape at university bringing lawyers to hearings
Latest
Last reply 1 minute ago
Official University of Edinburgh Applicant Thread for 2024Last reply 1 minute ago
Ford IT Degree Apprenticeship 2024Last reply 4 minutes ago
Farmers protests across Europe: are the farmers right?Last reply 5 minutes ago
Official Veterinary Medicine Applicants thread 2024 entryLast reply 5 minutes ago
Issues with jobs because I cannot driveLast reply 6 minutes ago
Why is the political left now censorious and authoritarian??Last reply 12 minutes ago
Official University of Edinburgh Offer Holders Thread for 2024 entryTrending
Last reply 3 days ago
My friend might be getting extra time and i hate it.Last reply 5 days ago
Just found out about UCL stat test but can't afford to sit itLast reply 1 week ago
Dad keeps criticising my university degree choiceTrending
Last reply 3 days ago
My friend might be getting extra time and i hate it.Last reply 5 days ago
Just found out about UCL stat test but can't afford to sit itLast reply 1 week ago
Dad keeps criticising my university degree choice
