Should the age of consent be lowered to 14?

[politicus]

Creepy OP.

Western teenagers generally start having sex on average when they are 16-16.5 years old, this is fairly stable across various countries. So 16 means almost half of teenagers start having sex when they are underage. This is the main reason we have the age of consent at 15 in my country - it is simply more realistic and does not criminalize so many relationships. Still, 15 is a bit young to have sex with an adult (you mature fast in that age, so a year means a real difference). So if you are going to have one age of consent for all I think 16 is the most reasonale, but can live with 15.

An alternative is the 10 year+  rule for under 18s (you can have legal sex with minors above, say 14, if you are less than 10 years older than them), but that is artificial and guys in their 20s can prey on teenagers as well as older men (and older teens on young teens), so it is generally not a sensible idea.

[politicus]

16 maybe, but not 14, with the appropriate Romeo and Juliet codicils.

16 is already the most common age of consent in the US if you count number of states. Only 10 11 states left with 18 as AoC. Population wise the big states have 17 or 18, so that gives a different result.



Two errors: Nebraska is 16 now and Wisconsin is 18 unless you are married (then 16).

[politicus]

North America with NE and WI in the right colours:



Other Western countries for comparison:

[politicus]

Wonder why Wisconsin raised the age from 16 to 18.

I doubt they did - no mentioning of it. The ones that made the map likely just went with the low age for married people.

[politicus]

14 if the partner is under 16
15 if the partner is under 18
16 if the partner is under 21
18 regardless of the partner's age

The third one criminalizes a lot of people.

[politicus]

No absolutely not, it should remain at 18

Lower in most places (see above).