What should the age of consent be?

[Oakvale]

Oh look, pedo advocacy. 12-year-olds need to be free to explore their sexuality with a consenting adult and all that.

Perhaps some people should get G-DE avatars?

What is the implication here? The shape?

The German (far) left in the 70s were all a bunch of creepy nonces.

[NeverAgain]

Was going to say 18, but I went with 16 due to the fact of at least scientifically, you're matured enough at 16 to understand and choose to love someone at whatever age. <15 On average are probably less matured than 16>. My hypothesis at least.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Oh look, pedo advocacy. 12-year-olds need to be free to explore their sexuality with a consenting adult and all that.

Perhaps some people should get G-DE avatars?

What is the implication here? The shape?

I think he's referring to G-Deutschland, not delaware.

[tpfkaw]

Oh look, pedo advocacy. 12-year-olds need to be free to explore their sexuality with a consenting adult and all that.

Perhaps some people should get G-DE avatars?

What is the implication here? The shape?

The German (far) left in the 70s were all a bunch of creepy nonces.

And some of them still are...

[Mr. Smith]

16, and lower voting age to that as well.

[Frodo]

There shouldn't be an 'age of consent.' Trying to force human sexuality into a legislated box is always a bad idea and should be avoided at all costs. So long as everyone involved agrees at the time to engage in sexual activity and understands what they are agreeing to, they should be allowed to engage in said activity without the heavy hand of the law waiting to scoop them up and throw them in jail or place them on a barbaric 'sex offender' registry.

Gun to the head probably 15 as a bare minimum, though up to the age of 18 or thereabouts (however long they are living with their parents), the partners involved have to be of a similar age -I don't want some 40-45 year old man screwing a 15-year old girl.    

If the 15 year old consents, why is it any of your business? Sounds like you need a hobby if it bothers you that much. I would remind you that the idea that 15 year olds are 'children' is a very, very recent idea, a result of society extending childhood beyond its biological scope into young adulthood.

Easy enough to say when you are arguing about someone else's daughter.  Try to picture this wayward teen as your own daughter, and you'll understand why these laws exist.  

I wouldn't be a creep who would be trying to monitor everything that my daughter did of her own free well (like you presumably would), so no, I can't really sympathize with your retrograde denial of another person's sexuality on account of it making you uncomfortable. Also, it's really funny that you consider a 15 year old that would want to have sex with someone else a 'wayward teen'. Just because you never had sexual desire at that age doesn't mean that the rest of us didn't (although given that this is Atlas...you never know ).

So once they reach 15 you effectively abdicate responsibility for them? Just because I said 15 is the minimum age of consent that I can accept does not mean that we can treat 15-year olds as if they are suddenly adults responsible for their decisions.  They still need protection and guidance so long as they live under their parents' roof -and their parents are paying the bills.  And that gives those parents the right to have a say in their decisions, and to elect representatives to shape the laws that codify those rights.    

[Wake Me Up When The Hard Border Ends]

18 all-around (currently 16 where I live, although both partners have to be over 18 or between 16-18 - where one partner is over 16, but under 18, and the other is over 18, that is termed statutory rape in Western Australia).

[Why]

It sad to see that immoral and amoral attitudes are being universally promoted in this topic

[Untergang des Abendlandes]

21,434 years would be suitable.

[Figueira]

Mostly 16, with some exceptions depending on age difference and circumstances. I don't like how a single day is the difference between "perfectly fine" and "the worst crime ever."

[DavidB.]

I agree with the majority that have posted.  If you're young (under 18), everybody involved should be close to the same age.  

This: if you're 15, 16 or 17, the age should be variable, depending on the partner's age. For people under 15 it shouldn't be legal regardless of the age of the partner (even though 14 and 17 should be less problematic under the law than 14 and 30).

[Torie]

Baseline of 16 with wiggle room depending on the closeness of the ages of the partners involved. Meaning, I don't think a 14 year old should be having sex with a 30 year old, but a 14 year old having sex with a 16 year old is probably fine.

Agreed.

[RFayette]

Baseline of 16 with wiggle room depending on the closeness of the ages of the partners involved. Meaning, I don't think a 14 year old should be having sex with a 30 year old, but a 14 year old having sex with a 16 year old is probably fine.

Agreed.

Pretty much.  Laws should be intelligently written so there are gradations of offenses here, no doubt.

[Why]

I am struggling to believe what I am reading. How on earth is right for a 14 year old and a 16 year old to sex? It is just totally wrong, completely immoral and a sign of the sickness of the world that this is considered okay.

[RFayette]

I am struggling to believe what I am reading. How on earth is right for a 14 year old and a 16 year old to sex? It is just totally wrong, completely immoral and a sign of the sickness of the world that this is considered okay.

I mean, fornication is definitely a sin, but not all sins should be life-destroying felonies, though.

[Famous Mortimer]

People 16 and older should be able to have sex with anyone they want.

Between 13 and 16 it should be legal with people under 18. An 18 year old having sex with a 13 year old is skeevy but it's not something that should be on par with rape.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Half your age add seven

[RINO Tom]

I think 16 is appropriate.  People shouldn't have their lives ruined for having sex with a 17-year old, as disturbing as I think it might be.  The penalty should definitely not be one-size-fits-all (a 40-year old who tries to have sex with a 14-year old should not be judged as committing the same crime as a 19-year old having sex with his 15-year old girlfriend who happens to be young for her age), and I would not be opposed to some societal pressure discouraging such activity, even if it doesn't carry a legal punishment.

[Col. Roosevelt]

16.