“Wanna experiment with sex after school?”
“Sure, now that it’s legal!”
The new law that allows prosecutors to seek a death penalty for repeat child sex offenders also lowers the age of consent in some cases.
Prosecutors can seek a death sentence for a repeat sex offender when the victim is under age eleven. But it also allows people age 18 and under to avoid maximum penalties if the other person is 14, down from 16. The provision was added to avoid severe penalties for young people experimenting with sex.
There are a great many adults, most of them parents, that seem to be upset that some states are lowering the “age-of-consent” and changing the laws so as not to make criminals out of teens for their natural sexuality and curiosity.
Could it be that these people want laws put on the books to do what they should be doing as proper parents. Do they really need the force of some law to impose some imaginary restrictions on their kids actions?
Teenagers don’t know or care what the laws are, because they will all do what their parents will permit, and a little more when they can get by with it.
Bottom line is, your children, if normal, will experiment with sex and you can’t pass the buck to lawmakers when that courtship activity gets out of YOUR control.
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D.Ange,
Please allow me to refer you back to the late sixties and early seventies, when most states were passing or “improving” their laws covering the sale, use, and possession of controlled substances….
Yeah, everybody agreed that new and stricter laws were needed to stop the illegal drug trade….
Guess what happened?…. Drug use increased 160% over the next five years. Passing laws against any activity makes it a more exciting adventure for young people to take part in….
If we were able to learn from past mistakes, the laws controling consensual sex would be totally removed from all State law books, and in doing so, remove the challenge to teenagers to do it just to prove they can…. It’s just human nature, and laws will never change that…
At whatever age a teen becomes sexually active is determined by their natural curiosity together with what they have been taught by their parents,,,,, nothing else has any effect at all….
You should first understand why this law was really passed. It wasn’t passed so 18 year olds could have sex with 14 year olds. It was passed so that a 14 year old who consents to a 16 year old doesn’t get the 16 year old locked up and convicted as a sex offender for a girl whom he slept with with consent. I’m not sure how to completely explain this but basically…
uhh. for example
a 16 year old and a 14 year old girl have sex, they date, they like each other, but the parents do not know anything about them having sex. When the parents find out, the girl panics and blames it all on the guy or the parents just assume it. This leads to the 16 year old getting locked up for practiaclly no reason. That would be the main reason for the creation of this law. I know this becasue I’m a brilliant 16 year old with a 14 year old girlfriend. Now it would be much different if I was 18. I would want myself to be locked up for that. The law just protects a minor for going to jail for having sex with another minor. Its a point of finger situation basically. So before you post a comment, think first.
Peaceee
Justin,
Your explanation is a good one, and the law is trying to take notice of the fact that many teen girls have boyfriends that are two or three years older…. The reason for that is and has always been because most teenage girls grow and mature somewhat earlier than most teenage boys.
Many States have a provision in the law that provides for “peer group sex” between a male and female that are no more than three or four years in age difference…. The object being not to make criminals out of young people in normal courtship relationships.
I don’t think such relationships should be limited to those below 18 years old because there are many high school seniors that have passed their eighteenth birthday…. The “peer group” exception could apply to any age, such as a high school student with a girlfriend or boyfriend that may be in college or of college age with no more than a three or four year age difference.
Basically, I don’t like any law that can put a young person in jail where there is no victim making the charge…. That is morality by legislation and morality is greatly different with each person…. If no one has been harmed, forced, or offended to the point of feeling victimized, no crime has been commited…. How does a State feel offended or victimized?
I’m a 25 year-old grad student at University of Vermont at Burlington, and after reading these posts, I am having the feeling that there are way too many parents that are out of touch with current reality.
In most of our public schools in this country, real sex education has been replaced by programs that require students to pledge “abstinence-until-married” with the end result of no meaningful education for students about their natural sexuality and no reduction of sexual activity. Kids will tell adults what they want to hear.
This government sponsored plan to advance ignorance comes at a time when over half of high school students are or have recently been sexually active.
Only the brain dead would think that any form of meaningful sex instruction would be available to students at home as parents insist is their right to do. OK, teach them at home, but do it in addition to a full comprehensive sex ed program at school.
Not much has changed over the years with teenage sex. In talking with both of my grandmothers I found that there were early teens that got pregnant when my grandmothers were children, so nothing new here. The big difference now is that there are effective birth control methods available today for parents to guide their sons and daughters in the use of both for the protection STDs and pregnancy prevention.
My parents would be considered liberals I suppose because I started having sex with my seventeen year-old boyfriend when I was fifteen. My dad walked in on us one Friday night, in the den floor, in front of the fireplace, gas logs on, lights out, and so focused on each other that we didn’t even know he was there.
Next morning at breakfast I got my parents cram course in sex education and I was startled to hear that they recognized it as being a totally normal event in growing and maturing as a person. Mom made an appointment for me to get the pill and dad had his input about the necessity of my partner always using condoms, but neither of them made me feel I or he had done anything wrong or that I was a victim that had been taken advantage of and I love them for that.
All kids should be so lucky because, as a practical reality, the proper time for sex is when you and your partner are both mature enough to realize that you want to do it.
kids are going to have sex anyway but parent’s need to talk to their kids and know what they are doing every single minute. The should know who they are with who they like if they have a boyfriend what they do and know the parents. Kids should learn how to wait before they even do anything that they might regret. Having sex at 13 is too young I learned from that and I regret some of the things I did as a teenager but I can never change that.
Age of consent poll in South Carolina to understand the law at link below
http://forums.goupstate.com/eve/forums?a=corfrm&cf=6961098265
Hello.
Coming from a country other than America i feel it is my responsibility to tell you all- you’re idiots (well some of those commentators are anyway).
Over here in Ireland we’ve just had emergency legislation rushed through our Dail (Parliament) re: consent, etc.
The lower of ages is not to make it easier and “more cool” to have sex. Its to protect certain teens from being prosecuted for statutory when all they did was have sex with their gf./bf.
If you ask any of your parents (or indeed eachother) what the age difference is between themselves and their spouses you’ll find 90% of the time its 3 or more years.
That rings true for alot of teens too- we don’t decide who we fall for (or drunkenly lay) a bit of age variance is common.
But does that mean we’re all given free license to do as we please? hell no, precedent hardly applies to most sex trials- each one is judged on its own merits (for want of a much better word). All this new law thing does is allow a judge or jury or whatever the choice of throwing out ridiculous cases- oh look a 16 year old had perfectly consenting sex with his 14 yr old gf.
Oh look Mr Paedo from three houses down groomed my 16 yr daughter for sex in a chatroom, convinced her she liked him and then molested her in his car behind the mall. What’s that judge? you ARE going to prosecute this one? wow the law works! why? cos its common sense real world situations not just what needs to be written into the books.
Oh and finally whoever came up with in 1800 most people married at 14 is a fool. in 1800 most people died at 25 (or there abouts, that figure is more for dramatic punch) and abortion and divorce were nil? where’d you read that one sherlock? abortion was largely illegal- still happened. and divorce was common as hell if your religion allowed it.
I look forward to your alarmist rebuttals
Fr. Tod Omtious
I’m 14 and I had sex with a 27 year old man my mom did not approve but we are happy.
Well played, sir troll.
Ok, here’s the way I look it. Way, way, way back in the day, people got married at 13, 14, 15 years old. My grandma was 14 when she got married. But marriage isn’t the topic, sex is. I know if my grandma was married then, she was also having sex. This wasn’t an issue years ago and everything was a lot less complicated.
The thing you don’t realize is that teenagers are rebellious. The more you try to control them, the more their going to want to do it. If you set the age of consent to freakin 25, more and more 13 year old are gonna do it just because you say they can’t!
Hell, I had sex ed for the first time in 5th grade. No lie. I am 15 and I am still a virgin and I’ve never wanted to know about these laws until now. I met a really great guy who is 19.
I haven’t known him long and by no means do I want to have sex with him at this point. I’m just intersted as to see what the laws are in case one day it comes down to sex with me and this guy.
But really, is it illegal for a 15 year old girl and a 19 year old guy to be together and possible have sex in the future?
i have another question myself… i am in a relationship with a girl who is 13, and i am 16, about to be 17. [she’ll be 14] its totally legal for me and her to have sex, without legal recourse?
NOPE…
Ok I’m a 15 year old girl. See I just found out that I was pregnant a couple of weeks ago,I’m now 6 weeks and for days well my boyfriend 17 goin on 18 & I’m 15 goin on 16. I’m do in july and my birthdays in january so by the time I actually give birth I’ll be 16 and he’ll be turniing 18 in febuary. But he’s scared that he’s goin to get in trouble for our age difference. Will he?
i’m 17 and i dont think that parents quite understand their children enough to say that they cant do this or cant do that, some of you parents and i’m not saying some of yall arent doing this but some of you parents dont listen to your kids, it doesnt matter if their 13 or 17 we have opinions and telling us no, you dont have a right and no you dont have a voice only makes us rebel that much harder, I know that if my mom had listened to me like I was a person instead of acting like “my word is law” I would have thought twice instead of experimenting and almost getting my gf pregnant twice, fortunatly for me I didn’t get her pregnant. I dont think that enough parents realize that all of us, teenagers I mean can sneak behind our parents backs, we will do what we want, I’m not trying to be beligerant but thats just how I felt. I realize that I might not be smart enough to figure this problem out but I think that if parents would try to have better relationships with their children in stead of being a control freak it wouldnt be such a problem, I realize that your life at work is stressful and I realize that there may be something bothering you, but its all about the way you treat us when times are good AND when times are bad. My dad and mom got divorced when I was 3 I lived with my dad for 2 years when i turned 14, and I had sex around last year, My dad has never once yelled at me and I’m not exagerating, all he has to do is ask once maybe twice before I’ll do something, often times I’ll just tune my mother out until she yells then we fight. This is just how Teenagers are if you want your sons or daughters to listen to you listen to them hear their opinions and dont flip out at the smallest things, if they come to you and tell you they’ve had sex dont snap relax take a deep breath and ask them what has come of it, I dont have any kids I have no idea how hard that is, I want them some day but not today, if you want your childrens respect dont act like you’ve never done anything wrong, the biggest difference between my mother and father is that my father treats me like an equil if I tell him my opinion he hears me out then talks to me about why I feel that way I even told him to his face in a calm voice that I didnt like my step mom and that if she tried to hit me i would fight back, I told him I dont feel she’s my mother and has no right to touch me, he said ok, why do you feel that way. If I ever said something like that to my mother she would slap me in the face, which as all parents know will cause some kind of retaliation wether its going out and sleeping with the next guy/girl that is available or doing some other immoral or unlawful act
I agree 100% with youu . I wish parents would understand the actions their kids want to make . If parents would have the “sex” talk with their kids , alot of the children 13 – 16 would be different . I had sex , and only had it once . Age is not anything more than a number . Why is it such a big dea to everyone ? I’m so glad i have people that kno how it is out here with children && can tell me how it is . I may be pregnant , hopefully not . But if I am , then i will make my life the best . Thats all i can do . But if the people dont like how I want to live my life , they should just let me leave ! I have many many places to go . They only gotta say two words . “Get Out!” Thats all , i will go live my life somewhere else . !
-Brooke*
to ECA,
so its legal?
i just gotta check everything out first…
and to everyone else, teenagers generally do not pay attention to the law anyways, and i agree with the person above me.
Ok here’s a question for you all, say two teens live in SC. The girl is 19 and the boy is 16. The boys parents hate the girl. Could they do anything about him and her having sex since the age of consent for a boy in SC is 16?
I think that it is ok for a 25 year old to have sex with a 14 year old especially if they love each other. This world isnt about forcing and keeping people from doing what they want, it is about loving one another and making each other happy. It doesnt matter what the age is because age is just a number. I dont think anybody should go to jail because of the age (14 year old and 25 year old) unless the 14 year old can prove that she said no and the 25 y/o refused to listen. otherwise I think anyone from the age 14 to 30 can have a sexual relationship with a 14 year old
cool i can bang younger chicks now
You Americans are disgust this evil act should be marrieds only
I’m 16 and from sc. I have a son with a 25 year old man. We are madly in love and wanting to get married. My parents won’t sign for our marriage license though. In the state of georgia it is legal for a 16 year old to get married without parents consent. If me and my fiance go to georgia and get married would he face any charges for being that much older? I really need legal advice on this. If anyone has any info or advice please email me at katiepoplin@yahoo.com. I would really appreciate it.
I believe in ga if u have a child together u don’t need concent goole it
Sorry didn’t look at date mayb it will help someone eles
so i’m speaking out of experience. when kids have sex their first time or even their second they don’t think about what they are doing is against the law… so changing the age will do very little to stop it. i’m 17 so i can throw that out there from the people this law affects. although i am 100% against a 19 year old being with ANYONE under the age of 17 and worst case scenario 16. 14 or even 15 is absolutely ridiculous. but that is because the maturity levels are very different and most teens don’t think about how they are still growing up and haven’t witnessed life at all! and arent ready for a commitment like that. but thats simply my input
So i’m 20 yrs old and live in Laurens SC my fiance is 16 yrs old i still haven’t touched her bc we are waiting until we are married we have known each other since we were kids as my mom used to babysit her we are getting married nxt month but if i did touch her b4 marriage since she is 16 would i get in trouble that is why we are waiting for the marriage we don’t know if her parents could do anything can they
I had sex when i was 12 , the guy i did was 15 . My family thinks he can go to jail ! Is it true ? i dont believe it . wtf !?
I’m 18 and my girlfriend is 16. We’re a gay couple and I want to take her away from her abusive home and marry her right after Basic Combat Training. I just need to know if her being 16 is the legal age of consent to get married without parent permission.
Depends on the state. I think in SC you need parent consent.
Don’t understand what u mean by gay are u both same. Sex or male an female an u just want to help her I don’t mean to sound stupid but sc don’t allow same sex marriage an the age is 18 without concent in ga if u hav a child togather I believe u can don’t kno if u can if u are just peg google it good luck
I would just like to know if it is illegal for a 15 year old girl, such as myself to be in a relationship with a guy whom is 19? We are NOT wanting to have sex, just to date. Neither him or I want him to get into trouble for this. My mother and father are fine with this because they know that we are not wanting to have sex. So is it okay to date as long as there is no sexual relation?
“Uh, and what if a 25 year old man convinces a naive 14 year old girl that she’s so pretty and he loves her and he’d never hurt her and he wants to be with her forever, then he has sex with her and disappears, leaving her rather severely emotionally scarred? You think there should be no penalty for that?”
Honestly, I think the penalty should be less draconian than it currently is. Reasonable mistake of age should be a defense in all cases whenever demonstrable and the national age of consent should be sixteen. There should be a five year age-gap provision with penalties that are proportional to the age-gap of greater than five years also.
I would consider sexual intercourse between a 25 year old and a 14 year old criminal, if the 25 year old was not defrauded concerning the partner’s age, but I would make not punish it with de facto life-imprisonment or execution via the sex-offender registry.
is it wrong for a 12 year old to do it with a 15 year old