Quote:
Originally Posted by Xerxys
Dude, I shudder at the thought of two 13 year olds going at it!! How in heavens name will a person under the age of 16 be able to deal with the psycho-emotional ramifications of sex?
Sex my friends is a confusing and complex issue. I have no idea why it's downplayed so much. I'm not saying list the 13 year olds as sex offenders, educate them by all means ... just don't trivialize it with the "but muuuuum, everyone's doing it" mentality.
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Yes, to me the idea of 2 13-year-olds going at it is distasteful. However, the age of consent is a law in place to punish one or the other of the parties engaged in the sex. I don't believe either of the 13 year olds should be punished. Educated? ABSOLUTELY. Punished? No.
In NJ, there are tiers to the age of consent. If you are above 18, anything goes. If you are 16 or up (our age of consent), anything goes except caretakers...that must wait til 18. If at least one party is below the age of 16, it is still legal until the two parties differ in age by at least 4 years. So a 14 year old and a 17 year old is legal. However, if either party is 12 or under, it is illegal, end of story. If there were 12 year olds having sex...yes, it's illegal, but I think it'd be the parents that were punished, rather the children.
So, I think that's a pretty reasonable system, instead of just 'ANYONE UNDER 18 CAN NEVER HAVE SEX OR BE THROWN IN JAIL', which seems to be a prevailing school of thought.
P.S. When you say 'my friends' it makes me feel exactly the same as when Jon McCain said it: as if I'm being patronized. Just a thought. Nor do i want to trivialize this issue. Legalizing something doesn't mean encouraging it. Just making it so that in the above example, a 17 year old and a 14 year old, the 17 year old isn't thrown in jail regardless of the situation. Which is what happens in a state where the only law is 16 = age of consent.
---------- Post added at 07:30 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:25 PM ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by raeanna74
It does irk me that some kids who are 18 or 19 just spout what they're hearing at home or from their friends but isn't that the way some 30, 40, 60, 80 yr olds are? Some people never think for themselves and never seem to learn from their or our past either. I doubt we could ever get the age for voting changed.
As for the Legal Drinking age... I thought kids were allowed to drink with a legal guardian present in their legal guardians home. If that's the case then kids could drink even now, the way you did. Too many kids aren't as educated as you were with regards to how to drink responsibly. If the legal age was changed then we'd have younger, less responsible kids drinking without adult supervision and more often. It's bad enough the kids to manage to get liquor now even though it's not legal.
And Finally... as to the age of consent/statutory rape age. I don't think it should be lowered but I do think that we should rethink cases such as a 17 yr old dating another 17 yr old who turns 18 and suddenly mom and dad have an issue with their little girl having sex with an 18 yr old. If they had a relationship before one of them turned 18 the 18 yr old should not be able to be charged with statutory rape. It's unfair to the couple and especially the one who happened to turn 18. Like a pair of teens are going to suddenly stop having sex when one of them turns 18. Beyond that, I think there should be more freedom given to the judges to not crack down on kids who are underage and who have sex with older kids or adults. If you think about it, a 16 or 17 yr old who ends up having sex with a 30 yr old could possibly have a better experience than two teens together, especially if the 30 yr old truely cares about the 16 yr old. * Please note that I'd prefer kids waited till they were 18 anyway but that's another thread on it's own. The biggest thing about not changing the age for kids to have sex is that kids need as much encouragement as possible to avoid having sex and especially getting pregnant until they finish highshool at least. I personally don't want to encourage kids to drop out of highschool by allowing them to get married earlier. There is so much breaking up and making up going on at that age that I think we'd probably end up with a much higher divorce rate AND higher dropout rate. What good would that do?
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Hopefully this automerges my doublepost cuz I'm lazy. xD.
Absolutely agreed: this is another farcical example showing the inanity of a hard and fast 'age of consent'. However, when u bring up your 16 v 30. Let's change that a bit, let's say 13 and 30. Suddenly, it seems a lot more predatory to me. Even if the 30 year old truly cares for the 13 year old...I think there's way too much pressure on the girl at that age because of the age/maturity difference. It's just not a relationship among equals, and at that age, that's a problem to me. Predatory is the key word.