Should the age of consent be lowered to 14?

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The age of consent should be abolished. So long as both (or however many) parties give effective consent to engage in sexual activity, I don't think it's the job of the state to lock them up if one of them hit an arbitrary age marker before the other. The fact may people here think it's a good idea to lock up anyone for things that they mutually agree to, while bothering no one else, is proof positive that the 'sexual revolution' of the 1960s-70s has pretty much been reversed in its entirety at this point, although the rhetoric now is about 'protecting children/women/etc' rather than 'punishing sinners'.

(Nothing in this post should obviously be interpreted as apologia for coerced sexual activity, but it will be anyway because hey, this is Atlas Forum, and being a leftist that does not support the anti-sex witchhunt of the post-Reagan years is beyond the pale here)

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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.

I don't think a 22-year-old like me has any business having sex with people who are 16. That seems pretty creepy to me.

I'm not into porn where a chick steps on a guy's balls with heels, myself. But I don't think it should be illegal, because both of the people involved consented to engaging in that activity. Keep your nanny-state out of the bedroom.

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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.

I don't think a 22-year-old like me has any business having sex with people who are 16. That seems pretty creepy to me.

I'm not into porn where a chick steps on a guy's balls with heels, myself. But I don't think it should be illegal, because both of the people involved consented to engaging in that activity. Keep your nanny-state out of the bedroom.

Surely you understand that a person's ability to properly consent - as well as another person's ability to exploit someone else's inability to properly consent - is dependent on age?

What defines 'proper consent' for you? Because if a girl wanted to have sex with me when I was 14, I'd have said yes, like a normal person that age would if the offer was made. So long as both parties know what they're getting into and agree to it, I don't think it's any of your business to butt in and say 'well she's 16 and you're 22, so she obviously isn't old enough to consent to sex', which is ridiculous. Were you ever 16? I was, and I definitely remember being able to understand (and obviously desire) sex then, as well as at 14.