Age of Consent and Buying Adult Toys

In some states, the age of consent can be 16(like here in Iowa). I think the age of consent being 16 seems a rather sane option. 18 would definitely be a little late to be the age of consent.

 

I believe sex is an adult matter, so the age of consent should be at least 18.

I don't think people should sext in high school, either. I don't think someone is automatically 'pedo' for doing it, but with all the revenge porn out there, you'd have to either live under a rock or be a complete idiot to send naked pictures to someone you hardly know.

As for sex toys, people can use them to masturbate, and masturbation can help teens control sexual urges. Therefore, I think they should lower the sex toy age limit to around 14 or 15.

 

There's a lot of problems that come up here.

First, I think that the age of consent, well....should probably just stay where it is. Let's be honest here - does it even really matter? I mean, FOR PEOPLE THAT AGE!
"Oh, I'm 15...the age of consent is 16. I'll definitely wait a year." Didn't we learn anything from sex ed? We learned that it doesn't work! ha!

Anyways, I think that the "pedophile/legal" side of it is really not the best thing. The only way that someone should get in trouble is if it was truly bad - like the revenge porn thing, or, say, actual sex crimes. A few years back, there was this girl in my area. She sent a video of herself around and she was...doing something. Anyways, as the story goes, some of the guys who sent it - who were not much older than her (maybe they were 15 or 16, or heck, probably younger!) got in trouble and I believe some had to register. I thought this was a slippery slope.

I say all of this because I was the 14-15-16 year old who...didn't make some great electronic choices.

Sex toys - here's the thing - it's more of going to the store. Can you imagine if, say a 16 year old walked into a store and there way some 40 year old doing something he/she shouldn't? Talk about legality and a big ass law suit!

 

Meh. If young teens want to have sex with people their own age, I don't see the problem. Just educate them in safe sex, and leave them to it. It's natural to want to experiment. The problem arises when there is an age gap. Same applies to sex toys, really.

I used to live in spain, where the law was 13+, but a barrier at 18, to stop paedophillia.

 

You're ignoring the fact that you can buy most of your toys online.

 

My view is that there should not be an age requirement for purchasing sex toys.

My view on age of consent is that it is a stupid and evil legal practice that we need to get away from. It enables parents to abuse the legal system to punish people for things they disapprove of. We need to come up with a better way than mere age to decide when a person is mature enough to exercise their sexual agency. Perhaps some kind of psychological interview with individuals below a certain age. Things like age of consent are bad because they turn consent into rape in a catastrophic and sick way. I honestly can't believe age of consent laws enjoy such vigorous defense here.

 

Here in England the age of consent is 16
However there was some talk of lowering it to 15
I personally agree with this change but cant understand why it did not take place
And in terms of sex ed
I believe its a nessecary requirement to teach it in year 7 or younger so we all have had quite a lot of information

 

Call me old fashioned, but the idea of doing something remotely sexual and not being at least 18 seems wrong to me. I honestly don't understand how people can find it so hard to just wait. Is it really that difficult? It's not like our genitals will shrivel up and die if we don't use them right away. I've yet to meet a sexually active teenager who isn't having some kind of problems, be it academically, socially, or emotionally.

i do acknowledged that some do bloom earlier than others, mature faster, and are probably ready for such things. If there was a way to test for sexual maturity, it would indeed be very helpful.

And as for adult toys, well they are called Adult for a reason. There really is no need to let anyone other than an adult purchase those.

 

Are you familiar with the Kaitlyn Hunt case?

 

I was not, but having read that I see why it is that your not in favor of the age of consent. As much as the law is there to protect us, it can also be used to harm us as well. But that can be said for various others can it not? As for the case, while it's unfortunate what happened with those girls, isn't it more to do with the mother not approving of their relationship rather than their age difference.

 

Don't you care that Hunt was being charged for consensual sexual conduct the law protected up until she turned 18? Why should the law permit a mother to injure another child for a relationship she didn't approve of?

 

Jesus people half my friends lost their V-cards freshman year, I lost mine in middle school (I was a stupid kid, made stupid choice). Kids will have sex. It happens.

Consent age in my state is 16, but a 16 year olds can't have sex with an 18 year olds.

Should the consent age be lowered? Does it matter? As long as you don't blab about your sex life who's going to find out? Consent age doesn't mean crack. If kids can drive at 16, they can also have sex, no one can say "don't do that".

Hell in Michigan we still have blue laws in place banning oral and anal sex. WTF? But hey people still do it, because they can't enforce it.

Same goes with sexting. Take me and my girl for example. We send picks to each other, (set time) we jack to it, we delete it. No one is the wiser.

 

I'm honestly not sure how I feel about the age of consent. It really depends on the individual how early they mature enough to make decisions like that, and it frustrates me to no end when people assume that someone is "too young" to make a decision for themselves even in cases where the decision was made carefully and consciously. On the other hand, I was a victim of child sexual abuse, and one of the many things that my abuser told himself to justify what he was doing was this very same thing - that some children are able to make decisions like that for themselves before it's legal. What he didn't want to think about was that I couldn't have said no to him because of his position of power (that's not counting the times I did say no, and he didn't listen). A law about consent probably shouldn't have anything to do with age (it's hard to justify arbitrarily putting the line anywhere in particular), but rather the ability to say no.

As far as toys, I don't think there should be legal age for that; you don't generally buy something like that against your will. And using toys at that age, if it's something that interests you, would probably keep you from getting involved in risky behavior before you're old enough to handle the consequences.

 

When I was a teenager myself I thought much the same: why not lower it to 15 or 14 if that's when people are doing it anyway? But now that I'm older my opinion has changed somewhat and I now find myself thinking we need better safeguards for those aged 16+, if not raising the age of consent to 18 than at least introducing some laws to protect people in the 16-18 age group. The reason I say this is that although many 16 year olds are emotionally responsible enough to handle a sexual relationship I have also seen many examples of those who really are very immature at this age and are vulnerable to being exploited and coerced into doing things they are not ready for and may regret later.

With the sex education I agree it should be taught at an early age, even if just teaching about anatomy and relationships in primary school before tackling the actual sex discussions as they get older, so that kids are realistically prepared for the future, especially as a great many of them now seem to be getting their first (mis)information about sex from pornography they have seen.

 

That's fascinating. I agree, if we don't make sex this huge taboo, it's not such a big deal, so people won't be so crazy about it. And if people are more aware, they'll be more difficult to victimize. That's a big part of why if I ever have kids, I'm not going to shelter them much. It's better that they learn about the world when they're in a safe environment, than when they're off on their own. It can be difficult finding a good balance though, I think. The man that abused me wasn't interested in sheltering me, either.

I agree with you 100%, I just don't know if addressing age in the law is really going to tackle the issue properly. Age doesn't necessarily indicate the ability to make decisions like that, and the root of the issue age-based laws are trying to get at is the ability of the child to consent. If age isn't the right way to discriminate between people who can and cannot consent, we need to look around for something else (I'm not saying I know what it is though). You're right that power and control issues are the part we need to address though.

---------- Post added 3rd May 2014 at 10:42 PM ----------

Also, if we really want to protect children from "creepy older ones," we should probably implement some kind of support system for pedophiles who don't want to act on their attractions. I found an interesting podcast that addresses this issue, and it's very relevant (trigger warning for others who have been abused) :
This 19-Year-Old Pedophile Has Never Gone Near A Child. And He Needs You To Hear His Story.
A lot of people have this knee-jerk hateful reaction to pedophiles, which makes even me uncomfortable, because I don't feel that kind of hate. If we don't let people get help, how can we truly say we're protecting victims?

 

Sweden age of consent: 15
US age of consent: from 16 to 18, depending on state

Sweden teenage pregnancy rate: 7.7 per 1000 teens aged 15-19
US teenage pregnancy rate: 55.6 - highest in the developed world

I don't think having a higher age of consent is going to prevent problems from arising. A lack of information and poor sex education is responsible. Teens in the Anglosphere use condoms far less frequently than teens in other developed countries, and people in Scandinavia and Germany engage in sex at an earlier age.

Acting like teenagers are innocent children that need shielding from the dangers and impurity of sex is damaging. Teenagers are going to have sex, regardless of the age of consent - the least we can do is inform them on how to have sex safely, avoid unplanned pregnancies and protect themselves against STDs. Brushing it under the carpet and telling them not to do it will only make the problem worse.

We can also drop this silly notion that an 18 year old having (consensual) sex with a 16 year old makes them a pedophile, or two 15 year olds having (consensual) sex somehow makes both people sex offenders.