George, Of The Jungle Wrote:

leo Wrote:The laws vary, but they all give exception to people that are roughly 3 years apart or less.

The age of consent in the US generally varies by gender and each state has their own laws regarding it. Here in Utah it's 18 for boys and 16 for girls.

I'm in favor of age of consent reform. There are plenty of 13 and 14 year olds out there that have the mental acuity to consent to sex. I know I was at that age. I'd like to see some sort of standardized test or something that reasonably determines whether they're capable of giving informed consent. Of course, this would be something done only with the approval of the minor's legal guardian(s) since they're still legally responsible for what their kids do.

Sounds ok, but I see some difficulties here though. Imagine the age gets set at 13 years old, as a norm. Then it would be legal for a 40 year old to have sex with a 13 year old. Then I see big problems regarding pedophilia.

Pedophilia is sexual attraction to prepubescent children.

The way I see it, so long as the legal guardians are in agreement and both individuals are consenting, I'm not gonna judge 'em. I don't know many 13 years olds that want to sleep with 40 year olds, so.

George, Of The Jungle Wrote:Or did you mean testing the capabilities of each person individually?

Each person. Not having a strict hard age for this kinda thing. So, for example, say we recognize anyone over 16 as able to give consent freely. Anyone that is under 16 that thinks they're capable of giving consent and has parental permission can take an unbiased standardized test that determines their ability to give informed consent rationally.

George, Of The Jungle Wrote:I think its pretty hard to determine whether a person is mentally capable to consent to sex.

I dunno. We came up with the numbers 16, 17, and 18 as being capable. We trust 16 year olds to drive cars. We've tried 15 year olds as adults for murder. Dave Chapelle says 14 is old enough to know whether you want to get peed or not. I'm sure we could come up with something.

George, Of The Jungle Wrote:And the approval of the legal guardian is also tricky I think. Usually 'children' don't tell their parents when they're gonna have/having sex.

Meh, better to have an option than not if you ask me.

There's a good book on some of these issues. It's called "Harmful to Minors: The Perils of Protecting Children from Sex" by Judith Levine. Definitely a good read.