Photo courtesy of ©iStockphoto/Manygodbehear

Photo courtesy of ©iStockphoto/Manygodbehear


Recently, debate about the age of consent for sex has started in the U.K.
Should we raise it, lower it or leave at it as it is?
In such situations, thinking about my own kids steals me against being too intellectually removed from real life. What the law says will effect what goes on. But to what degree?

Some cautionary thoughts…


In a democracy, debate is a good thing. Debate about really tricky ideas-like at what age children should be “allowed” to have sex-is especially important.
The “no sex, please; we’re British” position has no place here. We need to get to grips with this issue.

So here are my initial thoughts on the subject…

Before we come to a view on this, there are a number of things we’d be wise to bear in mind:

  • Development is gradual – despite the “time flies” feelings we get, children grow slowly. Full child development occurs between the ages of 0 and 25. Having too rigid a concept of age-based consent, distances us from the reality of how children develop. Turning sixteen today does not mean the child is any the wiser than they were yesterday. The same goes for 14 and 18. It’s much more gradual than that.
  • Norms and laws are different – the social contract laid down in statute does not necessarily mirror the social norms of human behaviour*. We know that at least a third of girls and boys have heterosexual sex before reaching the current age of consent (FPA). Whilst we may not always support the norms, some kind of balance needs to be considered for the interplay between ideals and reality.
  • Children can be “mature,” but… – of those who had sex before they were sixteen, 80% said they used a condom. More than 9 out of 10 used contraception of some kind. A fifth of young men and nearly half of young women aged 16–24 said they wished they had waited longer to start having sex. They were twice as likely to say this if they had been under 15 when they first had sex. So experience isn’t the best basis on which to fix laws?…
  • Laws are messages – when the law takes a position on a matter, a message is sent to citizens about the “rightness” or otherwise of behaviour. This can be protective; it can also be liberating and restricting in turn. Mature children will get one message. Those who offend sexually against children, for example, will get another. Debate needs to address what a change in the law would mean in terms of citizen perceptions of sexual consent.
  • Clarity is important and currently uncertain – the legislation governing sexual offences in the U.K. (the 2003 Act) is clear that any child under 13 cannot, in law, consent to sex. But the age of consent is 16. Presumably, therefore, the law “allows” for some sense that those aged 13-15 inclusive, have some potentially permissible lee-way to engage in sexual behaviour with impunity? Mmm…
  • Protection of the vulnerable – age is not the only factor influencing judgments around sexual behaviour. Those with communication problems, learning disabilities and/or abusive early childhood experiences, must be borne in mind, too. Will any change, in either direction, affect these groups in any way? Erring on the side of caution here is a key protective factor, it seems to me, that should be at the forefront of the debate.

Final thoughts…

No doubt there are other factors that should be added to this list of guiding thoughts and principles. Please include your thoughts via the comments section, below.
For my part, if I had to decide today on the age of consent, I would probably leave it alone. Despite the weaknesses outlined above, generally speaking the current arrangement isn’t terribly “broken,” in my view. So I question the need to try and “fix” it…

What do you think?…

  • What are your views on this issue? 
  • Do we need a change on the law? If so, what guiding ideas do you have for getting it right?

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© Jonny Matthew 2014

(*With full acknowledgement and thanks to Dr Kieran McCartan, Associate Professor of Criminology at the University of the West of England for his excellent blog post)

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