by Linda Smith

Created on: April 22, 2008

Oh for goodness sakes! Bit by bit we, as the American nation, are inviting the "government" to step into our lives and tell us how to live, what to eat, what to drink and how to raise our children. If parents can't control the sexual activity of their teens, what makes anyone think that the government can?

Setting a "national age" for sexual consent is not like setting an interstate speed limit, or a voting age limit or an age by which you can join the military. Who exactly is suggesting this as something our government should do? Who will be the ultimate decision maker on what age we're talking about? One teen could be emotionally mature at 16 while another won't actually be mature until age 25.

The very nature of being a teenager is one full of raging hormones and confusing ideas of their personal identities. Teenagers are not children nor are they adults. Picking age 18 as the line between adult and childhood is itself an arbitrary barrier, but for political and legal reasons a necessary one.

It's natural to want to protect our children from their own wild inhibitions, but it is not the government's job to do so. As far as age limits to buy alcoholic beverages, cigarettes and certain reading materials...these are already in place. Not the same age in every state, but in place.

So what is going to happen? A senator will put a bill before congress saying that the legal age for sexual consent is 18 and then they vote on it? What will be in the bill? How will it define "teenager?" What kind of studies are going to have to be done to determine what the "best" age is to allow teens to be "legally" sexually active? Are they talking about considering kids between the ages of 13 and 17? What if the age limit to be a "consenting adult" is already age 18 in a state? What then? If the age limit is set lower, how will it effect the laws already in existence in any given state?

Would such legislation spell out exactly what is being consented? Will it include such touchy issues as abortion, birth control, purchase of safe sex products? How would this step on the rights of parents? Would parents risk prosecution of their teens were "caught" in a sexual situation and they were under this consent age?

If the federal government sets an age for sexual consent, how will it be monitored? What agency will police it? How will anyone know?

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