by K.L. Cain

Created on: November 10, 2009

I'm surprised to find myself writing for the "yes" side because I think consent laws are just ridiculous. Kids will have sex no matter what the law says. Graduating from a high school with an extremely high teen pregnancy rate taught me this, and things would be a lot less messy without these laws. Yeah, I can see the age of consent laws keeping a pedophile from striking but that's a whole other can of worms, and it's just as creepy for an 18 year old and a 48 year old to engage in sexual intercourse, but there's no law against that. However, when a 17 year old gets a record as a sex offender for having sex with their 15 year old significant other, then it's just ridiculous because this happens every day. I think the universal law of "you can't stir up legal issues" should be 18, but sex laws should be far more nuanced than that.

Adults will do what adults will do and as much as the advances of men in their thirties and up turns my stomach, once you hit 18 people shouldn't be able to make what you do in the bedroom illegal. Until then, however, there should be an age gap law. Before 18, sexual partners really shouldn't have an age gap of more than three years. If the age gap is three years or less, it should be legal because it will happen. I'm horrified to think that I had a boyfriend at 15 who could've been charged as a sex offender because he was 17 (Kentucky's age of consent is 16) if we'd decided to have sex, because there was nothing wrong with that relationship. He was only one grade ahead of me (I was the second youngest student in my graduating class), and while we ourselves were "weird, creepy" Goth kids, our relationship wasn't at all "creepy" or weird. My best friend dated an 18-year-old at age 16 and that could've gotten them in trouble in a different state even though there was nothing wrong with it. Kids in middle school have sex. You can't stop it with consent laws.

What about bigger age gaps? Assuming all sex was consensual, and the person in question has hit puberty, then if parents want to start sh*t about it, then they can file a lawsuit and go to court because their little girl/boy made the decision to have sex. "Statutory rape" is a laughable concept. If Suzy is 15 and dating an 18-year-old she needs a talk from Mom and Dad, not an imprisoned beau. Parents may feel more comfortable with the latter arrangement, but it's their issue and not the overburdened legal system's. I've known 16-year-olds who dated and had sex with 19 and even 22-year-olds.

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