Anonymous
Anonymous asked:
What are your thoughts on places with low ages of consent?What do you consider low?
I think age of consent laws that use a fixed number fail to be very good. People mature at very different rates.
I think the Dutch Parliament has the most progressive age of consent laws. The law, written in 1990, basically places the age of consent at age 12 - but the parents of of the child can overrule the child’s consent up until the their 17th birthday. Parents don’t have autonomous authority, though; They have to make a case to the Council for the Protection of Children that they are acting in the best interest of the child. This allows young people to slowly accrue sexual rights on more of a case-by-case basis, while still retaining the extra protection, provided by their parents, against exploitation.
[I feel the need to point out that United States Federal law prohibits Americans from traveling to a foreign country for the purpose of taking advantage of lower age of consent laws.]
