The Million Dollar Question: Age of Consent

[blackmagicruby]

I have a strong opposition any AoC law, I would instead focus in on laws strengthening what it means to consent to sex as a whole, make sex education mandatory, more in depth, and possibly hands on from a much earlier age. Without fleshing out the thought too much, I think by middle school young people should know enough about sex to both do it safely and actually bring their partner to orgasm.

When I was in school back in the 90s, I think by sixth or seventh grade most of the girls I knew had some form of sexual encounters with boys already. A few even lost their cherries to boys that didn't know the first thing about wearing a condom. In my school in particular, the girls locker rooms were a great place to sneak off for "couples privacy" as we had full stalls for changing.

Our gym teacher was a rather handsome man too, it wouldn't surprise me if a few girls had private meetings in his office but it never occurred to me to ask and nothing of the sort was ever shared in my presence.

Getting back on a more serious track though, instead of a hard number on AoC, maybe it would be better to have some form of certificate of sexual education or something similar to that effect. Make the penalties for actual rape harsher, include coercion/manipulation.

Maybe while we're at it, we can get rid of age requirements for viewing and participating in pornography.

[example]

I have a strong opposition any AoC law, I would instead focus in on laws strengthening what it means to consent to sex as a whole, make sex education mandatory, more in depth, and possibly hands on from a much earlier age. Without fleshing out the thought too much, I think by middle school young people should know enough about sex to both do it safely and actually bring their partner to orgasm.

When I was in school back in the 90s, I think by sixth or seventh grade most of the girls I knew had some form of sexual encounters with boys already. A few even lost their cherries to boys that didn't know the first thing about wearing a condom. In my school in particular, the girls locker rooms were a great place to sneak off for "couples privacy" as we had full stalls for changing.

Our gym teacher was a rather handsome man too, it wouldn't surprise me if a few girls had private meetings in his office but it never occurred to me to ask and nothing of the sort was ever shared in my presence.

Getting back on a more serious track though, instead of a hard number on AoC, maybe it would be better to have some form of certificate of sexual education or something similar to that effect. Make the penalties for actual rape harsher, include coercion/manipulation.

Maybe while we're at it, we can get rid of age requirements for viewing and participating in pornography.

O yes I mostly agree with you, see my earlier post for the first set of details. But in the Netherlands, we have not coercion but lack of consent as the basis for a rape charge: coercion merely leads to more severe punishments. This because often, the victim “freezes” in a rape as they fear worse. I would say the whole world needs legislation like this to start anything else at all, because sexual freedom also includes the freedom to remain voluntarily celibate or to not have sex with someone one doesn’t want to or at a time they’re not willing to do so.
A certificate however kind-of introduces exactly the same problem* (I’d say that banning all coercion, including coercive education itself, is also an important step towards youth liberation). How do you define “adequate knowledge” if that’s even possible at all? And how do you even enforce such a law if one probably won’t have their certificate with them all the time AND privacy laws block the registration of any ‘special personal information’ which includes information related to sexuality? What can prevent forgery of such a certificate if it will be SO in demand (given sexuality is a basic human need and right)?
(The * referring to a requirement for both parties to have the certificate)