Comparison of age gap relationships in US vs. Europe

[Curson]

Does anyone here have any anecdotal or personal experience with how age gaps are treated in Europe, or in the US?

The United States seems very puritanical on the ways people police relationships that aren't even their own because teenager autonomy seems very sparse.

[TheHamilplexOfficial]

unsure abt Europe but as for the US, people who are considered "underage" are being restricted to do things, especially regarding sex. fortunately some states AoC is 16, but i do think it should be lower. people think that teenages are all dumb asf and dont understand anything. which may be true in SOME cases, but that doesnt mean that all teenagers (and non teens to btw) are dumb asf. its always "teens/kids are so dumb!" until they make something amazing and then its "teens/kids are so smart!" WHICH IS IT?????????? my fellow Americans truly make no sense

[CantChainTheSpirit]

It's different across Europe I think. I know someone who goes to nudist beaches in Spain where there are families all naked and I've spoken to people from rural Italy for example who felt the hysteria there isn't so bad. The UK seems mental though but I think that's more of a reflection of failing empire and having to find things to blame for it.

[aeterna91]

Opinion is shifting at an alarming rate. I’m not sure I know of any other political issue where mainstream opinion has changed so quickly—and with such a strong effort to forget how people thought just over 10 years ago. Age gaps that were once socially accepted as perfectly normal have come to be viewed as a serious crime in a very short time… and everyone pretends it’s always been that way. It also strikes me that a great many people seem to believe that 18 is the age of sexual consent when it isn’t. I suppose it’s because 18 is the age of majority for almost everything else: voting, buying alcohol and tobacco, driving, filming pornography… which could lead us to the incredible success the U.S. had in getting every other country in the world to also ban erotic images of anyone under 18, even if the age of consent was lower, but that’s another topic. What I find fascinating is that so many people not only treat a relationship between a 16-year-old and a 22-year-old as one of the worst crimes imaginable, but are convinced that the law agrees with them. Obviously, if you explain to them that it’s perfectly legal for a 16-year-old to have sex with a 90-year-old if they want to, they go crazy and start ranting about how allowing such aberrations means the world is run by pedophiles.

[Curson]

unsure abt Europe but as for the US, people who are considered "underage" are being restricted to do things, especially regarding sex. fortunately some states AoC is 16, but i do think it should be lower. people think that teenages are all dumb asf and dont understand anything. which may be true in SOME cases, but that doesnt mean that all teenagers (and non teens to btw) are dumb asf. its always "teens/kids are so dumb!" until they make something amazing and then its "teens/kids are so smart!" WHICH IS IT?????????? my fellow Americans truly make no sense

I do feel like it is rather restrictive despite 'love is love' and all that with everything else having been decriminalized and with the CSA/pedo craze of the 1980s. It still has increasingly become more and more of a moral panic in America.

Opinion is shifting at an alarming rate. I’m not sure I know of any other political issue where mainstream opinion has changed so quickly—and with such a strong effort to forget how people thought just over 10 years ago. Age gaps that were once socially accepted as perfectly normal have come to be viewed as a serious crime in a very short time… and everyone pretends it’s always been that way. It also strikes me that a great many people seem to believe that 18 is the age of sexual consent when it isn’t. I suppose it’s because 18 is the age of majority for almost everything else: voting, buying alcohol and tobacco, driving, filming pornography… which could lead us to the incredible success the U.S. had in getting every other country in the world to also ban erotic images of anyone under 18, even if the age of consent was lower, but that’s another topic. What I find fascinating is that so many people not only treat a relationship between a 16-year-old and a 22-year-old as one of the worst crimes imaginable, but are convinced that the law agrees with them. Obviously, if you explain to them that it’s perfectly legal for a 16-year-old to have sex with a 90-year-old if they want to, they go crazy and start ranting about how allowing such aberrations means the world is run by pedophiles.

I really think it has gone too far.

[Theendoftheline]

unsure abt Europe but as for the US, people who are considered "underage" are being restricted to do things, especially regarding sex. fortunately some states AoC is 16, but i do think it should be lower. people think that teenages are all dumb asf and dont understand anything. which may be true in SOME cases, but that doesnt mean that all teenagers (and non teens to btw) are dumb asf. its always "teens/kids are so dumb!" until they make something amazing and then its "teens/kids are so smart!" WHICH IS IT?????????? my fellow Americans truly make no sense

I do feel like it is rather restrictive despite 'love is love' and all that with everything else having been decriminalized and with the CSA/pedo craze of the 1980s. It still has increasingly become more and more of a moral panic in America.

Opinion is shifting at an alarming rate. I’m not sure I know of any other political issue where mainstream opinion has changed so quickly—and with such a strong effort to forget how people thought just over 10 years ago. Age gaps that were once socially accepted as perfectly normal have come to be viewed as a serious crime in a very short time… and everyone pretends it’s always been that way. It also strikes me that a great many people seem to believe that 18 is the age of sexual consent when it isn’t. I suppose it’s because 18 is the age of majority for almost everything else: voting, buying alcohol and tobacco, driving, filming pornography… which could lead us to the incredible success the U.S. had in getting every other country in the world to also ban erotic images of anyone under 18, even if the age of consent was lower, but that’s another topic. What I find fascinating is that so many people not only treat a relationship between a 16-year-old and a 22-year-old as one of the worst crimes imaginable, but are convinced that the law agrees with them. Obviously, if you explain to them that it’s perfectly legal for a 16-year-old to have sex with a 90-year-old if they want to, they go crazy and start ranting about how allowing such aberrations means the world is run by pedophiles.

I really think it has gone too far.

I wonder who's REALLY pushing this agenda? Like EVERYONE seems to feel that like 16 to 17 are little babies that must be coddled and babies and can't make any decisions for themselves and a LOT of teens in that age range agree with this. The amount of times on some sort of social media an 18 to 20 yo flirted with sayyyy someone 15 to 18 and just got fucking ass blasted like "BROOOOOOOO SHES A FUCKIN MINOR YOU FUCKIN PEDO" is just outright insane....how did the groupthink heard mentality really come to be.....

[Theendoftheline]

Opinion is shifting at an alarming rate. I’m not sure I know of any other political issue where mainstream opinion has changed so quickly—and with such a strong effort to forget how people thought just over 10 years ago. Age gaps that were once socially accepted as perfectly normal have come to be viewed as a serious crime in a very short time… and everyone pretends it’s always been that way. It also strikes me that a great many people seem to believe that 18 is the age of sexual consent when it isn’t. I suppose it’s because 18 is the age of majority for almost everything else: voting, buying alcohol and tobacco, driving, filming pornography… which could lead us to the incredible success the U.S. had in getting every other country in the world to also ban erotic images of anyone under 18, even if the age of consent was lower, but that’s another topic. What I find fascinating is that so many people not only treat a relationship between a 16-year-old and a 22-year-old as one of the worst crimes imaginable, but are convinced that the law agrees with them. Obviously, if you explain to them that it’s perfectly legal for a 16-year-old to have sex with a 90-year-old if they want to, they go crazy and start ranting about how allowing such aberrations means the world is run by pedophiles.

Oh trust me in the future at some point I can promise that america and Europe will eventually just make an act that raises the general adult age and age of consent to 21.

[Scorchingwilde]

Opinion is shifting at an alarming rate. I’m not sure I know of any other political issue where mainstream opinion has changed so quickly—and with such a strong effort to forget how people thought just over 10 years ago. Age gaps that were once socially accepted as perfectly normal have come to be viewed as a serious crime in a very short time… and everyone pretends it’s always been that way. It also strikes me that a great many people seem to believe that 18 is the age of sexual consent when it isn’t. I suppose it’s because 18 is the age of majority for almost everything else: voting, buying alcohol and tobacco, driving, filming pornography… which could lead us to the incredible success the U.S. had in getting every other country in the world to also ban erotic images of anyone under 18, even if the age of consent was lower, but that’s another topic. What I find fascinating is that so many people not only treat a relationship between a 16-year-old and a 22-year-old as one of the worst crimes imaginable, but are convinced that the law agrees with them. Obviously, if you explain to them that it’s perfectly legal for a 16-year-old to have sex with a 90-year-old if they want to, they go crazy and start ranting about how allowing such aberrations means the world is run by pedophiles.

Oh trust me in the future at some point I can promise that america and Europe will eventually just make an act that raises the general adult age and age of consent to 21.

Hopefully if it gets to that point there'll at least be a backlash in favor of reducing the age and more people questioning things. If the ever-elusive 'fully developed brain' stage becomes the criteria for adulthood (25 or 32 by that newer study), I'd basically be an exclusive MAP and so would a lot of other people, including us increasingly mainstream femboy enjoyers.

[aeterna91]

Yeah, that seems like a likely outcome.