[Ammi]

The prime minister has rejected a call from a leading expert on public health to lower the age of consent to 15.

Faculty of Public Health president Prof John Ashton said society had to accept that about a third of all boys and girls were having sex at 14 or 15.

He said the move would make it easier for 15-year-olds to get sexual health advice from the NHS.

Downing Street said the current age of 16 was in place to protect children and there were "no plans to change it".

Official figures suggest that up to a third of teenagers have sex before the age of consent.

Prof Ashton said lowering the age by a year could "draw a line in the sand" against sex at 14 or younger

He said: "We need a debate here. It's time the adults started talking about the situation to take these enormous pressures off children and young people from becoming sexually active too early.

"Also to recognise the facts of what's going on by the age of 14 or 15 so that we can respond helpfully to them and support them on this journey into adult life."

"I suspect we might be better off with it at 15 because the teachers and people who are in contact with young people would feel on a firmer footing pointing them in the right direction where they can get advice and contraception to protect their physical health from disease and other problems."

He also said that in countries with a lower age of consent, young people got involved in sex at a later age and teenage pregnancy rates were lower.

"The problem we have in this country is we still have this fantasy about young people and we live in a world of wish-fulfilment.

"They are doing it and we need to be able to support them and protect them.

"The negotiation of your first adult relationship in your mid-teens some time is something that will set the record for the rest of your life," he told BBC's Breakfast.

"At the moment youngsters are getting the most incredible messages from pornography, from social media. What we are seeing is more physical abuse and mental abuse in relationships."

He said pornography was causing young people to have "strange expectations" of their relationships and this needed to be "corrected" by open discussion in a sensible environment.

He also called for more resources to go into sexual and relationships education in schools.

The Faculty of Public Health, part of the Royal Colleges of Physicians, gives independent advice to the government.

'More sex?'

David Tucker, head of policy at the NSPCC, said it would be prepared to engage in debate on the issue after considering Prof Ashton's arguments.

But Mr Tucker added: "Has there really been a significant change in the amount of young people having sex over the past 20 or 30 years? If it has changed, then is reducing the age of consent the most sensible way to deal with it?"

The age of consent in the UK for any kind of sexual activity is 16 for gay and straight men and women.

In England and Wales, the age of sexual consent for women has been set at 16 since 1885, when campaigners fought to raise it from 13 to prevent child prostitution.

Other countries have set the legal age for sexual consent at anything from 12 to 20.

In 2001, the age of consent for gay men in England and Wales was reduced from 18 to 16, bringing it in line with heterosexuals for the first time. Lesbians, who until then faced no statutory age of consent, were also included in that legislation.

Scotland and Northern Ireland made 16 the age of consent for gay and straight men and women later that decade





..do you think the age of consent is fine just as it is..?...

[thesheriff443]

16 is acceptable, clearly some are having under age sex but that will never change, its main purpose is to stop adults having sex with under age people.

[joeysteele]

I myself do think the PM is right to reject any change on this at this time, yes..

[Jamesy]

I think age 16 is fine as it is.

There will always be those under 16 who have sex but that will never change. 16 is just right, not too young, not too old.

I think most people will find too that a lot of kids that say they've had sex actually never have. I know a load of people from my high school who admitted six years on from school that they never actually had sex under 16, they only said it to 'look cool'. In reality only a handful of kids in my school had sex under 16, when at the time you thought that nearly the whole year group was at it!

[arista]

Professor John Ashton, president of the Faculty of Public Health.

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2...ge-consent-sex

[Kizzy]

Urgh.... he has awful snidey eyes.
Yes, i'm aware that's unfair and you can't judge on appearances.
You can get a C card in yr10 and your doc will put you on the pill if you ask, where's the problem?

[Tom4784]

I can see the point when it comes to offering more advice and help and such but I don't think the age should come down just for that, 16 is low enough already.

[Natalie.]

I think 16 is fine, definitely don't think it should be lowered.

[Vicky.]

16 is fine. There will always be people who do it under the age of consent. Lower it to 15 and you will suddenly have hundreds or 13/14 year olds at it

You can already get contraception and stuff from doctors or walk in places when underage, so I dont get the reasoning behind this proposal really.

[Kizzy]

It will just lead to 'I thought she was 15 officer' instead of 'I thought she was 16 officer'.

[Vicky.]

Realistically, theres not a problem if underage kids do it as long as they are around the same age. I think the age of consent is there to protect from older people taking advantage of kids (and yes, I think of 14/15 is a kid)

I think Holland has a good system. The AOC is 16, but they have a clause in place that sort of decriminalises it for 12-15yr olds, as long as there is consent.

[Livia]

If they had lowered the age to 15, I wonder whether they'd have had to let out the maths teacher who run away with the 15 year old "child"?

[michael21]

Originally Posted by Ammi

..do you think the age of consent is fine just as it is..?...

well i don't think it matter because laws and rules are broken daily in the uk

its sad but true

[Kizzy]

No I doubt it as he had been grooming her for months.

[Z]

Keep it at 16 but make it legal for 13-15 year olds to have sex so long as their partner is 17 or younger? I'm assuming school kids who are having underage sex are having sex with other school kids so surely that's the intended outcome of this proposal?

[user104658]

I've always been in favour of a sort of two-tier system. 16 remaining the age of "global consent" I.e. you can have sex with a 70 year old at 16 if you're so inclined, but with a secondary rule on "teen sex" where from 14, it would be legal to have sex within a 2 year age gap window (i.e. a 14 year old can have sex with any 14 to 16 year old, and a 15 year old can have sex with any 14 to 17 year old). This works as a more "reasonable" age of consent (not many are having full sex under 16 but in my experience, many at 14+ are at least experimenting with sexual activity) but at the same time, avoids the problem of adults potentially exploiting younger teens.

Hard to implement though, I suppose... Would be a bit weird if a 15 year old had been having a sex life with her 17 year old boyfriend but then if he turns 18 before she turns 16, they'd have to give it up for a few months... .