consent is often a factor in the severity of the penalty
If there’s no consent, it’s sexual assault at a minimum and more likely rape.
We’ve decided, as a society, that humans cannot consent until 18.
Older criminal laws were based on that idea, usually called “statutory rape”. Modern laws about sexual abuse of children usually ignore the concept of consent entirely to allow for more nuance.
One example of nuance is exceptions for people close in age so that non-abusive relationships between teenagers don’t suddenly become crimes when someone has a birthday. Another is that consent is often a factor in the severity of the penalty.
futatorius@lemm.ee 4 days ago
surewhynotlem@lemmy.world 5 days ago
Yes and that’s completely fair. It’s about the imbalance of power. An 18 y.o. and one day, is exactly the same as they were two days prior.
But the cutoff has to be somewhere, and the guy I was replying to was talking about proper adults and 16 y.o.
That’s a highschool sophomore. And I think we’d all agree a sophomore dating a college student would be pretty imbalanced.
futatorius@lemm.ee 4 days ago
The age of consent in many developed countries is 16.
Zak@lemmy.world 5 days ago
I was a college student at 17, but I think you had a larger age difference in mind. I do think we can all agree there should be laws against adults sexually exploiting teenagers.