Has the law swung too much in favor of protecting children?

I didn't start this topic to discuss the age of consent.
Although letting teenagers choose who they sleep with would be giving them more rights, good or bad.

 

Any adult who is having sex with a 15 year old...is a pedophile. Period. End of discussion. A 15 year old does not have the life skills to make a good judgement. If an 18 year old is in love with a 15 year old...that 18 year old can wait until the person is legal. That is what true love is...not sex.

I know that teenagers think they can handle adult responsibilites, but they are not adults. They still have so much to learn..and laws are there for that reason...to protect them. I thought I knew everything when I was 15.nope...I did not.

 

Are you saying im a peadophile because i didn't wait a few weeks? Thats complete nonsense. Peadophelia is a sexual preference towards children, not teenagers!! Yeah sure, 13 year olds and 14 year olds would count, but a 15 year old a matter of weeks away from their 16th birthday?? Nu uh! There is only a 3 year difference between a 15 year old and a 18 year old. Are you saying thats the difference between an adult and a child???

 

pedophile only applies to pre-teens. Look it up.

 

Any adult who is having sex with a 15 year old...is a pedophile

No, that is simply not true, and that is fact. Pedophiles are those who have an unnatural (read: any) sexual interest in pre-teens.

 

Adults should be having sex with other adults, if they want to have sex. They don't need to have sex with someone who is underage.

 

You don't "need" to have sex period, unless your intention is to have offspring. I was in love with the girl. She was sexy as hell. Why should i have refused?? Because its wrong in your eyes?

 

Because it's wrong in the eyes of the law.

 

gwaernardel, you are just as guilty of stereotyping as anyone else in that thread. Most teenagers that drive are not like that. I certainly am not. There were some goofballs in Driver's Ed with me, but most of the students were serious. And if you truly are an unsafe driver, you won't pass the test.

 

First of all, this is really not what this thread is about. We're talking about the law protecting chlidren.

Second, just to clarify, I'm not generalizing at all. There are plenty of statistics to back me up. If you want them, here they are:

Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for American teenagers.

In 1997, 5,477 young people (passengers and drivers age 15-20) died in motor vehicle crashes. Twenty-one percent of the young drivers involved in fatal crashes had been drinking.

Young people age 15-20 make up 6.7 percent of the total driving population in this country but are involved in 14 percent of all fatal crashes.

In 1997, over 60 percent of youth (16-20) who died in passenger vehicle crashes were not wearing seatbelts.

In 1997, almost one quarter (22 percent) of those who died in speed-related crashes were youth (15-20).

In the last decade, over 68,000 teens have died in car crashes.

Sixty-five percent of teen passenger deaths occur when another teenager is driving.

One quarter of fatally injured teen drivers (16-20 years old) in 1995 had a BAC (blood alcohol concentration) at or above .10 percent, even though all were under the minimum legal
drinking age and are not legally permitted to purchase alcohol.

People age 16 to 20 have the highest traffic-related fatality rate of any age group.

People age 16 to 20 make up only 6 percent of American drivers and drive only 3 percent of all miles driven. Yet they are involved in 15 percent of traffic deaths.

A 16-year-old driver is 20 times as likely to have a traffic accident as the general population.

Approximately 54 percent of young people who die in passenger vehicle crashes are not wearing seatbelts.

All of these facts are from the NHTSA and can be found here.

Furthermore, you stated yourself that the majority of teens were mature enough to be good drivers. If they're so mature, why can't they choose who to have sex with?

 

Because I think it is innapropriate for an adult to have sex with someone who is legally a child.

 

It's also inappropriate to swear at your mother. That doesn't make it illegal.

 

Somehow, I doubt swearing will cause the harm having sex with a 15 year old will.

And I think more could be done to make teens safe drivers, without taking away their right to learn to drive. The fact is, the best time for them to learn is while they are still at home. I think, for starters, Driver's Ed should be required, I learned a lot in that class.

Edit: Hmm, I dunno if there's enough on that subject, but since it's OT, anyone want to make a driving laws thread?

 

You can try for it .

 

I'll give you that a 15-year-old may not have the maturity to make their own decision about who to have sex with. But what about a 17-year-old? I don't doubt that a 17-year-old and a 21-year-old can be deeply in love and have a committed relationship. And it's not like they're being forced to have sex with someone they don't want. They make the conscious decision to have sex. The only person they could possibly be hurting is themselves.

 

A 21-year-old should be finding a girlfriend at college. A 17-year-old should be finding a boyfriend at high school. They are not at the same stages in life.

 

Lots of people aren't in the same stages of life. A 20-year-old and a 70-year-old aren't at the same stages of life. There's no laws preventing them from being together.

 

Well, they had to draw the line somewhere. And it would still be gross.

 

Something being gross is not enough reason to make it illegal. Sorry, but why did they need to draw the line anywhere?

 

They have to draw the line somewhere for everything. People can't just do whatever they feel like. Obviously, there is a general consensus among elected officials that a sexual relationship between a minor and someone who is more than a couple of years older than them is potentially harmful enough to make it illegal. And obviously, many people support these laws, since no one is really doing anything to change them.

Although I agree with statutory rape laws, though, I really don't see how they are enforced.

 

My mother was 17 and my father 22 when they married. She was not pregnant - they were in love and wanted to get married. Their marriage lasted 43 years until my father's death. I assume that they needed my maternal grandparents' consent, but consent of the parents does not equal maturity of the child.

I just bring this up to voice my opinion that the age of 18, if based on "maturity", for statutory rape is too high. I was a freshman in college hundreds of miles from home at the age of 17. My sister moved away from home at 17, with a high school diploma and full-time job in hand. And I knew many, many high school girls who had gotten pregnant by their equally underage boyfriends. The age seems a little out of touch with reality these days.

(BTW, I'm not condoning sex at an early age. I'm just voicing my opinion that YOUR 16 years of experience may not equal MY 16 years, ya know?)

 

Younger marriages used to be more common, weren't they? My parents were the same age, both 25, when they married, but even that is a young age for today...

Anyway, I'm home schooled, so I don't encounter than many people my age. However, I was in driver's ed for several months this year, with 16 and 17 year olds. They seemed to be a pretty diverse group of teens, but none of them were particuarly mature.

 

So what you're arguing is that since the majority seems to think it's right, then it must be right? Sorry, but I don't buy that. The majority of people in the United States are also Christian. That doesn't mean I think Christianity is the only right way of thinking.

And just so you know, I'm trying to change these laws. I've written to Congressmen about it. Just because it isn't as huge of a deal as gay marriage or something doesn't make it a valid point. And who's going to aruge it? A 17-year-old whose parents are protective enough to press charges against a 21-year-old really doesn't have a huge voice in Congress.

 

Well, I truly hope you don't suceed.

And if the parents want to press charges, its their right, since what the 21 year old did is illegal, and the 17 year old is their child, and still in their custody.

I am 17. And I certainly do not want the right to be able to have sex with someone over 18. Because sex is not that important, not at this point in life. I wish more kids would figure that out.

 

Doesn't the 17-year-old have rights?