Author Arielle Pardes of California has proposed to eliminate age of consent laws in all states. These laws would be replaced with a three-year rule so that parties, one of whom is a minor, may participate in legal sexual relations.
Both Sides Now:
Pro Argument: There is no standard for age of consent laws in the United States. Some states allow individuals to have legal permission at the age of 16, while others require you to be 18. Specifically, “statutory rape” is defined as non-forcible act between one underage individual and one individual over the age of eighteen who are both consenting parties. Any person over the age of eighteen who was to enter into such a relationship would be faced with a possible ten years in prison and the permanent label of child molester. These laws can also differ between heterosexual intercourse and homosexual intercourse. So in addition to ruining people’s lives by labeling them as child molesters, they are also discriminatory. By eliminating consent laws, we would be preventing charges against innocent people who participated in consensual sex.
Con Argument: This proposal is utterly immoral and disgusting. With such a law, a fourth grader could be pressured into having sex with a seventh grader. She may only be nine years old, but if she is within three years of her partner, it is considered legal. The brain reaches a partial maturity at the age of sixteen and doesn’t fully mature until the age of twenty one, so why would we allow a nine year old to decide whether or not they should be sexually active or not? In addition, this is also a blatant violation of states’ rights. Each state varies in culture and social views, so confining all states to such a law would be a failure to examine regional differences throughout the nation.