This post is more for the individuals that already agree that sex under the age of 18 is not intrinsically harmful, that it can be perfectly voluntary and harmless in fact, there’s no special mechanism that somehow makes orgasm under 18 intrinsically unhealthy and paining but over 18 suddenly healthy to receive.
The ones that may still argue though that ”we just need to draw a line somewhere” although they admit that relations between minors and adults can be perfectly harmless, but there is a risk that some particular group of adults are manipulative towards minors, so we just need to arrest all adults that have sex with minors even if they are perfectly peaceful/not forcing themselves on anyone against their will, similar to the drug war where all harmless drug users are arrested because of the fear that some drug users will commit crimes on drugs, so they figure it’s better to just arrest all drug users no matter what.
I think there are primarily three alternative ways this could be handled (maybe a mixture of all of them is possible, who knows):
1 – No age of consent at all but a strong understanding of the concept of rape by deception.
2 – Make sex under a certain age legal to report for a checkup by a professional to see if the situation is safe, rather than outright ban it, but then having an age at which this is no longer possible.
3 – Having individuals under a certain age take a test prior to engaging in sex, then not requiring that test at a certain age anymore.
Option 1:
An argument often made pedophile and children’s sexual rights defenders is that even if there’s no age of consent, rape is still illegal anyway, that is true but we’ll have to kind of educate people on more subtle forms of rape.
Rape by deception is a thing, and that is really the problem with the stereotypical child rape/molestation situations, that should be the crime, rape by deception.
Rape by deception is a situation in which the perpetrator obtains the victim’s agreement to engage in sexual intercourse or other sex acts, but gains it by deception, such as false statements or actions, including leading the target into illusory perceptions in order to get sex.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_by_deception
Rape does not have to be overpowering someone physically, you can also rape someone by:
1 – Eschewing information that would make you no longer consent if you knew about it.
2 – Giving someone false information that are an attempt to make you consent.
If I tell someone I don’t have AIDS but I have AIDS and they agree to let me cum in them, I raped them by deception, that is a crime.
If someone is telling a child that just learned to crawl that their dick is candy and the child agrees to candy, well, then they consented to candy, they were fooled, that is the crime.
If someone is telling a naive 10 year old girl he’s in love with her but then dumps her once she agreed to some sexual act (afterwards), that is a form of rape by deception.
Focusing on rape by deception rather than age I think is a fantastic idea, because it would encourage honesty and teach it to adults too on some level, I think you could argue that lying in order to get laid is ultimately a slight form of rape, not excessive rape, but still slight rape, rape lite so to speak, rape is a big spectrum.
And if a 10 year old girl turns out to be more hurt by this than let’s say a 30 year old woman, then the penalty would clearly be higher for doing it to a 10 year old, same as with other crimes, look at theft for instance.
Theft is also a big spectrum from armed bank robbery to stealing candy at the supermarket, similarly we would judge these situations differently if it involved a child that might be more vulnerable to certain harms – stealing candy from the supermarket might be not that big of a deal, but if you stole candy from a 5 year old you’d be a total cunt.
Option 2:
This is already what many countries other than USA are doing, that there are two or three ages of consent with different rulings for each, so under the default legal age, you might be able to report the relationship and get it checked out by the court/by a psychologist, but if it is ruled to be consensual by sensible judgement, then it’s allowed to continue.
Josephine successfully challenged the order and the court ruled that as she is over 14 her own wishes have to be taken into account, Bild reported.
The Higher Regional Court Brandenburg ruled that Josephine risked “serious damage in her social-emotional and mental development” if she was prevented from further contact with the uncle, who lives in Berlin.
It was stated that the teenager expressed her desire to continue her loving relationship in a “purposeful and strong” way, which the judges felt was a very deliberate decision which had to be observed.
The 15-year-old was considered “mature enough.”
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2108399/german-court-rules-parents-of-15-year-old-girl-cannot-stop-her-having-sexual-relationship-with-her-47-year-old-uncle/
So I would say have a certain official legal age, and under that age allow it to be reported but also evaluated. In Uruguay for example it’s 12 and 15, under 15 it can be reported but if you prove consent, it is still allowed, which is idiotic in my opinion because if you prove consent you should walk free either way, so if you prove an 11 year old consented it suddenly doesn’t matter anymore? Why?
So that’s why I would say the rule should be more like it’s an official age at which sex cannot be reported anymore, under that should be open to scrutiny but never as in ”well now it’s under 12 so it’s illegal by default” or ”well now it’s under 9 so it’s illegal by default”, if consent/harmlessness is attested, you walk free, so basically official age of consent, under it is open to scrutiny but chance of being acquitted if consent is provable.
Option 3:
If you still think the other options are absolutely too unsafe no matter what, this would probably be the best one: have a test prior to engaging in sex in the first place.
So there is an official age, but under that age, you can still visit a psychologist and get a license to have sex prior to reaching the official age.
This test could include your knowledge about STDs and pregnancy, but it could definitely also include psychological assessment about your understanding of abusive situations, we’d have to come up with different questions that are important to ask someone.
Do you know what bribing is?
Do you know what blackmail is?
You’re shown stories such as person A is disabled and living with person B who is not disabled, person B says if you don’t have sex with me, I’ll throw you out on the streets. Is that abusive? Yes or no? For example.
Do you understand when abuse happens and who it must be reported to?
This here is a more detailed article about this concept by a blogger called youthrightsradical, he calls it the RMSC (relational maturity and sexual competency testing schema):
The testing requirements include:
http://youthrightsradical.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-rmsc.html
1.) Factual knowledge about sex, sexuality, reproduction and STDs.
1.a.) Subject must understand the mechanics of sexual intercourse. Sexual anatomy, some common intercourse activities (at least the big three oral, anal and vaginal), masturbation, and outercourse activities (mutual masturbation in its various forms) should all be understood at a mechanical level.
1.b.) Subject must understand the mechanics of human reproduction. Ejaculation, sperm fertilizing egg cells, warning signs of pregnancy including missed periods, a basic understanding of the nine month gestation period, childbirth, and the intrinsic physical risks of pregnancy. (Including factors that can increase those risks, ie low body mass and lack of physical development.)
1.c.) Subject must understand his or her options in terms of preventing pregnancy. Subject must be aware of the existence and usage of barrier methods like condoms, hormone options like birth control pills, sterilization procedures like vasectomies, spermicide options, and demonstrate an understanding of the relative failure rates of these products. While it is not necessary to be able to prattle off statistical failure rates, an understanding of which are most and least effective must be demonstrated, as well as the understanding that they can be more effective when used together.
1.d.) Subject must be aware of abortion, what it is, the legal status of the procedure locally, and, if legal, the risks inherent in this procedure.
1.e.) Subject must know about STDs. Subject must be aware that exchanging bodily fluids, particularly sexual fluids runs the risk of transmitting diseases. Subject must be aware that some such diseases are incurable. HIV in particular should be understood in terms of its transmission methods, and its effects.
1.f.) Subject must know where to go for testing and medical advice regarding STDs.
1.g.) Subject must be aware of methods besides abstinence for preventing STDs, in particular the efficacy of barrier methods and the risks of multiple partners and anonymous sex.
2.) the capacity to use critical thought to judge situations (consequence acknowledgment, goal setting, etc)
2.a.) Subject must understand that actions have consequences.
2.b.) Subject must be able to use prior experience and provided factual information to select the course of action leading to the best outcome in a hypothetical situation.
2.c.) Subject must be able to recognize when there is not enough information provided in a question to provide a meaningful answer.
3.) Ability to identify the fact that people lie to and use each other, and be able to judge (to a certain extent) when that’s occurring in certain examples.
4.) Understanding of the concepts of rejection (both non-personal caused and personal caused rejection, as well as being able to reject people themselves).
4.a.) Subject must understand that not everyone wants to have sex with them.
4.b.) Subject must understand sexual orientation, and that some people just don’t want sex with certain categories of people.
4.c.) Subject must recognize that some people do not want to have sex with them personally.
4.d.) Subject must be able to reject others.
5.) Understanding sexual ethics (like how rape is considered wrong, using sex to hurt people is considered wrong, etc. All because these hurt people for no justifiable reason.)
5.a.) Subject must be able to differentiate between rape and consensual sex in examples.
5.b.) Subject must understand that rape is illegal.
5.c.) Subject must be able to recognize sexual abuse other than rape in examples.
5.d.) Subject must understand that sexual abuse is illegal.
5.e.) Subject must understand the consequences and implications of using sex as a commodity.
5.f.) Subject must be aware of how to report the crimes they were required to be able to identify.
5.g.) Subject must understand that they have the right to request any potential sexual partners be tested for STDs before consenting to sex.
5.h.) Subject must be aware that they can insist upon a partner using adequate means of prophylaxis (STDs, pregnancy)
While it’s always difficult to know exactly how to handle things in practice and what exact questions will be the most important ones, I think that the of a test is still superior to the current shitty system where everyone just pretends there is no possibility that anyone under 18 consented to sex, just because they personally feel disgusted by it and want to desexualize as much as possible their offspring in their mind.
Counterintuitive conclusions 