The age of consent refers to the age at which a person’s assent to have sex is recognised as valid in the eyes of the law. Men (and sometimes women, depending upon local law) who engage in sexual activity with young men or women below this age are therefore guilty of a criminal offence. This is true even if it was the young person who wanted to have sex and agreed to it in total understanding of what they were doing – the agreement of the person below the age of consent is simply invalid in the eyes of the law. Yet in many countries this offence (often called ‘statutory rape’, as in the USA) is one that is very severely punished, sometimes with a sentence of up to life imprisonment.[1] Ages of consent also vary greatly depending on sexuality, in most countries people have to be older to consent to homosexual sex than to heterosexual sex. It is the combination of these factors that make age of consent laws highly controversial.

Age of consent laws are highly complex because of their many variations, and therefore all too often create difficulty for students in age of consent debates. To avoid confusion it is best to:

(A) Firstly think about the ‘basic’ age of consent rule: For heterosexuals -no sex with anyone below 16 in England, 16 in most parts of Australia, 14 in Canada, 14 in Italy and varying from state to state between 14 and 18 in the U.S.A.[2]

(B) Secondly think about the ‘plus’ element – many places in addition to the ‘basic’ rule, also make it an offence for you to have sex with persons below a certain age (usually 18 or 21) if that person is in a relationship of ‘trust or dependency’ with you. This would include relationships between children in foster care and those responsible for their welfare, and those between teacher and student. Such places include England, Australia and Canada.[3]

(C) Thirdly think about the ‘minus’ element – in subtraction from the above two rules, states may make it not an offence if: (i) you reasonably thought the person was above the ‘basic’ age; or (ii) you reasonably thought you were married to the person[4] ; or (iii) Both partners are in similar age (usually 2-5 years).[5] In most jurisdictions if the adolescent is really, really young (i.e. 13 in England) then even these ‘minus’ elements will not be allowed as a defence.

There are therefore an almost infinite number of ways in which age of consent laws can be reformed. It is less important to know the age details of each rule in each country (16 years? 13 years? 14? 15?). It is instead very important to think about the ‘basic’, ‘plus’, and ‘minus’ ideas in age of consent laws (such as, should it be a defence if someone had sex with a really, really young girl but honestly believed she was above the legal age of consent?).

This article considers the arguments whether, in principle, age of consent rules should be made more liberal (lower or no ‘basic’ age and more generous ‘minus’ elements) or made stricter (same or higher ‘basic’ age and with less or no allowance for ‘minus’ elements).