Age of Consent

[BDSM_Tourguide]

Originally posted by Spitman
That aside, what is the purpose of having an agreed age of consent? I suggest that the most accepted reason is to protect younger people from predatory older people. In that case we need laws based on age difference and not primarily the age of the younger party. A maximum age difference of 5 years is probably about right where the older party is over a minimum age such as 18. I think the law should focus on adults who abuse children.

That is a two-way street you walk, though. Because there are plenty of actively sexual 13 and 14 year olds out there that look for 18 and 19 year old boyfriends, because they want someone more mature and able to be sexually stimulated for more than three minutes at a time.

Predators do not only come in the form of 'dirty old men'.

Originally posted by le forgeron
[*]At what age is a person sexually considered an adult?

See next question, but a sexually active person should (as per RFC standard, aka MUST) be mentally active. (at least conscious of the implications). Moreover, it should be matured enough, from a physical point of view. This puts the lower limit to 16, at least.
[*]At what age is a person mentally considered an adult?

How does the mental of a person relate to his/her age ?
What about trisomic and supergenius ?
What is an adult ? If the answer is 'a person responsible and accountable for his/her acts',

A girl was considered sexually an adult, and still is in many cultures, once she has her first period. In many cultures, a girl that has her period is legally able to marry, have sex and produce children.

It's not a bad system, if you approach it from a non-western way of thinking. That measn marriages can be arranged, bloodlines futhered and bred for certain trait and the society in which the system is set down for continues to flourish.

The problem with it, these days, is that it's unnecessary. The world suffers from so much overpopulatioin that continuing your society and your culture aren't issues much anymore. Arranged marriages are nice, from a genetic standpoint, but with a nearly-worldwide lack of nobility and governments by monarchy, they're pretty unnecessary these days, too.

Arranged marriages for the purposes of selective breeding, however, might be something to consider for the future. Although, I'm sure that scientists will just genetically engineer children to be resistant to disease or have higher IQs or automatically be born with antibodies for cancer, polio, the flu or whatever diseases are popular at the time. Instead of genetic engineering with the looming risk of mutation and abnormality and mental instability, marriages could be arranged, or at least pregnancies, so that certain genetic traits could be crossed and linked over several generations and eventually, everyone would start being born with higher IQs and desirable traits without anyone havig to manipulate genetic codes.

Oops. I got way off topic there. Sorry.


Mentally, I believe a person is an adult when they are capable of responsibly planning their actions. When a person is able to determine the consequences of his or her actions before they do them, then they are adults.

That does not mean that people that make mistakes or commit errors of judgment are not adults. That just means they lack a bit of common sense or are willing to overlook certain risks at their own expense.

Case in point: My wife and I were not planning to have a baby and were not really ready for one financially or in a career sense. However, we got pregnant even though we knew the risks. That doesn't mean we didn't understand the consequences that were possible if we had unprotected sex. We just did it depite the risks.

Not that I'm complaining. I wouldn't give up my daughter for anything in the world.

[Artemis]

Originally posted by Curtis
Welcome back, Artemis! Long time, no see!

Thanks Curtis. I've been lurking around but haven't had time to post on any topics but I saw this one and had to put my two cents in.

~Artemis~

[BDSM_Tourguide]

At least you could make an on-topic reply.

You're a point ahead of Curtis in that respect. Hehehe...

[Spitman]

In my previous post I wrote: 'Fictional work is traditionally where human behaviour is explored and the ills of society are exposed, and I would suggest that the abuse of children is a perfectly valid topic to address in a fictional context.'

I also agree with woodsman'sgame who said: ' I am one of the ones who objects to fictionalized accounts of child abuse that show this abuse as being erotic. I am biased, I'll admit. I hate it.'

I don't think my statement suggested otherwise. As far as I am concerned child abuse (physical or sexual) could not possibly be construed as erotic, but it occurs in society. Describing murder in a novel does not imply that the author condones murder, and the same applies to child abuse. If the way it is portrayed suggests that the author does condone it, that is a different matter.

Where it becomes far more difficult is where, following the original thread, we revisit the consequences of having a legally defined age of consent. Once an age of consent is legally defined, automatically any kind of sexual behaviour involving a person below that age is abuse, it involves a child, and it is non-consensual. Books like the classic Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov have been vilified in the past, but he described a consensual sexual relationship between an adolescent and an adult. I do not object to this kind of relationship being described in fiction. In world literature I’m sure there are many sensitive depictions of similar relationships, and some that the reader may see as erotic. I see a clear distinction between this and the abusive, non-consensual treatment of pre-pubescent children. The law makes no such distinction.

Another difficulty involves adult fantasies. I have written fantasies for women describing their favourite themes. Examples include adolescent girls having sex with older men. Sometimes they like to fantasise about having sex with their fathers. These fantasies may involve bdsm, even extreme forms of bdsm. In writing these fantasies I tried to understand what made them work for the woman concerned, and I did my best to communicate that effectively. Some of these stories have been popular with other women. I don’t regard any of this as relating to the abuse of children, nor, frankly, as a reflection of my own personal preferences. I enjoyed the challenge, and it helped me to improve my writing style.

[Artemis]

Originally posted by BDSM_Tourguide
At least you could make an on-topic reply.

You're a point ahead of Curtis in that respect. Hehehe...

Thanks Tourguide

YAY!!! I'm a point ahead...lol What do I get if I win???

[Sulwen]

The only people we really hear from on this issue are the ones who don't like the written underage smut. (I'm avoiding the use of the term "kid porn" or anything similar, as the specific terminology seems to be a hot-button for many.) We get a lof of people saying "Well, it's not my thing, but censorship is bad." and "I don't find it erotic, and people who do kinda squick me, but I'm not going to say it should be banned." in addition to the "We hates it! We hates it, Precious!"

Now, there obviously *are* people who like it, read it, and write it. Why aren't we hearing from any of those people? Is it because they're scared they'll get jumped on? Or are they worried about more long-term consequences, like damaging friendships, getting the cold shoulder in the future, legal consequences, things like that?

I, frankly, would like to hear from all sides of the issue.

[Jones, Nikka]

The only people we really hear from on this issue are the ones who don't like the written underage smut. (I'm avoiding the use of the term "kid porn" or anything similar, as the specific terminology seems to be a hot-button for many.) ...Now, there obviously *are* people who like it, read it, and write it. Why aren't we hearing from any of those people? Is it because they're scared they'll get jumped on? Or are they worried about more long-term consequences, like damaging friendships, getting the cold shoulder in the future, legal consequences, things like that?...

It is a well known fact that dissatisfied or malcontent people make more noise than those who like the status quo. Why?

First, because there is a BIG difference between underage smut and kid porn. Some of us find it exciting to read about those under legal age but old enough to be sexually active. In bdsmlibrary this stories carry the tag "young" There are no stories in bdsmlibrary about those too young to be sexually active "kid porn"

Secondly, those who like underage porn have their own hard limits -maybe snuff stories, or period pieces or whatever. So, since their particular preferences are tolerated and respected, they respect and tolerate other people's preferences and they just leave it at that.