Which is fascinating, because when I was a kid the drinking age in some places in America was still 18. It had always been 21, but the protesters against the Vietnam draft made it a big point that they could be sent to war but weren't allowed to drink at home so states lowered the drinking age to 18 through most of the 1970s. When I turned 18, Las Vegas and New Orleans were the only places in America that still had that law in place, and since then they both reverted to 21.
Now can they have sex in public ? Cause I guess that s the rationale: an image on a phone, or a discussion is more shareable than two teens fondling under a quilt. Also, the abuse potential.
Find enough innocent to change the jurisprudence, but I d bet that you can find so many more quilty parties that the law had to go one way.
Now I have a daughter and I was 16 before mobile phone existed. I m thinking what I would do if I see her sexting: probably nothing after 16 and a soft warning between 14 and 16 and a very strict one before, just because consent can only exist with maturity. Now if the guy is 30 and she s 16, I d tell her she s being an idiot sending him anything: it's not like he cares about her as a person, most likely and she s going to suffer under my responsibility or at best put him in danger. But, 16, starts to be her choice to listen or not and difficult for me to enforce anything.
That’s how it is in the US, the federal government criminalize electronic sexual communication with a minor, but in person seduction in many/most states A-OK. A hurdle, but imagining the malicious compliant person that understands the boundaries more than the minor gives me the shivers. “Hm they’re so distant over text but they’re always keen to meet up yay”
This sort of goes to how much society should or shouldn't step in as a parent for people who are shitty parents. The vast majority of underage sexual assaults in the US are committed by family members or family associates. Right there in the trailer park. And there ain't shit that breaking into everyone's email is going to do to change that.
I think what's more fucked up is that in Germany for example it's legal to have sex with a 14 year old if you're 30 as long as the parents consent. It gives a whole different perspective to when people talk about other "less developed" countries.
I actually think that there were other EU countries that had even lower age limits than Germany.
Someone under 18 could have sex with someone over 14 (but also still under 18).
As soon as one of them is older than 18 it becomes child molesting, and the grown up is in serous trouble.
The law makes not sense of course. It was a more or less recent change. The old regulation may seem bizarre given that example of the parent, but it was more close to reality in most cases.
Before that a 18 year old was not in trouble when sleeping in consent with a slightly younger friend (which is a common situation in reality). Now you would automatically get prosecuted as child molester if authorities would find out; no matter a relationship and consent!
That's the outcome of the CP witch-hunt in Germany… Quite normal things are now outlawed and can ruin lives of young lovers quite substantially.
You're wrong, the other commenter is actually correct in recommending the Wikipedia article. For some reason the German age of consent article is weirdly specific[0]. It references legislation that applies both for 14 year old and above 21 year olds.
It's somewhat related to determining whether the child was capable of "sexual self-determination". But typically the abuser will only get punished if both the child and its parents file a legal complaint(at least that's what the law says).
I'm going to leave my opinions on this at the front door, but given how easily this law can be abused it's almost comical how often the german government has used the excuse of "think of the children" when they passed mass surveillance laws.
By the way as others have pointed out while the 14 and 17 year old can have sex legally, sending any kind of nudes actually triggers another law that may lead to imprisonment[1]. Making any kind of "pornographical" material available to children under 18 is a felony. Who would have known that the porn my classmate shared in highschool on VCR, if shared on an iPhone nowadays could have led to him being sent to the juvenile detention center.
Laws are far from being logical or always making sense.