So lowering the age of consent is not necessarily the answer. There is also the issue of education – or lack of it – in schools and at home relating to sexual consent and behaviour. Can we not just let children be children? There are wider issues relating to the sexualisation of childhood and the culture that we live in. Some are concerned that it might lead to a further increase in STI rates and unwanted pregnancies (the UK has some of the highest rates of teenage pregnancies in Western Europe). The worry is it could lead to an increase in abuse cases and increasing pressure to have sex at a younger age. It is no surprise then that people have expressed concerns that some sex offenders would see any change in the law on consent as an opportunity to focus their sexual intentions on young teenagers. The NSPCC says five child sex offences are reported every hour. This is the reality but the law is there for a reason – to protect the vulnerable and less experienced.
So is it right to see young people hauled before the courts, convicted and put on a sex offenders register alongside adult rapists and paedophiles? That is despite half of all UK teenagers having their first sexual experience by the age of 14, according to the National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles. But if you have sex with someone under 16, you become a sex offender. In effect, it does not matter what your age is. The sentence increases to ten years to life if the offender is over 18 at the time of the offence. But, ordinarily, a “sex offender” is likely to be imprisoned for around five years if someone was under 18 at the time.
In some cases, it may be a defence to say that it was reasonable that there was a belief that the person was 16 or over. In the UK, under the Sexual Offences Act 2003, it is illegal to engage in sexual activity with someone under the age of 16.
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