According to a Gleaner report on December 6, 2022, “During the sitting of the Senate last Friday, Opposition Senator Damion Crawford called for the age of consent to be raised from 16 to 18 years old in light of a high number of teen girls leaving school after becoming pregnant.
The age of consent is the minimum age at which a person is old enough to legally consent to participate in sexual activities.
During Crawford’s contribution to the State of the Nation Debate, he cited statistics from a World Bank-UNICEF report which outlined that 49 per cent of school-age girls reported being unable to complete their high-school education because of pregnancy.”
This is indeed troubling and if it takes raising the age of consent to deal with the mis-education of our girls, then I am all for it.
Yes, young people will experiment with sex at all ages. This reality is older than you and I.
However, if the age of consent is designed to protect vulnerable, immature young girls from being taken advantage of, especially by ole-back paedophiles, I have no quarrel with increasing the age.
There is a real problem here though, that affects young boys adversely.
This is where teenagers are in a relationship and the boy is only a year or two older than his girlfriend.
Where they are in a sexual relationship,it is easy for the boy to become a victim of an intransigent law and earn a conviction for having sex with a minor. For example, if the boy is 17 years old and the girl under sixteen!
You see how this is troublesome and unfair, for technically he would be having sex with a minor.
I have heard of many cases like this where the girl’s parent/parents do not like her boyfriend and demand his conviction!
So, if we want to make the current debate sensible and relevant, dealing with the age of consent by itself without taking steps to protect young, vulnerable boys as well, is grossly unfair.
