To answer your question, hardly anyone waits until they're legal now-a-days. Still, one must set a standard somewhere. 18 is the legal age of consent in the US (at least, most of the US, anyway). It's also the age where you can legally sign a contract as well (meaning the contract you sign when one joins the military, and therefore any other kind of contract as well).

As far as the drinking age issue is concerned, here, it should be 21 and kept there - lots of these kids just can't hold their liquor. It was raised, I believe, due to the huge number of alcohol-related deaths among that age group (car accidents, etc). Once raised, those deaths went down in numbers. Now, being realistic, of course, I doubt anyone actually WAITS until they're 21 to start drinking, but one must set a standard on something somewhere along the way.

Of course, if one is in the military, an automatic exemption should be put into place. If you're old enough to vote and kill, you're old enough to drink the blood, gore and guts out of your brain.

Yeah, I know - double standard. Then again, the average 19 year old doesn't go around killing people for real in a war.

No, I think you explained it pretty well. Just seems like a ton of if/and/or things thrown into the programming there, makes it a little confusing, but your explaining clears up the 'why' pretty well. Thanks.

That seems to be a much more sensible way of defining the law than just one age statement.

Since the relation is consensual i don't understand what justice comes to do out there . i can quote my personal experience my first time with a girl i was 13 she was 19 , now 21 years later i don't see in what this could have harmed me of any manner whatsoever , the only thing i can take out of it is something gratifying being to go out with a girl of this age is something gratifying . if it was here she would be in jail and maybe me too for me it's like you're saying there's an extraterrestrial invasion happening now on earth . we should apply the "Salomon's law" as i'm not absolutly sure concerning the age we should put let's say to be sure 14 years old but for me we could even go to 12 years old and then for lower years old cases study case by case maybe the good age could be the age a girl can give birth without risks

Have a Glass of Wine on Me:

http://learnabit.homeserver.com/lab/wine-opener.wmv

I would prefer the cork myself...

:rotfl::rotfl:

The 'Age of Consent' laws I'm used to are complicated and simple at the same time. Age of Consent is 18, with a two-year leeway. If a 19-year-old has sex with a 17-year old it's okay. If a 20-year-old has sex with a 17-year-old it's not. That said, a friend of mine was briefly in a relationship with a 16-year-old girl, and got away with it. Why? Her mother gave permission - thought it would settle her down.

I was twenty; my fiance was eighteen. In fact I would have waited until we were married, even if that was another four or five years. I teased her that by California law at that time she could be tried for statutory rape, since the age of consent was 18 for women but 21 for men.

After we broke up I waited until I did get married, at age twenty-four.

16 is the age here in New South Wales, but it differs in each state of Australia. Most have the same age, but a couple are different.

i prezise i'm not partisan of doing it at anytime with several different persons for me to have a stable couple by stable i mean one partner at a time and keep her the longer possible for me to have a stable couple it's very important but here i was talking of discovering its sexuality for me to prevent somebody from discovering its sexuality it's something very bad which can lead to serious psycological disorders

Well, since I'm a walking 'severe psychological disorder' I can't argue one way or the other.

Discovering your sexuality and exercising it (no laughing:D) are two distinctly different things. Abstinence causes "serious psychological disorders"? I'd like to see some scientific study on that one. Of course, that would be difficult to do since it is increasingly difficult to find anyone who did/does. If a child develops at an early age (let's say 10) this means that they should "discover" their sexuality by using it? And by not using it, they are causing themselves harm? :hmm: Me thinks not.

In the UK it is 16 in most cases (people with profound learning difficulties are never deemed able to be able to give consent).

A few details some of you may find of interest.

Age of consent (depending on gender).

13 years of age: Spain, S. Korea, Nigeria, Japan, Cyprus.

12 years of age: Phillipines, Mexico, Angola.

i said 14 or 12 not 10 and i also said i wasn't sure on the age ;) if the girl enjoys the thing as much as the guy i mean where's the problem . i insist again i'm not an ultraliberal sexuality partisan neither

I honestly believe that you aren't one of those:D My difference in opinion with you was regarding the "psychological harm" that would result from a young person abstaining from sex. You see no harm from children becoming sexually active before they realize fully what the results can be. In an age where (and I hesitate to even bring up the subject) abortion is an "acceptable" form of birth control (in some folks eyes, certainly not mine) the fact that sex causes children doesn't enter into the equation. A 12 or 14 year old is not old enough (no matter how sexually mature they are) to make decisions that would be necessary should a pregnancy result. You say that there is no harm if the girl enjoys it, too, but what of that same girl who has to make a choice between being a child raising a child, carrying the child and giving it up for adoption or an abortion? No matter what choice she makes there is bound to be mental anguish.

I never meant that kids shouldn't discuss it, just that condoning sexual activity at that young an age is not something I can agree with. As for the pill, we all know that it's not 100% effective. Only two forms of birth control are 100% effective. I happen to think that one of them is wrong and the other is difficult to practice:D