In June 2015, the Nigerian Senate inadvertently passed a law lowering the age of consent to
11-years-old.
It was amongst a rapidly passed series of bills creating harsher penalties for child
molesters, but in doing so also accidentally redefined the age of consent.
So how do countries decide what it should be?
What is the age of consent?
Well, the age of consent is the age at which a person is legally considered to have the
autonomy to consent to sex.
Consent around the world ranges from 12 to 21 in most countries.
But there are also a number of mitigating factors.
These include the type of sex act, the genders involved, how close the two ages are, and
whether or not one person is in a position of power.
Traditionally, however, the age of consent was pegged to the age of puberty, and was
also the age one could get married.
As early as 700 BC in Greece, it was recommended that wives should be about five years post-puberty.
The earliest recorded law on the matter was from 1275 in England, and referred to the
minimum age of marriage as 12.
Today, consent laws are enacted as protective barriers for the more vulnerable parts of
the population, namely children.
However, the idea of “childhood” as opposed to “adulthood” only came around during
the late 18th century.
Before this, children were largely treated like small adults, with no particular rights
to protect what we now consider, “childhood innocence”.
But the difference between maturity, puberty, and adulthood are usually thought to be distinct
from each other.
The US, for example, uses the term “minor” to delineate the age of majority as well as
consent.
In most states the age of consent is 16.
But states like Colorado even say that a minor under 14 can have consent as long as there
is less than a four-year age difference.
Other countries simply say that reaching puberty is old enough, as is the case in Nayarit (NYE-ya-REET),
Mexico and Yemen (YEH-mun).
But the general historic trend amongst western countries is to continually raise the age
of consent, while removing ambiguities associated with gender or sexual act.
Up until 2003, in a number of US states, homosexual acts had a higher age of consent than heterosexual
acts.
And until 2008, South Carolina’s age of consent for girls was 14, while for boys it
was 16.
So what should the age of consent be?
Well, the only real commonality around the world is to wait at least until a few years
past the onset of puberty.
But even that doesn’t address the idea of childhood versus adulthood, and subsequent
mental maturity, which neuroscientists say doesn’t occur until age 25.
Moreover, studies have shown that nowadays girls hit puberty at 13, as opposed to 16
in the 1900s.
Simply put, just because you’re 18, or you’ve gone through puberty, doesn’t mean that
sexual contact is non-damaging.
If you want to learn more about how the government gets involved in your sex life, make sure
you check out our full video.
There’s a link in the description if you’re on your phone!
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