BURINI: Why we must not lower the age of consent

Just how will lowering the age of sexual consent from 18 to 16 years benefit children?

I am still struggling to find any. They are not even fully aware of what consent is to grant it. The only beneficiaries that come to mind are adults who will have the coercive “advantage” of having sex with children.

The obvious consequences will be a rise in teenage pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases. How does this empower a child?

One of the reasons that have been fronted for lowering the age of consent is that there are a high number of boys and men who have been convicted and jailed for sexual offences. Talk about the ease of committing a crime!

I do agree we need to acknowledge children are sexually engaged among themselves.

Rather than lowering the age of consent, a judicial review on the approach taken on reported cases of defilement would be well advised.

If a girl has been impregnated by a boy, was it defilement or were they sexually engaged?

We are too quick to conclude the pregnancy is evidence of foul play when it may not be the case. Of course where the evidence shows defilement, then by all means let justice prevail.

But where an adult engages with a child sexually, it can never be called sex because the child is not 18 and is therefore incapable of granting valid consent.

For far too long we have also used the wrong language, calling reported cases of child defilement rape, which implies they are adults.

Rape only occurs when there is lack of consent — which a child can never give. Children are defiled, not raped!

If men are concerned with the high number of convictions, the solution has always been simple — do not defile children.

The law has even been less of an ass on this offence and granted a defence of deception.

If the child leads you to believe they are 18 years old and you reasonably believed that, it is to be determined having regard to all the circumstances, including any steps you took to ascertain their age.

And here lies the caveat! There is no need to lower the age of consent if every ‘innocent’ adult took the time to confirm the age of the child.

Get that child to show you their identity card! If they do not have one and you proceed to defile them, that is wholly on you and you deserve the sentence handed down.

The other sickening justification for lowering the age of consent is that some children act and look mature as though they are adults.

When did maturity become a crime? This is rich since we can’t say the same for the adults proposing this change!

It doesn’t matter how mature a child acts, they are still children. If we based decisions on our level of maturity then some adults are still children!

Take into consideration a person with a mental disability who looks and acts mature, is he/she capable of giving sexual consent?

No, so why stretch the law to cover the sins of adults while punishing children?

Until adults fully comprehend what sexual consent is and we no longer hear of heartbreaking cases of sexual offences, this burden cannot be passed down to children.