sweet 16
I fully accept that, at times, I can be the master-of-the-bleeding-obvious, but at least I’m not getting paid to do it. There are those however who inhabit today’s society in all its strata that really should question exactly what they’re doing in extracting their thirty pieces of silver from the coffers of the public purse.
Step forward Professor John Ashton, president of the faculty of public health no less, who, in his infinite wisdom wants to see the age-of-consent lowered from 16 to 15. Good on you, Guv. Not. How old is this guy? My guess would be close to a hundred and seven, and certainly as far removed from his teenage years as anyone could be. Has he forgotten how the young strive to be old before their time? For teenagers, especially those who consider themselves relatively recent teenagers, rules, all rules, are there to be broken. Or at least bent a little. Drink legally at 18? Then let’s push that particular envelope and try and buy a bottle or two of Diamond White from the offie when we’re 15. Smoke at 16? I’ve pal that can buy them for me at 13. Sex at 16, then, go on, what about a grope at 14? As was always the case.
Legalise sex for 15 year olds and the pressure to ‘do it’ (or at least do something) will just travel a notch down that particular bed-post. The learned professor’s belief that you will ease the burden on teachers, doctors and family planning practitioners is pure hog-wash. Bet your bottom-dollar though that the peer and predatory pressure on the 15 year olds faced will certainly be ramped up accordingly. The law can indeed be both an ass and blunt tool but where ground-rules are set in stone, it at least confers legitimacy, and hence, a potential refuge. A legal age of consent offers, at the very least, protection, a standard, a rule.
Though I’ve never heard them myself, apparently the two ‘death-bed’ refrains we’ll never hear are “I wish I’d spent more time in the office” and “I wish I’d lost my virginity earlier” (that’s exactly why you’ve never heard them – ed.) and the idea of exposing even more children to increased sexual pressure is both absurd and dangerous.
