Age of consent for Taiwanese girls

[ImaniOU]

If I go by what my 4th graders last year presented when they tried to solve the mystery of how Charlotte from Charlotte’s Web had babies when the book never mentions any other spiders, they think one has to be married in order to “have babies”. I am not sure if that means they don’t know sex can happen outside of marriage or if they believe pregnancy can’t. Or that merely the act of marriage causes pregnancy as they may have been referring to what we would call sex as “getting married”. Hmm… can you imagine someone bragging to their friends that they “got married” last night?

The other day, one of my three-year-old nursery kids pointed out his girlfriend to me (a 4-year-old preschooler who stopped to wave at him). Oh dear, it is bad, isn’t it.

I personally think that the age of consent should be at 18 for those who are 21 and older and 17 if they are younger than 18 (unless they have their parents’ permission ). Although I knew a couple in high school who had a daughter when they were 13 years old (8th grade) and are still married to this day and two people in my life who were successful young mothers, I honestly doubt that the average teenager has the ability to handle the consequences of engaging in sexual activity should something not go as planned.

[the_bear]

re: stu’s suggestion…i dunno but i hardly think it’s up to the english teacher to instil judeo-christian concepts of sexual morality into his/her charges…you’re paid to teach english; leave the moral guidance to people with the same socio-cultural background…otherwise we’ll end up with a generation of kids brought up to believe sex is dirty and masturbation makes you dizzy, etc. etc…

on the other hand certainly since i came here in 1990 kids have become much more open in their sexuality; i remember my copy of the LP guide warned that open expressions of affection in taiwan are frowned upon and “holding hands” was the most that couples could do in public…now you can’t walk 10 meters without bumping into a pair of students in ardent embrace! but who’s to say this is a bad thing. so long as the kids are the same age i don’t really have any issue with 15 yr olds having sex…

[Loretta]

What they need to be taught is that it is potentially dangerous, to their physical and emotional health, and that they should therefore wait until they are old enough to understand the full consequences of their actions.

And when you’re 16, 18, 21, married, or whatever, you magically become qualified to make a decision like this? Some people never figure it out.

[daasgrrl]

@stragbasher

[quote]What they need to be taught is that it is potentially dangerous, to their physical and emotional health, and that they should therefore wait until they are old enough to understand the full consequences of their actions.

And when you’re 16, 18, 21, married, or whatever, you magically become qualified to make a decision like this? Some people never figure it out.[/quote]

Funny you should say that, as that thought actually crossed my mind at the time - you’ll notice I didn’t specify what age that would be Sure, the age of consent stuff is only a proxy for that kind of understanding. Or perhaps we should all abstain permanently, just to be on the safe side…

[the_bear]

…i prefer to abstain from abstaining…why deny yourself life’s greatest pleasure (well apart from scoring the winning goal in the cup final of course)

[Bu_Lai_En]

And when you’re 16, 18, 21, married, or whatever, you magically become qualified to make a decision like this? Some people never figure it out.

This argument isn’t valid. Just because you can’t draw a definitive line between two concepts (like able to make responsible decisions about sex, and too young to do so), doesn’t mean that there’s no difference. We still have to draw a line somewhere. Like the classic question “how much money is rich?” $1000, $1001, $1002 … etc. But there is a difference between being rich and being poor, and sometimes we might have to choose an amount (eg for tax purposes).

Getting back more to the original topic. I like the idea of a ‘two-tiered’ age of consent. Have a normal age of consent at 16, 17, or 18, and then another one at 12, 13, or 14. Those in between the two ages can have sex with others in that age group, but old people can’t. Well, I’m not sure about it, but it seems to be a possible solution to allowing young experimenting adolescents to have sex, but still protect them from more predatory older men. Don’t they have something like this in Holland?

Brian

[Spack]

I think there should be an upper age limit for sex. Some of the old whores who hang out in the alleys near the train station in Taichung are really, really old. How can they consent to sex when they are practically senile?

[Grasshopper]

@Illah

girls use to tell me it was against the law to have sex before 18

Maybe they were trying politely to tell you that they weren’t interested…

[mod_lang]

The two-tiered system makes sense. I’d simplify it: allow sex with a minor to be legal as long as you’re within a 4 or 5 year age range between the two partners. Thus a 20 year old can have sex with his 16 year old girlfriend without any legal b.s. There’s a world of difference between that sort of situation - which happens all the time in highschool; half the girls I knew in highschool had older boyfriends, guys in their late teens and early 20s (I guess since girls mature faster they didn’t have time for immature boys of their own age) - and some 30ish pervert preying on Lolitas.

[slim9]

ageofconsent.com/ageofconsent.htm

a non-official guide

[the_bear]

@Spack

I think there should be an upper age limit for sex. Some of the old whores who hang out in the alleys near the train station in Taichung (Taizhong) are really, really old. How can they consent to sex when they are practically senile?

not fair…where would all the gerontaphiliacs (help sp please) get their fix from then…reminds me of the lovely story a few years ago about the mangga/wanhua police who picked up a 70 yr old streetwalker…she said she’d been doing it her whole life and had no reason to retire; the desk sergeant added the comment that she was in very good nick for her age and didn’t look a day over 50!

[rscaru]

[color=red]http://www.ageofconsent.com/ageofconsent.htm[/color]

[Lord_Lucan]

The Apple Daily (today p1): Nobbing girl under 18, one year or less inside or fine not exceeding NT$100k; under 16, seven years’ or less porridge; under 14, between 3 and ten years if you last that long.

They quote the “Ertong ji shaonian xing jiaoyi fangzhi tiaoli”.

[jimmy1]

@hexuan

Nobbing girl under 18, one year or less inside . . . . .

My girlfriend had her 17th birthday a few months ago. At this point we have only known each other a few weeks, and only had intercourse six or eight times . . . . . so I have not accumulated “one year inside” . . . . . would there be any penalty for this type of minor violation?

[twocs]

Some countries like Australia prohibit having sex with a minor, even though you are no longer in Australia. 17 would be okay for Australia, but maybe you’re American. I don’t know for sure that America has the same laws about conduct outside of America, but my opinion is that it would be good.

[mod_lang]

@jimmy

[quote=“hexuan”]Nobbing girl under 18, one year or less inside . . . . .

My girlfriend had her 17th birthday a few months ago. At this point we have only known each other a few weeks, and only had intercourse six or eight times . . . . . so I have not accumulated “one year inside” . . . . . would there be any penalty for this type of minor violation?[/quote]

That depends on if it’s automatically a crime no matter what, or if it’s only a crime if the girl and/or her parents file charges. I know that in many states in the U.S., statutory “rape” with a girl between 16-18 is only a prosecutable offense if her parents decide it is.

Are you on good terms with her mom & pop?

[the_bear]

mod lang…i think jimmy was trying to be funny…ie one year inside the girl (sick i know)

[MaPoSquid]

@twocs

Some countries like Australia prohibit having sex with a minor, even though you are no longer in Australia. 17 would be okay for Australia, but maybe you’re American. I don’t know for sure that America has the same laws about conduct outside of America, but my opinion is that it would be good.

Yeah, the U.S. led the pack on that, IIRC. No idea what the numbers are, though. I’ve seen news stories about them going after pedophiles who thought they were safe screwing kids in Cambodia/Thailand/Vietnam.

[Comrade_Stalin]

From today’s Jakarta Post:

Australian pedophile kills himself after sentencing

BALI, Indonesia (AP): A former Australian diplomat hung himself in a Bali jail cell a day after he was sentenced to 13 years imprisonment for sexually assaulting two boys on the Indonesian resort island, prison guards said on Wednesday.

The body of William Stuart Brown, 52, was discovered in his cell in the eastern town of Karangasem on Wednesday morning, said guard Ida Bagus Oka.

Brown had made a noose from material taken from his mattress, Oka said. He hung himself from metal bars blocking access to a ventilation hole in the roof of the cell, he said.

On Tuesday, Brown was convicted of assaulting two boys, aged 12 and 16, on Bali last year. The case had attracted widespread media attention in Australia.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether an investigation would be launched into the incident. The time of his death wasn’t known.

Australian embassy officials weren’t available for comment.

Brown was arrested in January. Judges said he admitted to having sexual contact with the boys, but maintained they were willing participants. The age of consent in Indonesia is 14, though homosexuality is illegal.

Brown moved to Indonesia from Canberra eight years ago. He worked at the Australian embassy in Jakarta from 1982 to 1984 and was last employed at a tourism school in Denpasar, the capital of Bali.

thejakartapost.com/detaillat … 449&irec=1