Not before she is sixteen, says the law. But more and
more girls are saying yes much earlier. Fifteen years ago only two out of a
hundred English girls admitted having sex before they were sixteen; today this
figure is seven times higher. And the number of teenage pregnancies has reached
proportions alarming enough to induce the British government to appoint a
working committee to re-examine the whole
issue.
The report, Pregnant at School, recommends that the 100 year old law making carnal knowledge of a girl under sixteen a serious criminal offence should be scrapped. When enacted in 1885 it was designed to protect teenage girls who worked as domestics.
The law on the subject is the same in India where it makes even less sense. For one, notwithstanding the Sarda Act, a large proportion of girls, are married off before they are sixteen. Presumably their husband are not charged with having carnal knowledge but if they stray from the matrimonial bed they may bring on their lovers’ heads criminal charges of both, adultery and sex with a girl legally not old enough to say yes.
Having said all that, I am not sure how the law should be amended. Clearly young girls should be protected from seducers. Equally clearly nymphets who play the seductress have no right to such protection whatever be their age. And more important that harshly punishing those who succumb to sex at an age when sexual impulses can be uncontrollably explosive, is to protect them against the consequences by providing sex education to children before they attain puberty.
The report, Pregnant at School, recommends that the 100 year old law making carnal knowledge of a girl under sixteen a serious criminal offence should be scrapped. When enacted in 1885 it was designed to protect teenage girls who worked as domestics.
The law on the subject is the same in India where it makes even less sense. For one, notwithstanding the Sarda Act, a large proportion of girls, are married off before they are sixteen. Presumably their husband are not charged with having carnal knowledge but if they stray from the matrimonial bed they may bring on their lovers’ heads criminal charges of both, adultery and sex with a girl legally not old enough to say yes.
Having said all that, I am not sure how the law should be amended. Clearly young girls should be protected from seducers. Equally clearly nymphets who play the seductress have no right to such protection whatever be their age. And more important that harshly punishing those who succumb to sex at an age when sexual impulses can be uncontrollably explosive, is to protect them against the consequences by providing sex education to children before they attain puberty.
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