[Cool Teen Sites]
Friday, 10 December, 1999, 17:48 GMT
Under-16s have sex, whatever the law says
Where do moral decision become legal ones?
Many things run through the mind of a teenager in the grip of a passionate embrace.
What does the other person want to do? What will he or she let me do? What is it safe to
do? What if someone walks in?
Probably some way down the list, if it's there at all, will be what does the law say.
Yet - as politicians and parents wonder what they can do - the papers seem to have one
shocking story after another.
Just this week a 24-year-old woman who was convicted of having sex with a 14-year-old boy
was placed on probation after admitting indecent assault. She is pregnant by the boy.
There's a lot of debate saying 'It's terrible', but when you're dealing with bringing the
law to bear on a younger age group, it does get quite grey
Liz Rodgers, Nottingham Trent University
It follows photographs of new-born twins Louise and Leah on front pages being cradled by
their 13-year-old father, James Sutton.
Only a few weeks ago, the nation was shocked by the tales of two 12-year-old girls being
pregnant. The 14-year-old boy responsible for one of the pregnancies claimed he had slept
with 10 girls.
The UK has teenage pregnancy rates well above the EU average, and the government has
launched several measures to try to reduce them.
But the law can only play a limited role - even if teenagers know what the law says.
The rules
Girls cannot lawfully have sex until they are 16. But there are even tougher rules
for girls under 13.
The law presumes that when a girl is under 13 she is not mature enough to consent to sex.
So even if she is just 12 and willingly has sex, the law says she has not
"consented" to it because she doesn't have the maturity to know what she's
doing.
The implication of the rule is that anyone who has sex with a girl under 13 is committing
what is termed "statutory rape". There is no defence to this charge - even if a
boy says he thought the girl was older than she was, or that she wanted to have sex.
The 14-year-old who has admitted making his 12-year-old girlfriend pregnant
If found guilty of statutory rape, the maximum sentence is life, but average sentences for
rape are between five and seven years.
Nottingham Trent University law lecturer Liz Rodgers said that even if the police did
refer it to the Crown Prosecution Service, it may then be thought not in the public
interest for a prosecution to take place.
But, she said, it was interesting that until 1927, the age at which girls could get
married was 12.
The under 16s
So what would be the case if two under 16s were having sex? Again, going by the letter of
the law, it is illegal. But again, there is a grey area.
Judges: What is their role?
"There's a major difference between two 15-year-olds heavy petting and an adult
having sex with an underage girl or boy," said Ms Rodgers.
The law in these kind of cases is not widely enforced. Even if the police did for some
reason get involved in a case, they may well decide not to proceed with it, and the CPS
may stop the case on public interest grounds.
Parents are in a difficult position. If they are aware of their under 16s having sex they
could theoretically risk prosecution for aiding and abetting the unlawful intercourse.
This might happen if they permitted the sex to take place in their house, or even if they
said: "Well, if you're going to do it, here's a condom."
Jack Straw: Sex education among the measures
The government's bid to reduce teenage pregnancies focuses more on improving sex education
and encouraging parents to talk to their children about sex.
There is to be a national campaign aimed at young men to raise awareness of contraception.
Ann Widdecombe, the shadow home secretary, echoed some people's worries earlier this year
when she said: "Never before has there been so much sex education and so much freely
available contraception.
"At the same time never has the rate of teenage pregnancy been so high. I believe the
two are directly linked," she said.
The experience of the Netherlands is also interesting. There it is accepted that young
people will become sexually active as part of their natural development, with free and
open discussion. But Dutch teenagers become sexually active at a later
age, and the teenage conception rate is the lowest of any developed country.