LogFAQs > #987038631

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

Many of them do. I referred to it as a sliding scale because I remember seeing an age of consent chart from Japan once that broke it down by age of younger, age of older, separated by gender (younger female / older male was punished more severely than younger male / older female), and defined where criminality started and ended. I'm sure this sounds clear as mud so I'll use wikipedia from here:

Wikipedia breaks down Age of Consent into three broad categories.

• By Age
• By Authority
• Unrestricted

By Age means this is the age of consent by which they can consent to someone of a similar age (ie: What people colloquially call Romeo and Juliet laws). By Authority means that the younger person is able to consent so long as the older partner is not in a legal or recognized position of trust or authority (so if 16 is the Authoritative Age of Consent, then a 16 year old could consent to anyone other than bosses, legal guardians, or teachers). And the unrestricted is simply unrestricted.

So if a country as a By Age of 13, a By Authority of 16, and an Unrestricted of 18; then that means a 13 year old could consent to someone of similar age. This is what I meant by a sliding scale. 13 to 15 would be fine. 15 to 17 would be fine. 13 to 17 would not. But weirdly 16 to 20 would be fine so long as the older person isn't in a position of authority above them. Lots of places have By Age set somewhere in their laws all over the world and was the main rule I was referring to earlier. But new to me is By Authority. Which is still kind of yucky but I guess it prevents the absolute worst kinds of abuse...it's not much better though.

That said I thought that 18 was like. The actual Unrestricted age of consent everywhere in the states and I'm now learning from wikipedia that that is not true. Youngest unrestricted is 16.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/0/059c29cd.jpg
There might be some nuance or finer points to the law that a Wikipedia chart can't summarize adequately but still. Eww. As for the By Authority version (which again, imo is barely different) there's another 14-15 ish states.

Aside: To anyone not willing to look up age of consent laws because they think it's creepy or weird. Don't be? This stuff should be considered part of standard sex education. Information like this helps protect kids; if in no other way than by increasing public awareness of what the laws are so that people can more adequately recognize when an adult is trying to exploit a child.

I get that it can look weird out of context but...better to be informed than not. Well, actually. I'd have almost rather not known that something like half the states in this country have Age of Consent at 16 in some form or another.