Hi... can you please answer me a question... if im 16 and my boyfriend 26.. its illegal if we have sex..??? im in California

Age shouldent matter in anything. Its how you feel and no one can controlle those emotions. But if you need a pacitce age i'd say 14 im 21 and im still a virgin and proud. Theres girls that are getting pregnant at the age of 13-16 now a days. What makes you think they care about the law im just saying everyone is diffrente and has diff. Opinons.

I feel like 16 is an alright age of consent, I know people say that there are "emotionally, physically and sexually mature 12 year olds" out there.. and all I can say is obviosuly these people have never met a 12 year old. Becuase when you are 12, Your brain isn't nearly developed enough to handle the emotional strings tied to sex, and say what you want.. but there ARE emotional strings tied to sex. If someone over the age of 13 or 14 is having sex with 12 year olds.. I'd have no problem calling them pedophiles. Also, to all you 16 and 17 year olds having sex with men in the late 20's and older, I think that in 98 percent of those situations, you are being manipulated. Men that age are not going to fall in love with someone young enough to be their child. It just doesn't happen. For one, you couldnt possibly have anything in common with them, and second... (completly ignoring negitive stigma attached to this) Girls that age are NOT emotionally mature enough to date someone so much older with fully developed brains. To me, That is more reprehensiable than a 16 year old having sex with a 12 year old. Any man who has to resort to having sex with children obviously has issues, if he can't find a woman his age, and there are plenty of beautiful women in their 30's. And Yes, Sorry to shatter your fantasy, but when you are 16,17.. and even 18.. You are still a CHILD.
So yeah, 16 should be the legal age of consent, but 16 year olds shouldnt be alllowed to have sex with anyone above the age of 20, 17's shouldnt be allowed of 21. Obviously there is no way to enforce this, and people will do as they please, but idealisticly, if that were the law and it could be enforced... the world would be a much better place.

Okay well I think any age. PARENTS are the only ones who should set this law. If the parent doesn't agree so be it. ( until 18 when parents cant control their kids) . BUT personally im 14 and guess what. EVERYONE IN MY GRADE HAS HAD SEX. Get with the picture government. You can set all these laws but kids are still gunna do them. Listen to them. We do it all safe and if we dont we get punished. Gods way. We become pregnant. Now am i saying let a 10 year old have sex? Hell no. But give these kids their own choice. You cant tell these people what to do with their lives unless it could cause injury or death too another person. Now you might say " Oh but you can get an STD." Well thats why theirs a law that u have to tell your partner you have it. Sex is fine and even if this law is there They.Wont.Give.A.Shit.

I am a firm believer that any two people who want be together should be allowed to do so, regardless of age, regardless of gender.
If it were up to me, I would craft the law such that once a person enters puberty, they are free to direct their sexual activities.
I would have some protections:
The relationship must be consensual on the part of both people.
Sex Ed. (reproductive, STD's, personal safety & responsibility) mandatory for kids in grade 5, grade 6 at the latest.
No abuse, manipulation or coercion.
No sexual involvement with teachers, parents, employers or other persons of authority.
No sexual photography until 18.
No pregnancy until 18.
No significant gifts or money in a sexual relationship until 18.
No sexual involvement with persons who are mentally deficient.
- - - - -

many kids start masturbating when they are between 10 and 13, some earlier. This means they are old enough to enjoy their bodies and can make self determinate decisions regarding such.

Educate them. Give them the tools to make informed and intelligent choices.

I believe that there should either be no age of concent anyone can make love to whomever they desire as long as their parts fit without pain or that both partners are willing to work through it but if an age of concent is obliatory I think it should be set at 9 for kissing cuddling and fondling 12 for fingering and oral sex and 13 for full intercourse.

I think that anything should be allowed, with parents consent. If the parent thinks their child is mature enough for the relationship, so be it.

I feel legal age of consent should start at 15...It they are responsible to be allowed behind the wheel of a car then they should be allowed to make other decisions like consenting to sex. The Law givens them the right to go to their doctor to get on birth control without the consent of the parent so who says a 15 year old boy or girl can not consent to sex? The law is a double standard in my book!Boys and girls that are older are getting wrongfully prosecuted in the state of Oregon because Oregon has gone way overboard! This is a normal act among teenagers..It is one thing is a boy or girl is forced but if they agree to it then is should be allowed. It is not fair that the justice system says that a child the age of 15 is not capable of making that decision, I would like to know who gave them that information and if that person should be considered incompetent for making such an obsurd statement. A 15 year old boy or girl is more than capable of constenting to anything they do in life.

Concerned Parent

If i am 16 and my boyfriend is 26 Can statutory rape be declared if the legal age of consent in oklahoma is 16?

I believe that the age of consent should vary with the individual. There are tons of sexually, mentally, and emotionally mature 12 year olds out there, and there are plenty of completely and utterly immature people in their twenties. I think that a better system is needed to figure out if it should be legal for a person to have sex.

Okay so I think the legal age of consent should be 18 but only in application to those much older than them. My sister was 16 when a 34 year old man seduced and almost raped her using tricks and lies. But because she was 16 in our state it was legal because 16 is the age of consent here. So although I don't think 16 year olds should be having sex, I think it should be legal for them too. However I don't think that it should legal for man or woman who is significantly older than the teen to have sex with them, as the adult is usually much more experienced and I would consider it almost rape because a teen is often defenseless against their logic and manipulation. However, the 17 year old who wants to have sex with the 16 year old? They are on even grounds of of ignorance and equal footing usually. I don't personally believe teens are ready for sex, but we can't stop them and it's perfectly natural and can even be a wonderful thing if done in a safe way. So I guess in the end the consent law shouldn't have an age for when it's okay to have sex, but should instead be revised to relflect the growing social gap between younger and older groups. As in I don't think the 19 year should legally be allowed to have sex with the 15 year old either because of the difference in maturity. If that makes any sense..

Age of consent and statutory rape laws depress me to no end..

At the end of 21, I was a complete virgin who had almost never dated. I was determined to wait for someone I felt right about. While my friends in high school were busy getting their members sucked and then acting like they never knew them, I was painfully careful to so much as turn a girl wanting to go on a date down to harshly, to be real careful with their feelings, and to not have sex because, seeing as how I would want someone to wait and have devotion to me, I considered it would be bad faith in your future partner to just have sex and then if they waited for you, be all like "oops, too bad." Not to mention using other people's future lovers just for sex, even if THEY wait.

And likewise throughout college.

At 21 I began to lose hope though, and realized I was getting to old, and for all my patience, the only thing I get in return is to miss out on things like having sex with a virgin, or having a high-school sweetheart, relationships, dating, sex, all that. I waited all that time and for nothing. Every girl around just sucks off guys and doesn't care, and I'm supposed to wait all that time so I can be with some girl who's done everything with everyone else.

Forget that.

So basically, I found myself in a position of either painfully forcing myself to start having at least a little sex, or be alone for the rest of my life in my jealousy that would prevent me from ever being with someone. (or hold out in the chance of someone who's very inexperienced coming along, yeah - fat chance.)

As such, I wanted someone less experienced to have a relationship with, so that I can at least try to salvage my life and have my first real relationship and sex not be with someone who's done it all.

So I got interested in a 17 year old, when I was 21.

To put this in even more perspective - she was the one that coerced me. And she did it a lot. I never initiated conversation even. And I talked to her for months and months.

Let's put this into even more perspective - It turns out, as I found later, she was an absolute... how do I put this... "extremely promiscuous female"

I cared about her, but in the after it all, it became apparent that she was TOTALLY planning on taking my virginity - that I had waited so long and turned down so many people to preserve, just hoping I could at least salvage it and make it a good first time - and then boosting her ego with it as one of the many boys she f--ked and then never seeing me again.

And I guess I'm the big monster predator and she's the innocent victim prey, right?

Fortunately, no, I didn't end up having sex or playing around with her.. not because she was 17, but because I found out she had a boyfriend still, that I thought she had previously broken up with.

BUT I JUST AS WELL COULD HAVE, in different circumstances.

And then what? A self-righteous mother that wants to string up any guy that touches her daughter? 5-10 years in prison? A courtroom looking at me condemning me as a rapist and giving me no chance to speak story?

And just to think that I would have had no interest in her had I just been selfish like my friends and let the girls in high school give me oral sex, when I was in high school, and then treat them like dirt, and have an average sex life throughout.

But that's what you get for being intelligent, patient, and considerate, right?

I can't begin to tell you what I would do if I had had sex and was thrown in prison. I very much doubt I would be alive today. And of course Chris Hansen goes around feeling all self-righteous over this sort of thing, yet nevermind my ruined life, only a 16-year olds matters. And nevermind all the people in the world using each other, manipulating, cheating, stealing 20 or 30-some-year-olds virginities for their own ego and then dumping them in the morning. That's all ok. That's legal.

I strongly suspect all you Christians out there getting all mad and wanting laws to be as harsh as possible are just people who had stupid sex when you were young, and now that you're older and under the fear of religion, you want to castrate anyone for whatever you consider taboo, and you want to demonize older guys for having sex with younger girls because you can't handle the truth of the far worse thing you are. Getting mad about teen sex and trying to string up anyone you can without giving them a fair view is NOT HELPING and does NOT MAKE YOU RIGHTEOUS. It makes you a horrible, merciless person. What does your religions say? He who is without sin may cast the first stone?

I'm not saying there shouldn't be laws about this sort of thing. But they are way too rigid, in many places too severe, and way too generalized. They only account for the average kind of person, who has sex their whole life - in which case, I would say, yeah, you've been having sex for fun your whole life, you shouldn't get off the hook for having sex with someone not mature enough. But even then, the age is too high, and the penalties are too harsh.

I'm sure there have been plenty of guys with a story exactly like my own that did end up having sex, and paid for it.

The laws were written by the average people that don't consider the fact that not everyone is having sex their whole life like they are, keeping up with the score, ready for their age group, and rotten for trying to coerce someone much younger. The laws are made in the image of a bunch of average psycho puritans, running from the selfish monsters they really are. It's people like them that have people running rampant with selfish, endless sex. And they won't consider the fact that when someone's a virgin, it becomes very hard for them to use someone, even if they try! It doesn't even make sense to me. How could I have been?

And BTW, there was no sex revolution. You Christian so called "Family Values" people need to get your head out of the sand. Read some history books and autobiographies, learn about the times. I've read a few from 1900-1940. If they are any indication, random, unconstrained sex was even way more rampant than today. There has always been prostitution, how do you think that got there if there wasn't a very large amount of indiscriminate sex going on between a very large percent of the people? People have always been how they are today, as the same psychological creatures they are. To think that the sex habits of today were invented in the sixties is just infantile!

Stop being afraid of and acting out of your hellfire religion and ruining people's lives in your self-righteousness, and start practicing human compassion, understanding, selflessness.

IN NEBRASKA AT WHAT AGE IS CONSENT.. MY QUESTION IS IF A BOY IS 16 CAN HE HAVE SEX WITHA GIRL YOUNGER THAN 16 ..
I THINK NOT BUT WOULD LIKE TO KNOW FOR SURE.
MY SON & I ARE HAVING THIS DISCUSSION CAN SOME ONE PLEASE ADVISE ME OR THE LAW..

It should definitely be 18 as well as we need to teach that there is no such thing as a "technical" virgin. I'm a Family and Consumer Science major who wants to be a sex-ed teacher. Although I do not believe that Sex should be a taboo, because it's a natural thing, I also do not believe CHILDREN should be having sex. I am currently taking a human sexuality class, my professor has written our textbook (the most current human sexuality text book as of now) Think: Human Sexuality (I also took her human development class).
I Think it's a huge problem when it comes to young people having sex. Kids, 11 years old, are having anal sex and there is an increase in arm-pit herpes. We are also talking about the judgment part of the brain and how it is not fully developed until around the age 25. Therefore anyone under that age are more likely to have unprotected sex. They also are not capable of taking care of a child at ages 12,13,14,15,16...etc. HOWEVER I'm not trying to stereotype I know a couple people who have had kids at age 16/17 who are great parents...BUT the majority of teens are not prepared for this.

I could seriously go on and on and on about this and there are many, many more reasons why we should not allow 12,13,14,15,16 etc year olds to have sex. It's not about trust, it's not about privacy, it's not about who is "older for their age, it's about their HEALTH and SAFETY and it's very important to keep kids from growing up TOO FAST. I think that is MORE important then anything in the world. It has nothing to do with MORALS. Just because you are a sexual being does NOT mean you don't have morals. THAT IS FALSE.

I was considered "old for my age" however, I knew that I wanted to wait until I was out of high school, and I wanted to wait until I knew I was truly in love before. Not because of my morals not because my parents didn't trust me but because I didn't want to contract an STD and I did not want to have a child at such a young age. And besides, I was willing to wait until I found a guy who was willing to wait with me. That is the true test of a faithful partner. <3