Government has reduced the age at which minors can legally have consensual sex to 12 years old.
This has raised debate in civil society, where the physical and psychological readiness of children to engage in sex has been questioned.
By reducing the age of consent, Government is attempting to make sex education and sex health services available to young people, many of whom are already engaging in sex.
What worries me about this debate (and I don’t think children should have sex at 12 years old, simply because they can barely appreciate what they’re doing) is that our first response is to blame Government.
The reality is that children (whether you think it’s right or wrong) and including your children, are engaging in sexual activity. Government didn’t create this reality, and by reducing the age to consent, they are certainly not going to make this reality much more.
The bottom line is that civil society (parents, schools, media) have failed twice. Firstly, we have desensitised and made sex a casual commodity in what we show on TV and allow our children to access on the Internet.
Yes, when you gave your child a phone with the Internet they did use it to watch pornography. And yes, the heated kissing they watched on The Bold and Beautiful and Greys Anatomy did inspire their natural experimentation at an early age (when they didn’t know what they were doing).
Secondly, we have failed to talk to our children about what they have seen and heard in the media.
We have left it up to the Internet and TV and their friends to educate them about what sex really is. As a result, they’ve tried things they might not have if we had warned them about what they were doing, or told them how precious and non casual sex should be in a relationship.
Don’t cop out and blame Government for everything. Start at home.
