Let's talk a bit about age of consent!

[AAFitz]

xkcd got it about right. It's OK to date anybody as long as their age is equal to (your age/2) + 7. According to that formula, 14 is the age of consent but is only allowable with other 14 year olds.

A 12 year old may date a 13 year old but not vice versa?

Still, I rather like the general idea and it fits quite well with the close-in-age regulation except that people above age of consent are legally allowed to date anyone else above age of consent. But as the comic uses the formula to measure the creepiness factor that does not pose a major problem in its original function. The problem of one person's birthday changing the status of a relationship from normal to creepy is still an issue... maybe we could use logarithms or an exponential function and age in days instead of age in years to address that.

Or just write in a clause that protects people that were legally in a relationship before...However, perhaps a "grandfather clause" would not be a great idea on this one though.

Again, regardless of the proximity of age, 14 and 15 is simply too young to make educated decisions on something that can have life changing impact as much as sex can, because of std's, pregnancy, and simply emotional impact. The key of course is writing the laws so that 14 year olds aren't the ones being punished because for the same reason that they should be blocked from having sex, they should also be immune from any real punishment if they do...especially with someone their same age.

[happy harry]

No consent necessary

And we have a winner!

[StephenB]

Again, regardless of the proximity of age, 14 and 15 is simply too young to make educated decisions on something that can have life changing impact as much as sex can, because of std's, pregnancy, and simply emotional impact. The key of course is writing the laws so that 14 year olds aren't the ones being punished because for the same reason that they should be blocked from having sex, they should also be immune from any real punishment if they do...especially with someone their same age.

Lose-lose situation. If there is no punishment, there is nothing to stop them doing it. If there is punishment... Well that's just ridiculous. Someone getting a fine they cannot afford to pay, on top of having to spend most their time looking after a baby they didn't really want.

If schools and parents did their bit correctly, there would be no need for law.

[Gillipig]

Just to give people a source I'm going to put the link to wikipedia here; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_consent

Using wikipedia as a source

Haha no I'm not saying that Wikipedia is a good source, but it's better than no source at all because you can find sources through wikipedia.

[muy_thaiguy]

Who'd a thought? I'm actually agreeing with joe and fitz.

Anyways, 16 is also a good age of consent because if the girl should get pregnant, then she at least will be able to get a job to help support her and her baby. As 16 is generally the age at which most buisnesses allow people to work at least part time jobs. 15, is when they are really only shown job outlines, and younger then that, I hope you enjoy early mornings in all weather, as being a paper boy requires early hours and enough pay to get that new power rangers toy that just came out, but not much else.