When I was a 14-year-old kama`aina growing up in Honolulu, the age of consent in my home state, Hawaii, was 14.
Is it me, or is a 14-year-old age of consent really awfully young?
Not only was it legal for a 14-year-old in Hawaii to legally have sex; it was legal for adults to have sex with teenagers.
There was very little to protect children in Hawaii from sexual predators because the charge that keeps them at bay is the charge of statutory rape.
And when the age of consent was only 14, there was no barrier and no recourse for parents or for the State.
When I grew up in Hawaii as an errant youth, I kind of thought that was kind of cool.
As a 14-year-old.
Now that I am primed and ready to have children, I really want to live in a state that has an age of consent of 25.
Is it me, or is a 14-year-old age of consent morally reprehensible?
Comment (1)
i agree and, yet, disagree with you .. 14 is the age of exploration of one’s body. it’s the age when both the body and the mind/spirt are undergoing great changes. for the body, this is simply an anatomical change (yes, that means getting used to shaving, for instance), but for the mind, it is a much deeper change .. it is a chance to figure who you may be, and how you may fit in the world. yes, i believe that at the age of 14, you can start to define yourself.
but i suppose if mary was married-off to joseph at, way was it, 13 or 14, then we’re all gonna have to wait until there’s an absolute cut of the umbilical cord between church and state.
“We know what we are, but know not what we may become.” - William Shakespeare -