r/facepalm 13d ago

Now wait a damn minute 🇲​🇮​🇸​🇨​

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u/SeaEmergency7911 13d ago

Whoops…..kind of incriminated yourself with that math there.

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u/puddle89 13d ago

Not to excuse this, but depending on where they live and where her birthday falls, it might not be illegal. In the United States age of consent ranges from 16 to 18 depending on where you live. Where I live in Belgium, it's at 16 generally, but you can legally have sex as young as 14 as long as the difference in age is no more than three years and there is no abuse of trust or authority.

And I say it again, I do not excuse this. I also don't think a "grace period" like we have it here should be allowed. I have nieces of that age. They. are. CHILDREN!

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u/Amelaclya1 13d ago

The "grace period" (or Romeo and Juliet laws as we call them in the US) make perfect sense. It's to avoid sending CHILDREN to jail or make them sex offenders for having relationships with each other. Like, do you really think two 14 yr olds having sex should be a crime? I don't think it should be encouraged, but like you said - they are kids and hardly abusing each other. They don't deserve to have their lives ruined because of it.

The state where I grew up doesn't have Romeo and Juliet laws. My highschool boyfriend is technically a sex offender because we had sex when I was 16 and he was 17 (the age of consent). Our birthdays are 2 months apart and we were classmates. It's a lesser crime (only a misdemeanor) and a lesser penalty than if the age gap was greater, but it's still ridiculous. Like, I'm super grateful my parents were not insane enough to try to get him prosecuted for this.

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u/do-the-point 13d ago

Half of reddit would send your boyfriend straight to jail.