Talk:Age of consent

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Merge from Age of Consent for sex in Europe[change source]

The information should be merged with this article. The other article also has problems (complex English, failed source citations, bare links, too many legal quotes) that wouldn’t need addressing. The title is misleading; there is no single “age of consent” in Europe. There are ages (plural) of consent if listing countries in Europe. Age or ages of consent for sex is redundant; the age of consent is the age at which individuals may legally engage in sex. Because the English Wikipedia has an article on something is not a reason why Simple English Wikipedia should have an article on the same subject. Simple English Wikipedia is not the (complex) English Wikipedia. Our readership includes children and adults who are learning English. The information, simplified, wikified and without the legalese quotes should be merged to the parent article. Rus793 (talk) 13:38, 4 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Then could we have a European section, and an American section, etc. listing the countries' laws in the article? I think that would make the article into a book. --FDR (talk) 14:23, 4 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]
I added the European laws into this article and blanked the other article.--FDR (talk) 14:46, 4 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]
I see you redirected the article back to the parent article. The whole idea was to have sections for various places but at the same time not get too carried away with complex or redundant information. If you link full source citations to the various legal pages, the pages themselves explain the details. So just listing the place, the age of consent, and a reliable citation should do nicely. I do think this is the better way to present this information. Thanks Rus793 (talk) 15:19, 4 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Most Common Age[change source]

In Europe most countries have an age limit under 16, according to wikipedia, and only 3 have higher. In Asia, many countries have 12-13 as their age of consent. I'm not sure 16 is the most common age. --FDR (talk) 05:50, 6 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I'd recommend replacing that with the most common ages being 14-16.--FDR (talk) 06:14, 6 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

If we do that we'd need an equally reliable source citation verifying this statement. Some of the following is from the discussion on your talk page including links. Wikipedia itself cannot be used as a source. But the information in the enwiki article in the Consent by age section, despite appearing to be lower, is a mean (average) of 15.33 years. I did a search on Google books and found a couple of other sources for this statement. In ‘’ Modern Homosexualities: Fragments of Lesbian and Gay Experiences” editor: Ken Plumber, p. 247 there is this statement: "The average age of consent in Europe is 16.” Another book (a preview that has no page numbers so wouldn't have a full source citation) is David Evans, ‘’Sexual Citizenship: The Material Construction of Sexualities’’. The average age here is 15. An article in the Independent by Emily Dugan dated Sunday 17 November is titled: ‘Confused’ messages: an emotive debate reignites about the UK’s age of consent. It contains a semi useful statement “Although 16 remains the global average age of consent, international differences over the acceptable age to have sex are dramatic.” It also mentioned: "Spain did have one of the lowest ages of consent on the continent at just 13, but recently agreed to raise this to 16." I couldn't find a single reliable source that stated the average age of consent in Europe was 14. The current source citation to UNICEF giving an average of 16 still seems to be the best I can find. But I'm open to suggestions. Rus793 (talk) 03:39, 8 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]
One more piece of information. The list of European countries and the ages we have in this article so far average 15.75 (not counting the Vatican). I didn't include the vatican for a few reasons. First, because of the range of ages (18, 16, 14) I didn't know which number to use. If I used all three they would skew the average a bit higher. Secondly, Vatican city is controlled by canon law while the rest of the article is about civil law. Third, Vatican city has only 13 families living there (gardeners, members of the Swiss Guard and diplomatic corps). When a daughter or son gets married, they usually lose the right to live inside the walls of Vatican city. Lastly, marriages rarely take place inside Vatican City. Arguably then they would come under Italian law. All things considered, perhaps Vatican City should be removed from the list. Rus793 (talk) 05:32, 8 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Proposed merge with statutory rape[change source]

I see some problems merging these two subjects. The age of consent laws vary widely and many jurisdictions do not charge statutory rape except in certain circumstances. In statutory rape laws, many have clauses that have an acceptable age difference exclusion, but age of consent is still the threshold. As-is, this article can use more simplifying. The stub statutory rape stub has article potential which, looking at the enwiki article, would add more differences. To keep this simple for readers, they should remain two simple articles. User:Rus793 (talk) 18:30, 19 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I don't think the articles should be merged. They are different topics. Although our article doesn't cover it, statutory rape doesn't apply only to minors: it can also apply to people over the age of consent who are unable to give meaningful consent, for example people with diminished mental capacity. The topics are related and should reference each other, but should stay separate. --Auntof6 (talk) 18:47, 19 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]