Talk:Age of consent in Europe

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This article is part of the Age of consent series of articles project.

In the interest of accuracy and quality it was decided by consensus^* to hold these pages to a high standard of verification and to avoid ambiguity through the use of prose (not dot points) discussing the relevant statutes, case law or other authorities.

To this end all information must be properly referenced. Where writing about legislation or other law, the appropriate statutes and similar must be cited. Where appropriate, portions of the legislation can be quoted. Where possible, a link to an up-to-date online copy of the legislation can be included (preferably, but not necessarily, in English). It is preferable to include any such references in-line, rather than in a separate <ref> section at the bottom of the page. This is to make it easier for readers to find the references in context.

The unfettered age of consent should be in bold text, in order that it stand out. No other ages should be in bold text. Any exceptions to should then be discussed afterwards (close in age exceptions, same sex relations etc).

For an example of a properly formatted article see the Ages of consent in Australia and Oceania.

*(The original age of consent formatting discussions began here)

The articles in this group are	Helpful repositories of legislation
Age of consent Age of consent reform Ages of consent in Africa Ages of consent in Asia Ages of consent in Oceania (including Australia) Ages of consent in Europe Ages of consent in North America Ages of consent in the United States Ages of consent in South America Age of consent in Brazil List of countries by age of consent	Worldlii: Global Austlii: Australia Bailii: Britain and Ireland Canlii: Canada Commonlii: Commonwealth Cylaw: Cyprus Droit: French HKlii: Hong Kong	Juri Burkina Cornell law NZlii: New Zealand Paclii: Pacific Islands Saflii: Southern Africa

Please note that ageofconsent.com is not an acceptable reference as it has not been updated since 2002.

Age of consent in Switzerland

The age of consent in Switzerland isn't 16 in all cases. While the "three years age gap" thing has been mentioned (which seems not sufficiently detailed to me and could be easily misunderstood as a result), there is no mention of the cases where the age of consent is 18, for example when the person aged 16 or 17 is the other person's pupil.

Most of the data in this article could be turned into a table.

This article (not to mention the above discussion of "unfettered age of consent" whtaever that expression is meant to mean) is a complete mess, and could and should be simplified a lot by simply using a table, because:

This is an article about Europe, therefore Council of Europe and (for EU member states) EU law and jurisprudence matter.
Basically all European countries signed the Lanzarote Convention, therefore all are bound to make sex illegal in the cases where, even if the minor's age is above the general age of consent;
All Cuncil of Europe countries are bound to the rule that their age of consent rules must be fully equal when it comes to opposite-sex vs. same-sex sexual acts;
None of the Council of Europe (I hope...) or at least none of the EU/EEA countries allow things like the age of consent to be different depending on the parent's wishes, simply because among the duties a State must guarantee to its citizen and residents there is also the concept that a child is not a property of its own parents;
I think very few countries in Europe consider marriage an exemption from the age of consent too for the same reason: the State guarantees the right of every person to mental and physical integrety, and children are people too, and being in a marriage is not relevant to this.

Touyats (talk) 09:48, 3 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Up until 25 Apr 2021, it had one, but was destroyed. — Guarapiranga ☎ 03:10, 6 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Oh man, I would restore the table if I could commit to learning how. It needed to be improved, not removed. (Good rhyme, important motto.) — TARDIS builder^✉ ★ 05:41, 21 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Is it right to consider Turkey an European country?

Considering that is a transcontinental country, its population and religion, and that is not even a EU member, is it right to consider Turkey a European country? Shouldn't be created a page/article regarding specifically the age of consent in Turkey? 151.68.212.204 (talk) 01:24, 17 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

"a page/article regarding specifically the age of consent in Turkey" You are free to create one, if you can find relevant sources. Religion is not much of a difference for Turkey, since Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo are also Muslim-majority countries in Europe. See the article on Islam in Europe. Dimadick (talk) 10:45, 19 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The main problem is the fact that is a transcontinental country. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 151.82.180.87 (talk) 14:59, 29 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Romania

This article says "In June, the Senate adopted Legislative Proposal L423/2022 regarding the amendment of the Criminal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code, which introduces an age limit (15 years) for valid consent in the case of sexual relations with minors. In the case of amendments to organic laws, the Chamber of Deputies is the decision-making chamber. The arguments for which the Chamber of Deputies must introduce 16 years as the limit of valid consent are very numerous and well-founded." It also says "Currently, there is no minimum age of the minor under which it is considered that he cannot give valid consent in the case of sexual intercourse with an adult partner or with a partner with an age difference of more than three years. This minimum age would eliminate the possibility of classifying the act as a crime of sexual intercourse with a minor and would classify it as a crime of rape." I think it's implying that there is currently no age of consent, but the proposal is to set an age of 15 (with some groups wanting an age of 16). 143.44.67.100 (talk) 21:21, 29 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

No. The age of consent is 16, in that it is illegal to have sex with a child under 16 (with a close in age exemption of 3 years). The discussions are about setting an age under which the sexual act is automatically classified as rape rather than sexual intercourse with a minor as it is now (Actul sexual cu un minor - Article 220 of the Penal Code). Currently there is no such age, and sexual intercourse with a child under 16 may be classified either as rape or as illegal sexual intercourse with a minor, based on the circumstances (including the age and maturity of the child). But sex with a child under 16 is illegal, regardless of how it is classified. This is the bolded age that is shown in this article for all countries. It is not necessary for the act to be classified as rape, it is sufficient for it to be illegal. This has been already discussed on talk. 2A02:2F0F:B10E:6700:B4CE:BC19:25D0:1580 (talk) 06:22, 7 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

According to this article, in Malta the minimum age of consent appears to be 12

It seems shocking to me, but the source suggests so. Because the crime that regulates sexual interactions in the age range of 12 to 16 does not seem to punish sexual intercourse per se, but rather "defilement" and being "at the discretion of prosecutors and the courts", it demarcates that there is no illegality per se.

Technically, I don't see any difference between this and the cases of Portugal and Albania. Portugal has the age of consent at 14, but at the discretion and legal interpretation there can be a crime in minors under 16, if "inexperience is abused" and Albania has the age of consent at 14, but there can be a crime if "the minor lacks of sexual maturity".

So, why is it that in Portugal and Albania the age under which the invalidity of consent is presumed is delimited, but in Malta it is preserved even for a crime that requires a third element, in addition to sex and age? 2800:150:105:C27:283B:C525:4592:BF5D (talk) 13:09, 25 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Splitting article into different articles for each country.

This article should be split into multiple different articles like "consent in malta" for example.

Reasons: 1. It is unclear what counties should be included in this article 2. You can go more in depth into each country 3. There are a ridiculous number of citations which really shows how long this article is. 4. For countries outside Europe they all have their own article so why be different? 5. Does not show up high in Google search results (bad SEO) 46.11.116.98 (talk) 23:06, 8 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@46.11.116.98: Generally speaking, the nature of the protections for underage persons have fragmented. Not referring strictly to Europe, there have been criminalization of photographs of people over the age of consent (along with illustrations and even comics), more gradation of the laws (e.g. close-in-age exceptions). There are countries which have laws which are enforced only on complaints of a family member and other sorts of variations. Separate articles for each country therefore becomes prefereable. Fabrickator (talk) 18:07, 9 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]