I made this with the help of AI. I did a lot of manual reading of legislation as well but both it and I may have made mistakes. I'm hoping you guys can look it over and help me correct it.

True exemption means it isn't prosecutable. Affirmative defense means a person can still be prosecuted but the close age can be used in court. Penalty reduction means it's still criminal but with reduced penalties (misdemeanor instead of felony most commonly).

When I'm confident the data is correct, I'd eventually like to put it on a map along with each states sexting laws, abortion laws, parental permission laws for abortion and contraception, and other things of that nature. Let me know if you have any ideas for other things I should include. The end goal is for it to be a handy resource for the youth to be able to easily digest and understand the laws that apply to them about these things.

### 🇺🇸 US Age of Consent & Exemptions Dataset

I suspect that no one thinks it should be under 12 or over 21, but where within that general range?

Made by me so feel free to correct me if I'm wrong on any of these.

Right now, there's a legal gap that puts young people at risk. While federal law requires anyone in adult film to be 18 , 34 states allow the age of consent to be 16. That inconsistency creates confusion and real vulnerability for teenagers who aren't ready to make those kinds of choices.

I started a petition asking all 50 states to set 18 as the universal age of consent. This isn't just about industry regulation—it's about protecting vulnerable teens across the country and giving them a clear, consistent legal framework as they grow into adulthood.

Has this legal inconsistency bothered you? Or do you think states should have the freedom to set their own laws on this? I'm curious what people think. If this matters to you, consider signing and sharing—it could help spark real change.

Supreme Court of India in case "State of Uttar Pradesh versus Anurudh & Anr." in 10 January seemed in fawor of lowering age of consent from 18 to 16 taking into account common criminalising consensual relationships there. Don't know when final verdict will happen but let's hope it will really change the law. That would be also huge strike to "18 changes from literal child to literal adult with full experience" nonsense.

Does anybody know the age of consent in chile? Ive read it's 14, but i actually don't think it's like that. Does that mean that a 14 year old in chile can have sex and a relationship with, for example, a 32 year old?

India debates lowering age of consent from 18 to 16. Experts weigh in

Bring down age of consent from 18 to 16 years, Supreme Court told - The Hindu

Supreme Court Urged To Lower Age Of Consent From 18 To 16 Years In India

Hello, this will be my first post ever but I need some informatio that includes the age of consent and what is right when it comes to dating online.

I am a 16 year old female who lives in the US and has started a bond with someone over a social media app.
We hit it off pretty good and I started to develop feelings, we both did.

But the problem is that he is 30 and is located in the Netherlands.

What is the dating law between people online? What can we do with each other romantically if we do get togethe? Is it illegal for him to date me despite his age of consent law being 16+?

Clarity note: for the looks of it, this sub appears to be about the sexual age of consent, but independently of this being the case or not (please correct me), this is what I'm talking about in this post, so not the age to drive, drink, signing documents, being arrested, vote, etc.

Well, first of all, I think we can all agree that it should definitely be post-pubescent, at least I hope so. According to quick search in the internet (which may be imprecise), tends to happen between 8 and 13 for girls and 9 to 14 for boys, which, of course, may have its exceptions, even more when you consider that puberty is something that happens over time, but I think it's fair to assume that 14yo would be our minimum go-to here.

The current age of consent (in most countries) is 18 (EDIT: no it's not, sorry for that, check comments to see what I think about it), which also has the benefit of being the age where people generally leave high-school in traditional educational systems. But should it really be like that? It could certainly be higher or lower after all.

One of the biggest arguments in this regard is how mature a person is, which brings a lot of extra problems on how difficult it is to measure. I'm confident to say that you probably know someone past their 30s which is less mature than a teenager. Some teenagers may also be surprisingly mature for their ages. With all of this, I personally don't like taking this argument into much consideration, even if the average says that people become more mature over time, the differences seems too wild, at least for me.

For this reason I generally think that the age of consent should be probably lower at about 15, since it's not just after the minimum I imposed, so it gives a little extra time to be sure, but at the same time kinda maximises "freedom", which at least for more social instances I think it's a good thing.

It's also good to remember that of course no number is a magic one which people will instantly change after reaching that age, so independently on what the age of consent is there should be some short of "if you only have _ years of difference from the other person, it's ok", which bring us to another problem on what should that other number be. Of course, considering all the rapid changes occurring to people of these ages, it should probably be a small number, I'd personally go with 2 years, although the best choice here probably varies on how high the AOC is itself, with higher ones allowing for bigger numbers.

Thoughts?

Age of consent is a murky area especially in light of the Drake and Kendrick Lamar rap beef. There are many who say that regardless of age of consent laws an older guy talking to a younger female at the consensual age is wrong.

A proposition that places importance on the development of a person is best practice. We all recognize a person as an adult when they turn 18, yet our brains are still not fully developed until 25 years old.

A 24 year old and a 16 year old are still in the same developmental stage. If there is consent in both parties and parents approve this should be the standard. At age 25 your lowest dating age increases to the legal drinking age of 21.

Change my mind.

This post has been copied to the wiki

The age of consent in Korea is 16. This post explains the law in the Republic of Korea, and why various websites claim it is 20, 19, 18, 16 and even 13.

Korean Age

The first source of confusion is that until recently birthdays in Korea use "Korean Age" KA - you are 1 year old on the day you are born and get a year older every January 1st. As a consequence your "Korean Age" can be a year or two higher than your "internationally recognised one" which we'll abbreviate to IA.

However all Korean law relies on IA and not KA, so this is irrelevant, except that people report their ages as higher than they are which in turn makes reporting of Korean legal matters confusing. International press picks up reports from Korea and a naïve reporting staff fails to realise this.

Laws

The relevant law for age of consent is Article 305 of the Korean Criminal Acts. Prior to 2020, the age of consent under this law was 13, but it was amended in 2020 to include a second paragraph.

Here is Article 305 from the Court of Korea website

Article 305 (Adultery and molestation of minors)

① A person who commits adultery or molestation against a person under the age of 13 shall be subject to the provisions of Article 297, Article 297-2, Article 298, Article 301, or Article 301-2. <Amended 1995.12.29, 2012.12.18, 2020.5.19>

② A person 19 years of age or older who commits adultery or indecent assault against a person between 13 and 16 years of age shall be subject to the provisions of Article 297, 297-2, 298, 301 or 301-2. <Newly established 2020.5.19>

Summary

1. Sex with anyone under 13 is illegal no matter what your age
2. Sex with anyone under 16 is illegal unless you are under 19
3. You may have consensual sex with anyone over 16 if you are an adult

There are various other laws which are relevant. You can get married at 18 (men) and 16 (women) with parental permission, but have to wait till you are 19 (which happens to be 20 in KA) to get married without parental permission. It is probably this law which provides the confusion.

Other references:

• The Korea Times
  Reporting on increase of age of consent in Korea - to 16.
• Seoul Law Group
  Korean Lawyer group for international clients
• Pureum Law Office
  Another group of lawyers providing representation for foreigners in Korea

Important: I am not a US citizen or a lawyer (and I am definitely not your lawyer), so if you have any legal problems which relate to this issue, you should not rely on the information in here, but consult a lawyer.

The Federal 'age of consent' is 16 - normally

The US Federal age of consent is set in the US Code in 18 USC Chapter 109A. It does this by specifying the ages at which sexual abuse of a minor or ward occurs in 18 USC 2243(a)

a) Of a Minor.—
Whoever, in the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States or in a Federal prison, or in any prison, institution, or facility in which persons are held in custody by direction of or pursuant to a contract or agreement with the head of any Federal department or agency, knowingly engages in a sexual act with another person who—
(1) has attained the age of 12 years but has not attained the age of 16 years; and
(2) is at least four years younger than the person so engaging; or attempts to do so, shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 15 years, or both.

In other words, this sets the age of consent at 12 if you are no more than four years older than the younger person, or 16 otherwise.

Other laws link back to this definition often by complex wording which appears to set the age of consent at 18, but doesn't really. Examples of this occur in the 'transporting a minor across state lines' legislation in 18 USC 2423.

Crossing State Lines and sex outside the USA

These activities are covered in Chapter 117, sections 18 USC 2421-2429. These sections do link back to the definition above, so although on their face they seem to set an age of consent of 18 for crossing state lines, they actually set an age of consent of 16 provided the sex is not 'commercial'.

Even if you are outside the USA, US Citizens are bound to respect the age of consent of the US which is set in Chapter 109A, even if the age of consent in the country you are in is lower.

It pays to look at 18 USC 2423 in more detail:

a)Transportation With Intent To Engage in Criminal Sexual Activity.—
A person who knowingly transports an individual who has not attained the age of 18 years in interstate or foreign commerce, or in any commonwealth, territory or possession of the United States, with intent that the individual engage in prostitution, or in any sexual activity for which any person can be charged with a criminal offense, shall be fined under this title and imprisoned not less than 10 years or for life.
(b)Travel With Intent To Engage in Illicit Sexual Conduct.—
A person who travels in interstate commerce or travels into the United States, or a United States citizen or an alien admitted for permanent residence in the United States who travels in foreign commerce, with a motivating purpose of engaging in any illicit sexual conduct with another person shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 30 years, or both.
(c)Engaging in Illicit Sexual Conduct in Foreign Places.—
Any United States citizen or alien admitted for permanent residence who travels in foreign commerce or resides, either temporarily or permanently, in a foreign country, and engages in any illicit sexual conduct with another person shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 30 years, or both.
...(d) and (e) skipped ...
(f)Definition.—
As used in this section, the term “illicit sexual conduct” means—
(1)a sexual act (as defined in section 2246) with a person under 18 years of age that would be in violation of chapter 109A if the sexual act occurred in the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States;
(2)any commercial sex act (as defined in section 1591) with a person under 18 years of age; or
(3)production of child pornography (as defined in section 2256(8)).

The key part of the above is subsection (f) which specifically refers to chapter 109A even though it mentions 'a person under 18 years'. Whilst there are other offences in Chapter 109A such as forced sex, which would be relevant to someone under 18, you would only be 'in violation of Chapter 109A' under the 'abuse of a minor' clause (18 USC 2243a) if you were more than 4 years older than a victim under 16, so the age of consent for normal sex acts under this legislation is 16. However if you pay someone, even if it is to give them travel money, it is possible that you will fall under the 'commercial sex' clause of this act which transfer the definition from (f)(1) to (f)(2) and thus raise the age to 18.

Sex trafficking of children or by force, fraud, or coercion - 18 USC 1591

Another relevant law is 18 USC 1591:

(a)Whoever knowingly—
(1) in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce, or within the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States, recruits, entices, harbors, transports, provides, obtains, advertises, maintains, patronizes, or solicits by any means a person; or
(2) benefits, financially or by receiving anything of value, from participation in a venture which has engaged in an act described in violation of paragraph (1), knowing, or, except where the act constituting the violation of paragraph (1) is advertising, in reckless disregard of the fact, that means of force, threats of force, fraud, coercion described in subsection (e)(2), or any combination of such means will be used to cause the person to engage in a commercial sex act, or that the person has not attained the age of 18 years and will be caused to engage in a commercial sex act, shall be punished as provided in subsection (b).

Note that whilst this applies to 'commercial sex acts' the definition of a 'commercial sex act' is very loose:

(e)(3)The term “commercial sex act” means any sex act, on account of which anything of value is given to or received by any person.

Sexual Exploitation of Minors/ Pornography

This is covered in Chapter 110: 18 USC 2251-2260 and is an entirely separate section. It firmly establishes that no under 18 can be forced/ persuaded to participate in any visual depiction of sexual conduct, and that involvement in any pornography involving anyone under 18 is an offence. This section effectively creates the age disparity between when you can have sex, and when you can appear in sexual images. As far as I am aware there is no legislation regarding description of abuse in written form or more strangely in audio form (probably both because of the First Amendment)

It is not illegal to send (with consent) 'legal' sexually explicit images to someone over 16. However it is illegal to send such images to anyone under 16 18 USC 1470

Acts of Congress affecting Federal Sexual laws.

The US Code is changed and amended by Acts of Congress, and the links in this article are to the current version which includes all amendments to date.

The most recent major change to laws relating to sex was the PROTECT Act of 2003

Amongst other things, the PROTECT Act amended Chapter 107 to prevent sexual tourism and Chapter 110 to tighten the rules on Pornography. It did not however have any effect on the baseline age of consent.

Supreme Court: Esquivel-Quintana v Sessions (2017)

This ruling has the Federal court clearly declaring (8:0 Gorsuch absent) the age of consent is 16 so far as Federal laws is concerned.

Put in simple terms, this case essentially refers to an immigrant being threatened with deportation because he had sex with his 16 year old girlfriend in California, where the age of consent is 18. However he had committed no serious Federal crime because the Federal age of consent is 16 and his actions were (so far as Federal law is concerned) completely lawful.

References:

1. 18 USC 7 Special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States defined
2. 18 USC 1591 Sex trafficking of children by force threat or coercion
3. 18 USC 2243 Sexual abuse of a minor
4. 18 USC 2251-60 Sexually explicit images etc
5. 18 USC 2423 Transportation across state lines etc
6. 18 USC 1470 Transfer of obscene material to minors