Study: Age of consent doesn’t protect young people
Posted November 16, 2010 12:11 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Although the age of consent has been raised to 16 years of age in Canada, researchers in BC don’t think it is helping to protect younger teens against sexual predators. Some say more needs to be done to teach children about healthy relationships.
UBC Professor of Nursing and Adolescent Medicine Elizabeth Saewyc says the law was changed to protect teens who are between 14 and 15 years old.
“When we looked at the data from 2008 what we found was about two to three per cent of 14 to 15 year olds first had sex with someone who was aged 20 or older. In contrast though, when we found teens that first had sex at age 12 or younger, 39 per cent of them first had sex with someone aged 20 or older.”
She adds children need to be taught about respect and what is healthy. “So, that they are not as easily taken in by older people and not as easily manipulated into sexual relationships.”
The findings were based on data collected through the 2008 British Columbia Adolescent Health Survey.
