India’s highest court is to decide whether the age of consent for sexual activity should be lowered, in a landmark case that has sparked fierce debate across the country. Lawyers petitioned the Supreme Court last month to de-criminalise consensual sexual activity between adolescents aged 16 to 18. Feminist lawyer Indira Jaising argued that consensual sex at this age is “neither exploitative nor abusive”, said the BBC.
Nearly 40% of women in India aged 25 to 49 had their first sexual experience before turning 18, according to the country’s National Family Health Survey, and “courts are inundated with what are commonly called ‘love cases’ – criminal proceedings arising from consensual adolescent relationships”, said Hindustan Times. Supporters of the current statutory age of consent at 18, however, say it was a “deliberate, well-considered, and coherent” policy choice aimed at shielding minors from sexual exploitation, said NDTV.
Around the world, the age at which a person can legally consent to sexual activity varies widely. In most countries, the age of consent is between 16 and 18 but there are outliers. And, in some countries, different age restrictions apply to heterosexual and homosexual activity and/or to boys and girls.
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The age of consent in the UK is 16, regardless of sex or sexual orientation. But that rises to 18 if the sexual relationship is with an adult in a “position of trust”, such as a teacher, social worker, sports coach or doctor. It is illegal for an adult in a position of trust to have sex with a 16 or 17-year-old in their care.
Europe
In most European countries, the age of consent is 15 or 16, but some countries diverge from the norm. Albania, Austria, Hungary, Italy, Serbia, Germany, Montenegro and Portugal all set their age of consent at 14 – although in Germany that only applies if both partners are under 18.
In France, Poland, the Czech Republic, Sweden, Greece, Denmark and Iceland, the age of consent is 15. And in Spain, Romania, Switzerland, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway, Luxembourg and Belgium, as in the UK, it’s a year higher, at 16. In Ireland and Cyprus, the age of consent is 17, and Malta and Vatican City have the continent’s highest age of consent at 18.
Age of consent laws in some countries include a so-called “Romeo and Juliet” clause, which allows an exemption for consensual sex between a minor and a slightly older peer – for instance, a relationship between a 15-year-old and a 16-year-old in a country where the age of consent is 16.
North America
The age of consent in Canada is 16. In the US, it is between 16 and 18, and decided by each individual state. Thirty-one of its 50 states have set the age at 16, eight at 17, and 11 at 18. Many states also have a “Romeo and Juliet” clause.
Roughly half of all US states allow children under the age of 18 to get married with special permission, either from parents or from a court. “There are no federal laws against it, meaning minors can marry, with parental consent, before they can vote, drink, or buy lottery tickets in the majority of the country,” said The Guardian.
The age of consent in Central American and Caribbean countries ranges from 13 to 18 – although some nations have different rules for same-sex relationships.
Africa
In South Africa, the age of consent is 16, as it also is in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Namibia and Ghana.
It is 18 in Uganda, South Sudan, Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Tunisia and Burundi. The age of consent is 14 in Madagascar and 13 in Niger – but in both countries, it‘s 21 for homosexual couples.
In Libya, Morocco and Sudan, there is no age of consent as couples cannot have sex unless they are married. In Libya, marriage is illegal under the age of 20 or, in some areas, 18, without court authorisation. In Morocco, boys cannot marry before the age of 18, and girls under 18 can only marry with special dispensation from a judge. In Sudan, the minimum age for marriage is 18. Homosexual sex is forbidden in all three countries.
Asia and Oceania
South Korea used to have one of the world’s lowest ages of consent at 13. It’s now 16. In North Korea, it’s 15 and, in China, it is 14. In 2023, the age of consent in Japan was increased from 13 to 16 as part of a major revamping of sex-crime laws. But in practice, “across many parts of the country, regional ordinances banning ‘lewd’ acts with minors are sometimes seen as in effect raising the age of consent to 18”, said The Guardian. In Vietnam, Lebanon and Turkey, the age of consent is 18.
In India, where there is an ongoing campaign to lower the age of consent, debate over the right legal age “has existed since the late 1800s,” said the Hindustan Times. The threshold was raised from 10 to 16 after the country achieved independence in 1949. In 2012, it was raised further, to 18, “despite concerns about the practical implications of such a change”.
In many Muslim-majority countries, including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Yemen and the Maldives, sexual activity is prohibited outside of marriage. In most of those countries, 18 is the minimum legal age for marriage, although in practice religious marriages are often contracted at younger ages in more remote or conservative areas. In Iran, boys can marry at 15 and girls at 13, or from eight years and nine months (nine lunar years) with paternal or judicial permission.
In 2024, the Iraqi government passed a new law that permitted girls as young as nine to be legally married in certain religious circumstances, said human rights group Walk Free. At the same time, the legal marriage age for boys was also reduced from 18 to 15, abolishing a “longstanding ban on child marriage” for under 18s that had been in place since the 1950s.
South America
The age of consent in most South American countries, including Ecuador and Brazil, is 14. But in Chile, Bolivia and Argentina, the unrestricted age of consent is 18.
In Paraguay, the age of consent for heterosexual couples is 14 but gay sex is illegal under the age of 16.
Age of same-sex consent
Around 130 countries have equal ages of consent for same-sex couples and heterosexual ones but at least seven countries set a higher age for homosexual sex (figures differ because some countries only explicitly specify sex between males). Ivory Coast sets the age of consent for homosexual couples at 18, for example, although it’s 15 for heterosexual couples. In Madagascar, Niger, and the Congo, it’s 21 for same-sex couples but 14, 13 and 18 respectively for straight couples. Outside Africa, the Bahamas sets the same-sex age of consent at 18 (two years higher than for straight sex), and in Paraguay it’s 16 (compared with 14).
There are 64 countries which criminalise homosexuality at any age – nearly half of those in Africa.
