Missouri legislature votes to ban child marriage, raising age to 18
The bill now only needs the governor’s signature to become law.
I don't get why a such law took so long, but late is better than never.
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for anyone surprised at this, I learned from an Ask Lemmy thread that the age of sexual consent in well over half of the USA is 16 years old, in something like 30 states.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_consent_in_the_United_States
up until that point I figured it was 18 across the US.
I was real wrong.
As bad as that is, a kid doesn’t have to be anywhere near the age of consent for their parents to marry them off to an old man (let’s be real, that’s what’s happening).
And since they aren’t old enough to be the one consenting to the marriage, they can’t file for divorce and if they try to escape, they are treated as run aways and returned to their abuser (again, let’s be real, that’s what’s happening).
Statuary rape is legal if the poor child’s parents consent. And they can do it in 36 US states. Including California. Do better.
Shower thought: maybe there should be an age / 2 + 7 law for marriage, with the minimum age of the youngest involved in the marriage being 18.
Then you don't get any of that 50 yo people marrying 18 year olds anymore. Instead, those would have to look at 32 years.
Well, that's just a rule of general not-being-a-creep. I think a better law is: No one can consent to marriage (or sex) for someone else, ever, including parents.
It seems pretty obvious: if you can't sign a legally binding contract, you can't sign a marriage contract.
Oh, I agree, but it's depressing to know that there are people in the Republican Party that would probably violate that rule easily. Not that I ever trusted them, though.
The vast majority of American movie and tv just use 18 regardless, to avoid any legal issues
Which is why a lot of Americans, even ones living in states where it's 16, think it is 18 in all states.
Not just the USA. Historically humans considered teens as young adults, granting them more rights and responsibility as they transition to adulthood, sometimes with parental consent.
It is a recent development that we look back thinking "no way should me or my friends have been able to marry or worse, arranged to be married at that age"
In many countries its 14. But that just means its legal for a 14 year old to fuck another 14 year old. Its still illegal for an adult to fuck a 14 year old.
So thats insufficient information usually, to just look at the lowest legal age of consent.
In the UK and many other developed countries also. Seems quite standard. America likes to infantise the youth so it'll be 25 before long.
"Infantise" while trying to shut down child marriages.
Fuck off.
I think they were refering to the drinking age. It's beyond fucking stupid you need to be 21 to drink in the US.
That's our own fault though. The number 1 demographic causing drunk driving accidents was people 18 to 21. Making it so that they couldn't drink in bars made them more likely to stay home to drink.
It makes more sense (in my opinion) to require you to be 21 to drive a car. Cars are fucking death traps.
Not really, brain development doesn't stop until ~24. Alcohol inhibits that. I mean, I don't think you should wait til 24 to drink but there is reasoning there, even if that's not their reasoning. But if I was legally allowed to drink at 18, (I did, but not legally) alcohol likely would have been much more problematic for me, personally.
There is also the fact that when getting alcohol illegally, you make deals with shady people like anything of that nature. I dunno, there's lots of arguments to give here but none that would decisively say which is right and wrong.
Are you an adult who can make their own decisions or not? Join the military and kill people, adult. Take on hundreds of thousands in debt, adult. Drink? No no no, child.
Oh I totally agree. The system is fucked. I was just saying that me personally, as an 18 year old kid, had worse impulse control than me personally at 21. I'm not saying this is the case for everyone, im a dopamine chaser that doesn't get it elsewhere. I get that. I was just stating that I had alcohol problems at 21-22. If I had easier access at an earlier age without having to deal witha shady person? I'm just saying 19 year old me with too much money couldn't handle that. That's it, I'm not saying 21 is justified when you can go to war 3 years earlier. All I'm saying is that my old alcohol problem would have been way more problematic had it been easier to access at a younger age.
I don't understand the down votes for telling my experience and how it would be different in an alternate world.
I dunno, I'm neurodivergent and was awkward in my youth. Didn't know how to cope, so I found others that didn't know how to connect with society. Even in the late 90s/early 00s, you just didn't check for that sort of thing unless it was really apparent at the time. So a lot of us went undiagnosed, unhelped, and just kind of on our own to figure out life because our parents didn't raise us. Nobody did. But there was drugs and alcohol
I'm just saying putting something off that can be addicting is a good thing. Be it high fructose corn syrup, nicotine, alcohol, there's even new studies saying teens should stave off weed a bit longer.
Impulse control or not, you are an adult that can make adult decisions. Pushing this back and pushing this back does not help anyone, it just creates this forever-child syndrome. Managers wonder why people are showing up to job interviews with their parents, and it's because we keep pushing back the decision making and independence. Right now being 18-21 is treated like you're not an adult, so people just act stupid because that's what's expected of them.
Swearing won't make your argument stronger. It's just rude.
My comment wasn't in relation to child marriages. That is wrong and illegal in most countries. The debate is because an American doesn't really understand the context in other countries.
Here in the UK, age of consent is 16. Most have already been at stuff at 14, 15 etc. All raising age does is punish 17 year olds getting busy. A 16 and 17 year old had sex in Dubai, both from the UK where it is legal. He got locked up when her mum reported it. It'll just create criminal records for young folk and you know it'll not be enforced with white youths. Just another way to swell the prison population.
US are weirdly prudish when it comes to sex yet award ceremonies and the young are watching the celebs walk in in see through clothes. Truly baffling to outside observers.
And also Americans are prudish if Jane Jackson shows a tit but are happy exposing children to militarism so they can die twenty years later.
Pretty progressive I guess, no abortion before birth but instead it's at the 76th trimester.