In Iran in 2010, for example, The Telegraph reported that as many as 42,000 children aged between ten and 14 were married, and 716 girls younger than ten had wed. In Jordan, 16-year-olds can consent to sex, while in Iraq they must be 18. It is common for courts to grant permission for girls to marry below the legal age. This includes Afghanistan, Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Yemen. In many countries where sex outside of marriage is illegal, the minimum age of marriage is lower for women than for men. Middle East: Like parts of North Africa, most Middle Eastern countries do not have a set age of consent but require that the couple are married.
In India it is 18, while some strict Muslim countries such as Malaysia outlaw homosexual sex at any age. On mainland China the minimum age is 14, rising to 16 in Hong Kong. In all Australian territories, the age of consent is 16, except for in South Australia and Tasmania, where it is 17. In Japan the age of consent is low at 13, although some municipalities such as Tokyo prohibit sexual activity under 18 years old in most circumstances. Several states are in the process of introducing legislation to close these loopholes.Īsia and Oceania: Last year South Korea raised the age of consent from 13 to 16 “to strengthen protection for minors following accusations the existing law on sex crimes was too weak”, RTE reported. The Philippines has also faced calls to raise its age of consent from 12, with a bill currently passing through parliament to increase it to 16. Children as young as ten were among the almost 250,000 US minors who got married between 20, The Guardian reports. Roughly half of all US states allow children under the age of consent to get married with special permission, either from parents or from a court. In some states, a close-in-age exemption, commonly known as “Romeo and Juliet laws”, exists to decriminalise consensual sex between two individuals who are both under the age of consent, according to independent website. The US: Set on a state-by-state basis, the age of consent ranges from 16 to 18. In accordance with canon law all sex outside of marriage is illicit regardless of the age or willingness of those who engage in it, although the age at which a woman can marry is 14 compared to 16 for a man.
The Vatican is the only jurisdiction in Europe not to have equal and gender-neutral age limits. By contrast, the age of consent is much higher in Turkey, at 18. Children as young as 14 are considered able to consent to sex in Germany, Austria, Hungary, Italy and Portugal. So how does this compare with the rest of the world?Įurope: Spain previously had the lowest age of consent in Europe, but raised it from 13 to 16 in 2013, bringing it in line with the UK, Russia, the Netherlands, Norway, Finland and Belgium. In the UK, the age of consent stands at 16, regardless of gender or sexual orientation. Most countries prohibit sex with under-16s or under-18s, but in some places the age of consent is as low as 11, or as high as 20. However, even within counties this can vary widely between males and females and in cases of heterosexual and homosexual sex. Kentucky child marriage ban stalled by conservatives.France to set age of consent at 15 following rape outcry.