I ran across Glenn’s blog (Hi! I’m Black!) while browsing through blogs featured in one of the Truth Laid Bear’s new blog showcases. The first entry that caught my eye was about Japan’s “image clubs” and mentioned the age of consent there — just 12! I thought only the Netherlands had it so low; now I know that even in the pleasantly liberal Low Lands the law is not that simple. A few entries later, Glenn provides a link to Age of Consent, a collection of resources on the subject.
I don’t know how accurate the summaries at Age of Consent really are, but I think they got a few things wrong in their interpretation of relevant Russian laws. The age of consent in Russia is 14, although it is not unlikely that the Duma will raise it to 16. The legal meaning of this benchmark is this: it is illegal for a person over 18 to have sex with a person under 14. Period. A 16-y.o.+13-y.o. combination is not mentioned. It makes sense, since the ugliest cases are those where there is significant asymmetry in bargaining power between the two “partners”, which is, as a rule, closely correlated with age disparity.
Those deputies who stand for raising the age of consent explain it by the need to battle child porn. Doesn’t seem a valid explanation to me.