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Rejected petition Change the law relating to the grooming of children and the age of consent.
Implement a law to limit the age of consent to within 24 months of a minor's age to ensure that they are not taken advantage of by someone older who may coerce consent.
Abusers can groom a child for years and use the defence that they waited until the child was 16 before engaging in sexual activity
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This will allow prosecution of those who ‘groom and wait’ for victims to reach the age of consent.
Often it is a family friend trusted by the parents, who had access to the child from as early as an infant. They can admit to this behaviour and it is acceptable in the eyes of the law.
This activity affects many young people and the law must be changed to ensure it is illegal grooming behaviour. It is an abuse of trust and conducted to knowingly circumvent the law on sexual activity with children.
This petition was rejected
Why was this petition rejected?
There’s already a petition about this issue. We cannot accept a new petition when we already have one about a very similar issue.
You are more likely to get action on this issue if you sign and share a single petition.
You may wish to sign this petition which calls for a similar action: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/599262
We only reject petitions that don’t meet the petition standards.