Rejected petition Change the sexual age-of-consent laws to protect sixteen and seventeen year-olds

Present laws are open to predatory people seeking to groom much younger people for sex. A staggered age-of-consent system that allowed young people to engage in sex with those of a similar age, whilst preventing older people from sex with 16 & 17 year-olds, would help prevent abuse.

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Now it is legal for someone of any age to engage in sexual activity with a sixteen-year-old. This leaves the door open for what is effectively legal grooming of young people, which can cause long-term psychological harm.

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 the following petition, which calls for a similar action:

Make it illegal for people over 21 to have sexual intercourse with under 18s:
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/644607

We only reject petitions that don’t meet the petition standards.

Date submitted 20 September 2023
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