Rejected petition: Introduce age-gap protections for 16–17-year-olds
Rejected on
In addition to protecting those under 16, the law should introduce age-gap protections for 16–17-year-olds, allowing close-in-age relationships while preventing significantly older adults from being involved with teenagers.
While the age of consent is 16, there are still risks of power imbalance, influence, and vulnerability when there are large age gaps. Current laws only cover specific situations like positions of trust, leaving a gap in protection. Clear age-gap rules would better safeguard young people while still allowing normal relationships between people of similar ages.
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 petitions, which call for similar action:
Raise the age of consent to 18 with peer exception for 16-17 year olds
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/767458Amend age-of-consent laws to protect those under 21
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/747372Review and revise age of consent in light of advances in science
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/760215Increase the age of consent to 20 with exceptions for young people 16-19
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/768292We only reject petitions that don’t meet the petition standards.