It is either illiegal or it isn't IMHO how old the older person is shouldn't matter and so Roache does have a point. Your point about double checking is vaild however not everyone will say 'Look love I know you say you are 18 but have you go a driving licence on you proving that?'

I'm always tickled by this ID stuff: we mention driving licences as though it's somehow odd or wrong for someone not to drive. I've never had one, because I've never driven. I didn't have a passport until I was 36.

The whole idea of ID is a new one – as seems to be the idea that (gosh, whisper it quietly) teenagers having sex is somehow new.

Is there a distinction between teenagers having sex and anyone over the magic age of 20?

I ask since presumably everyone does know that the majority of teenagers have regular sexual liaisons from way under 16 and all those that involve sex, which is a lot, are technically rapes. Yet many of those posting on these boards did the same themselves when young, and I doubt any feel they did anything at all wrong, or non-consensual, or took advantage.

That is why it is a very difficult area for the law. It is a blunt instrument and has to have a date cut-off point but as Mintball points out, no miracle occurs at midnight on your 16th birthday and there are many ready for sex much earlier, just as there are immature ingenues of 20 or more years, it all depends on both personality and environment.

In the context of a club, though, I'm not sure I see the point. If you were in adults-only club and felt you had to ask a girl if she was 16, I'd suggest you might be a tad unwise to pursue that one. Not least because if she says she is (and is hardly going to say no she isn't) it will not help your defence.

There will always be girls in clubs who are under age but absolutely don't look it or behave it, and frankly unless the young men in the club aren't looking for any action then there is nothing they can do but take that risk, since demanding photo-ID would not often be a winning chat-up line, I would guess. So yes, I agree, in that type of situation you 've little choice but to take things at face value.

But is underage girls in clubs a big problem? I hadn't heard so. I'd speculate that many thousands do turn up and get it, but that the vast majority aren't looking to get laid. Plus, after a few minutes of conversation, unless an underage girl had worked out an extremely good cover story and was a good liar, shouldn't a guy work it out anyway?

Can I ask are you argueing my point as I can't quite tell Minty?
I used a driving licence as just an example.
I know teenagers are and were having sex

Teenagers having sex - surely not ( ha-ha ).

Can I just ask ... what is so wrong about being a dirty old man?
Does a bloke have to have a libido-ectomy when he reaches a certain age?
If so, what is the age at which this is supposed to occur?
Just for reference like.


n.b. This is not meant to defend anyone sh433ing underage girls.

Exactly.
My mate (51) who is presently in a relationship with somebody less than half his age isn't doing anything wrong.
She's better off with him, who looks after her, than some young d!ckhead her age who hasn't got a clue about fook all.
He's cool. He know's it might not last, but she isn't with him through sufferance.
She's involved with him because she wants to be.

It was meant more as a general observation, Anakin.

The point simply being that, to listen to some people and some (if not much) of the media, it's a new phenomenon, caused by 1) the permissive society; 2) the sexualisation of children; 3) sex edumacation in skools; 4) peer pressure ...

Take your pick.

This is what I was trying to raise earlier. But exactly. And the other way around, for that matter.