Florida age of consent is 18 but lower in over half of states
If Alaska passes into law two bills that would raise the age of consent in Alaska from 16 to 18, it would be the 13th state to do so. That would leave 37 states with an age of consent that is under 18 years.
There are people in Florida who have been placed on the sex offense registry for life because they had a consensual sexual relationship with a 17-year-old. If the relationship had occurred in Georgia, New York, or many other states, these people would not have been charged with a felony, would not have had a sentence to serve, could vote, could hold any type of license they earned, would not be placed on a public list for people to shame or physically abuse them, and the list goes on and on.
Florida Statute 794.05(1), Unlawful Sexual Activity with Certain Minors, makes it a Second-Degree Felony for a person 24 years of age or older to engage in sexual activity with a person 16 or 17 years of age. (There is an exception for emancipated minors who are 16 or 17, to whom the law does not apply.)
Thus, it is legal for a 16-, 17-, 18-, 19-, 20-, 21-, 22-, or 23-year-old to engage in consensual sexual activity with another person who is 16 or 17. It is a Second-Degree Felony for a person 24 or older to do so.
In effect, Florida has two ages of consent: 16 for people 16-23 years of age and 18 for everyone else.
Individual states’ rights are important but not if they can destroy one’s life goals in one state while not being considered a crime in OVER HALF the other states.
As applied to CP, a sexual relationship can happen legally between persons aged 23 and 16 or 17, but the commit multiple felonies if the take nude pictures of each other or video record their sexual interactions. In fact, the feds can (and do) prosecute people for possessing “child pornography” without even having to prove the person in an image or video was an actual minor. In other states like Indiana, 16 is the age of consent. But don’t take a nude picture as that’s deemed production and possession of CP. These laws make no sense because they are based on emotion.
FAC does not in any way condone sexual activity between adults and children, nor does it condone any sexual activity that would break laws in any state. We do not advocate lowering the age of consent, and we have no affiliation with any group that does condone such activities.
That is the language needs to be repealed and deleted from the mission statement of any serious group in favor of sex offense reform.
The idea of treating the victims of Florida’s insane SOR laws while refusing to discuss, let alone condemn, the laws that SUPPLY the SOR with a constant and growing stream of victims is delusional. Shut off the faucet of victims first and we’ll have a lot more time to dedicate to those who remain stuck on the SOR.