So says a Daily Telegraph news item, reporting on a recent article in Journal of Clinical Nursing [1].  This brought to mind a programme from 2004 on Channel 4 (nicate?) called Sex Before 16: How the Law Is Failing,  in which the journalist Miranda Sawyer argued that the age of consent in the UK be reduced.  I still remember my reaction to this, particularly because I see science and religion bearing equally on the problem.

She presented two case studies, of which the first was a young couple who had "started it" at the ages of 15 and 14 and now were happy parents.  They seemed a very nice young family, and my reaction was "Good for them!  They're only getting on with what God told Adam and Eve to do."

The second case was of a young man who had been sexually active since the age of 12.  His only argument was a sullen "why should they stop me doing what I want to do?"  In any properly run primate society, he would have been quickly driven out by the senior males!

So there you have it. 

[1] Volume 17 Issue 22, Pages 2963 - 2971