France eyes setting age for sexual consent; 13 suggested

PARIS» A bill being prepared by the French government could set a minimum legal age for sexual consent for the first time, and the country’s justice minister said Monday that she thinks 13 years old could be a reasonable age.

Justice Minister Nicole Belloubet told France’s RTL radio network that age 13 was a “limit that is worth considering” for the upcoming legislation, but noted that judges should also have the ability to assess whether someone was old enough to give consent in individual situations.

“The question of the age below which the minor’s consent is presumed not to exist is crucial, because there are obviously extremely shocking and unacceptable situations,” Belloubet said.

One of her colleagues in the French government has said a minimum age for sexual consent has not been set for the bill. Marlene Schiappa, a junior minister for gender equality, said Sunday that the cutoff could be between the ages of 13 and 15.

“Below a certain age, it is considered that there can be no debate on the sexual consent of a child, and that any child below a certain age would automatically be considered to be raped or sexually assaulted,” Schiappa said on BFM TV.

Two recent court cases have heightened the debate over who is old enough to consent to sex under French law.

A jury last week acquitted a 30-year-old man who was accused of raping an 11year-old girl in 2009, French media reported. The jury in the Paris suburb region of Seine-et-Marne found that while there had been a sexual relationship between the girl and the man, it did not constitute rape according to the legal definition of the crime in France.

A minimum age of sexual consent does not currently exist in French law. The law only says that an adult who performs a sexual act with a person under the age of 15 “without violence, coercion, threat or surprise” can be prosecuted for “sexual abuse,” not rape.