The government of France wants to set the age of sexual consent at 15 years and make punishing long-ago child sexual abuse easier.
Sexual abuse victims and child protection activists have been pushing hard for stricter laws and bigger societal recognition of the problem of sexual abuse so this new development has been embraced by them.
Having no age of consent in France have complicated efforts to prosecute perpetrators.
While talking about the development, the Ministry of Justice said systematic sexual abuse is “intolerable ” and added that “the government is determined to act quickly to implement the changes that our society expects.”
“An act of sexual penetration by an adult on a minor under 15 will be considered a rape,” Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti said recently on France-2 television.
He said offenders won’t be able to cite consent to diminish the charges but there would be exceptions for teenagers having consensual sex.
The change will have to be passed into law but the announcement is a step in the right direction.
Also, the Ministry said it wanted “to ensure that victims of the same perpetrator do not receive different legal treatment,” which could widen the scope of prosecuting those that were accused of abusing many people over decades.
