By Kate Hunter
I’m interested in your thoughts on these ads, designed to make blokes think before having sex with a girl who might be underage.
New Statutory Rape Awareness Campaign
These images were sourced from here.
When you work in an advertising agency, most briefs you get don’t matter very much. They’re for car insurance or ravioli or a great new home loan rate. Once or twice in a career, you might see one that gives you the chance to change someone’s behaviour. Life could be a teensy bit better for a person because of an ad you came up with. It’s an opportunity not to be missed – or messed up.
I think these ads messed up the opportunity. It’s a shame, because there was a great insight: Guys complain, ‘But girls these days look and dress so sexy, and so adult, how do we know? Should we ask for ID?’
Maybe. Yes. Or, if in doubt, don’t.
Through my ad-chick eyes, these ads are more about showing off fancy-schmancy Photoshop skills to come up with arresting images than changing behaviour.
Sure, they’ll grab attention, but they’re a bit like those cheesy birthday cards that say ‘SEX!’ on the front and ‘…now that I’ve got your attention, Happy Birthday.’
It’s easy to get guys to look – they’ve done that – but it’s much tougher to ask them to think.
I think these ads do only half the job.
What do you reckon?
Comments
108 Comments so far
IMO tobacco sales law should apply:
Legally you must ask for ID/ proof of age if they look under 25 years.
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Hi Kate
Your Ad Chick Eyes do not deceive you. These are not good ads. And I like to think I know good ads – having worked in Aust and NYC with some of the best teams in the world who have won more international awards for great ads than I’ve had hot dinners.
Pity someone at some stage of the process didn’t ‘get’ that this is indeed as you say, an opportunity squandered.
I agree also with the comment below – if the ad execs, creatives and clients all didn’t get how ineffective and just plain wrong these spots were, pity the parents of the kids’ being included didn’t put the kybosh on the idea.
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Oh, ICK. just… ICK. And then, to add insult to – um – insult, we get: “Just because she has the body, doesn’t mean she has the brain.” What the idiots who came up with this meant, I think, was “Just because she has the body, doesn’t mean she has the maturity.” The line as it stands is a misogynist’s delight! [shakes head in utter disbelief]
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These ads are disturbing, especially when I have a 7 year old girl.
Wouldn’t it have been better to have actual 13 or 14 years olds dolled up as if they were 18 or 19? Gosh, some of the Year 8s are taller than me already and a few are very developed at 13.
What is even more shocking is that some 13 and 14 year old children (yes, children) have boyfriends! Whilst some of it is handholding and kissing, some are far more advanced in their relationship. This scares the hell out of me.
You can add these images to your ‘When Photoshop goes wrong’ file.
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These ads seems to confuse two issues. By having the faces of very young girls it seems to target paedophiles, but don’t they usually like children partly because they are undeveloped? But the ads are actually targeting sex with underage girls (statutory rape in many US states).
I googled these ads because I wanted more perspective on them (your link to 9gag doesn’t provide any perspective at all – apart from smart-arse teenagers talking about masturbating to the images). I found a page at the osocio blog where they put these ads into some context. Apparently they were used for a short while in Milwaukee (apparently their rate of teen pregnancies fathered by men aged over 20 is very high). I think the ads miss their intended target.
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Good men don’t ever, ever, think of having sex with a child. Good men don’t think about it and discount it, they simply don’t think it. Regardless of how the kid is dressed, it is possible to tell if a kid could be underage just through talking to them.
Good men don’t do it.
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this ad is quite confusing…
men who are into children and under-age girls are often attracted by their innocent features and undeveloped bodies so is this meant to be a turn-off?
…perhaps they should’ve had a girl with heavily made-up face and wild hair in one photo and the same child, ala natural, playing with dolls in the second
…no that wouldn’t work either because pedies might get off on them too
surely that’s motivation for a better campaign
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Once knew a girl for a long time, supposedly 19, Drivers license, Medicare, Bank accounts = all faked. Everyone around us thought she was 19. The cops that pulled her over and cautioned her for running an amber light thought the ID was legal. Her doctor, prescribing the pill, thought she was 19. She was in a defacto with a 22 year old, and when the truth came out he freaked, we freaked. She was 14. Had she complained he WOULD have gone to jail and been registered as a pedo. How do you tell how old someone is when lots of kids have fake ID’s?
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That is extreme?? A runaway..how could this have happened?
Scariest thing is that there is never any stopping her deciding to take this further and your friend could still very well be in trouble.
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Totally Photoshopped. Totally Wrong. The whole message is lost in the cleaveage. Sad!
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I was doing some random googling yesterday (unfortunately I can’t find the exact link) but according to the commonwealth law it is also statutory rape if the person in question *looks* like they’re under 18. She might legally be 23 but apparently you can still be charged cause she looks younger. There’s something else to consider. Lets not even start on what can happen if you have (even consensual) sex with someone with disabilities. (long story)
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Really? I don’t think this can be true. I’m baby faced but legal and I doubt that makes it an offence when I’m willing just because I might pass for 15…
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I really don’t think that is correct at all.
In Australia, criminal law is administered through a jurisdictional basis – so in NSW, it is NSW law, in Victoria it is Victorian criminal law etc etc.
There are a few crimes that are reserved for federal criminal law, but those relate to issues of national security, or human rights.
I don’t see how it would make sense to prosecute someone for sexual assault based on the other person’s appearance if they are both over the age of consent. That is just madness. What on earth would that law achieve?
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i don’t think that is right at all..
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The message here is repugnant because the faces are so obviously childlike.
The problem in that some young girls look so much older than they are and not childlike at all.
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Hi kate, You are an ad creator, I’d love to hear your ideas on how to deliver this important message. The girls do look photoshopped, but it is also very possible to be a very busty, very small waisted teenager. Seeing these ads reminded me that really young girls can be fully developed (physically). I should know, I was a D cup at 13 – with pig tails. The ads definitely shocked me, I’m sure they’d shock a lot of blokes I know. They got me thinking. I don’t love them, but I don’t hate them as much as your other readers. Young girls can and often do look like 18 year olds. I reckon these ads could make men think twice, make them double take…which I assume is the goal. I agree with many of your readers that young boys should be considered too. I also agree that they look creepy, until I recall that I was a baby faced early teen with a woman’s body.
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The problem I have with the adds is that the written part – which is the IMPORTANT part of the ad and contains the message needing to be conveyed – it doesn’t stand out enough and when it comes to guys and sex or perving, they ain’t looking at the writing …. they’re looking ONLY at the girl. I’d be surprised if they even registered there was something actually written on these pictures. Just my 10 cents!
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Wow.
What a stupid idea.
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My first thought when seeing these ads?
These kids must have parents. Who the hell consents to their child’s picture being distorted in such a disgusting fashion?????
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I find these ads awful, awful, awful. And counter-intuitive to the message they are trying to get across. Why juxtapose a young girl’s face onto a grown woman flashing cleavage?
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Those images are pathetic and miss the mark entirely but I love how most assume it’s just men in their 40s or something that do this to young girls. Fact of the matter is that it is extremely difficult at times to tell a girl’s age, particularly if they’ve got the attitude of an older girl, let alone the body. Put a 19 or 20 year-old boy in a room with a dolled-up 15 year-old who is probably somewhere she shouldn’t be and I’d warrant that he’d not be able to tell the age difference because she is close enough to him in age that it probably isn’t very apparent. God knows I went to enough parties and saw it happen myself in my youth. Anyway… as it applies to Australian law, we don’t have statutory rape as such. When I doing legal studies it was fine for two minors to have sex if the age gap was two years or less but it became illegal once the older party was officially considered an adult (18), it’s probably all changed now, though.
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I honestly feel disgusted and creeped out just viewing these ads. I don’t want to see children’s faces attached to fully developed bodies! I feel like some creepy freak just by viewing these ads. Gross.
14, 15 year old girls may not have a brain that is fully developed as an adults, but their brain is defiantly more developed than a 6 or 8 year old, and guys know this- this ad completely missed the mark and turned an issue that needed addressing into something disgusting.
I also find it interesting that the ads don’t acknowledge that boys can be underage too. It’s always the girls who are the victims. (Yep, I’m a female saying this).
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I am quoting Matthew McConaughey here – yes Matthew McConaughey. It is one of the best points about consent I have ever read, and something which I will teach to my sons:
“ Respect women. It was always Pop talking about respecting a woman. My father said something like, ‘Look, you’re coming of an age where you’re going to start to have different kinds of feelings towards women, and you’re going to have certain desires. Any sort of action you take in intimacy needs to be reciprocated. When you are with a woman, if she even hesitates for a split second, stop, respect her impulses. Don’t go any further. Don’t ask. Leave it totally alone. After you stop, the woman might say, ‘Let’s go ahead,’ but then you don’t. Don’t go back there that night. Leave it absolutely alone. Don’t be in a rush. Chances are she’s going to want you to come back. But absolutely respect the woman. And, in doing that, you respect yourself.’ ”
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these should be banned immediately! maybe there will be a petition soon. this is “legitimate” kiddie porn. i want to vomit
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I had a career in advertising (Media Manager) and market research before I had my first child. Then I promptly dumped it and a good thing too. When I was out of it, I had a dream to start an ETHICAL advertising agency of my own and never did. I wish somebody would. Very talented people made these ads. They will hit their target market for sure but the focus of these very talented people is perverse.
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creepiest f*ing thing Ive ever seen…
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I find these ads disturbing (and not in a good way), and ineffective. They do not make me think, they do not make me consider behaviors, they just make me cringe at their grossness.
I’m about to say something and before I do, I want to explain that this thought comes from reading a lot of classic literature in the last couple of months, set in a time when it was normal for 16 year old girls to be ‘out’ in society and married/engaged, and I realise that this appears a blanket statement and I know not all kids are the same (now OR then), but here it is:
When did 16 become so very, very young? Why are children so naive these days? What made things change?
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Education, studies into the brain and it’s development, research into the harm underage sex causes, these things culminate into our understanding that children under 16 are not capable of understanding and consenting to sex.
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Which explains the science, but not the maturity levels.
16 is not that far from 18. Why are kids growing up so slow. And how are they meant to adjust to sudden adulthood when they are 18 and “legally” an adult?
I realise I’m a little off-topic here as I don’t mean just when it comes to sex, but I find 16 year olds these days really, really… well, stupid. (IQ and EQ alike).
In saying this, I must admit, I am comparing them to 16 year olds as described in novels from Regency etc periods, but also to teens in other cultures, specifically various Asian cultures and Italy where I find teens to be a lot more savvy about life in general than they are over here and in other western countries (UK, US specifically).
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As a fellow Ad-chick, I agree. Bad ads just showing off fancy schmancy studio skills.
What about the horrible sexualisation – all the ads using 14 year old girls dressed as adults in provocative clothes/poses. It’s not related to these ads but makes a tricky contrast.
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I’m bothered that we need these ads in the first place, quite frankly. Even accepting that we do, there’s not a whole lot that’s right about this set of ads. There’s something really off about them and judging by the comments on the link from whence they came, they seem to be encouraging men of ‘that ilk’ more than deterring them.
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I also went to the link and had to stop reading – some of the comments were truely digusting
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Agree. Went to the link. Some of the comments were sickening.
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Completely agree. My exact sentiments.
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‘It’s easy to get the guys to look. It’s much harder to get them to think.’
Imagine the outrage if that was implied about women?
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I take your point, but I don’t think this implies anything about men, but instead that this is shock advertising at its worst – grabs your attention, but is not at all thought provoking.
I personally have more of a problem that its presumed that ‘guys’ and not ‘pedophiles’ are the target market.
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Yeah, it’s directed at guys. Of course it is designed to get them to look!
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Maybe teach your daughters the meaning of the word respect. Many of my girlfriends as young teenagers did not go around sleeping with boys, we had respect for ourselves and our bodies. We did not want to be labelled as sluts, we did not want boys to think of us as cheap. On the other hand there were girls who happily at 14 plus sleep with various boys, perform oral sex at parties with various other boys and generally act loosely. To think we dont know what we are doing in an excuse to teenagers.. As a teen all my circle of girlfriends knew a bad reputation was given it you put out at parties , swapped partners, and performed oral on various boys at parties. That was common sense.
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You’re right, girls who are sexually active with their peers deserve to be taken advantage of by older men.
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@ Ellie, girls need to be responsible for their behaviour. Simple common sense really.
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well said ellie…i mean the kid has big boobs…she’s asking for it right?
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it’s not so black and white. It’s true, girls should be encouraged to take responsibility and value themselves more (not an easy task due to the pressures put on them from the oversexualisation of today’s society – not to mention various other issues lots of children are trying to deal with such as disfunctional family trauma, etc).
However, just because someone is more “loose”, doesn’t mean they deserve to be taken advantage of. It is the girl acting loose that is often in most need of support from sensible caring adults, as this sort of behaviour is almost always linked to lack of self esteem and self worth.
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Laura I agree with you. Especially in this day and age of social media, internet and reality tv, teens know what behaviour to engage in and what the consequences of that behaviour will be. To claim they don’t know any better is an excuse just as you said.
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yeah but at least the guys reputation went through the roof, I mean – thats what matters right?
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Maybe we should stop teaching our daughters that slut shaming is okay.
It’s not.
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I find it interesting there’s so little distinction between sex with a minor type offences – say sleeping with someone 15/16/17 who is willing, but it’s wrong because there’s an unfair balance of power (think the allegations about the Elmo puppeteer and the 16 year old boy) and paedophilia – where it’s children rather than teenages in the situation and is incredibly serious abuse.
This feels like an ad targeted at the first group by using fear of the second group, making it feel really clunky.
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I said something to this effect too, but it would appear my message has not made it past moderation for some reason (a subsequent post on another topic has appeared). If this is the case, I do wish the moderation rules could be clearer, I think what I said was thought provoking but not offensive.
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Yes, I have very little to add on this topic but I will second the call for clearer posting rules, now that our posts are moderated. I have had at least two of my posts not make it past moderation, with no explanation given, even when I asked for one. An e-mail I sent to Mamamia asking for greater clarity with this system was also ignored.
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Hi Kitten and Fightofyourlife,
Just to lay a couple of things on the table re: moderation. With thousands of comments coming in every day and tens of thousands of spam comments (our filter works very very hard), we are unable to give conclusive answers on the status of every comment.
We trawl through our spam comments as best and as often as we can looking for stray legitimate comments but there are literally thousands of them per day and it’s very needle-haystack.
As for comments that don’t meet our guidelines and are knowingly unpublished, we are not able to let every commenter know our specific reasons. Suffice to say that we have a number of people moderating at different times over the course of the week and their interpretation of our guidelines will be slightly subjective. That’s because humans are doing it not robots!
We understand it can be frustrating when an occasional comment isn’t published and you don’t know why but we are doing our best to ensure that is very rare.
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Mia? Surely you jest?
Comments going into the bin instead of being posted rare on Mamamia?
I hate to say it but lost comments appears to be the modus operandi.
Are you sure you’re aware of the depth of the problem?
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Agree! It’s been terrible since the new comment rules
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Hi Mia,
I really, really like the pre-moderation and the new comment guidelines – they have made Mamamia a much more pleasant experience.
I have “lost” a few comments, but as I always try to be calm & respectful I have usually assumed they got caught by the spam filter. However, a few weeks ago ago I had a message edited by a moderator to take out a sentence (it contained the word cr*p) which really was a bit insulting.
Cheers,
Sharon
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I have also had a post edited by a moderator and that is something I’m confused about. I think there was some mild profanity in the edited out part (possibly c**p, like in Sharon’s post). But someone else’s post was published shortly after mine and it contained the word “s**t” and was skating much closer to breaking the “dinner party rule”. So what’s with that? We need clear and consistent guidelines and we need all moderators to follow them when approving/editing posts and right now, we just don’t have them.
And sorry Mia, I appreciate you responding but this sort of thing is unfortunately by no means rare. It has happened twice to me but I don’t post all that often. I see people complaining about it in comments all the time.
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Why are we in Australia even talking about statutory rape? Statutory rape is a US law/s concerning consentual sex with a minor (usually female minor)
IT doesn’t exist here and everyone is speaking as if it does.
Perhaps we should be talking about the Australian concept of sex with a minor and the relevent offences.
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Isn’t it known as ‘carnal knowledge’ in Australia, sex with a girl under 16, not sure if the age for male teens is the same or different? Is statutory rape in America really consensual, legally speaking? I would have thought the term rape meant rape, i.e. no consent.
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the NSW Crimes Act has no mention of ‘carnal knowledge’. I think the QLD Crimes Act does? (can someone confirm? I’ve only studied NSW law)
It applies regardless of whether you’re a male or female under the age of 16.
I think that’s the point of it being “statutory” rape, in that it’s not really “rape” as in non-consensual sex. It’s merely a “statutory” invention.
Fun fact: Rape is referred to as “sexual assault” in the NSW Crimes Act, not “rape” per say.
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I think these ads are poorly done. And you’re right, a real opportunity has been missed here. The pictures are just all wrong and so is the wording… I don’t work in advertising but even I think that these look like they are just ideas being tossed around with alot more work and fine tuning to be done.
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So if the girl is 18 and has her tits out, it’s OK to rape her? That’s what I got from those ads.
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The ads have nothing to do with rape.
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Err, yes they have – did you miss completely where sex with an underage child is rape because they can’t legally consent?
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Err, no !
Statutory rape in the US means that it is illegal to engage in consentual sex with a person under a particular age, depending upon which state you live in. Key word…..consentual.
Rape is rape. An act of violence and brutality. The ads clearly advise the reader to consider the fact that just because the female looks old enough, it doesn’t mean that she is.
No one, which even half a brain, could possibly consider that a child who resembles a child is ready for sexual relations.
The ads, from my view, are aimed at the teen and young adult market.
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Can I just add from a medical context of “consent”; even if the individual in question agrees to a procedure, their consent is not valid unless it is informed and knowledgeable. If not given appropriate information of possible outcomes, complications etc beforehand, their “yes” response is NOT valid consent. Same principle for statutory rape; regardless of the minor’s age or response to a sexual advance (or level of enjoyment, for that matter), it is still rape. Developmental psychology and neuroscience has told us that children in essence are both emotionally and cognitively unable to comprehend perceived outcomes ahead of time. Yes it is a generalisation across a number of ages and levels of maturity, but it is there to protect ALL children. If we start to bend the rules where sex with “mature” 15/16 year olds becomes acceptable, the ‘line’ will over time be drawn further and further towards our very young children. Give an inch…..
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…here’s some waiting music while you think about what you just typed Bradley: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_s90dZHBgsE
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Yes. The song is about a male who did ten years for engaging in underage sex and who is now making sure that he doesn’t end up back inside for doing the wrong thing twice, thus asking “are you old enough”.
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Bradley, rape is not only an act of violence and brutality. It can also be an act of coercion.
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OK. I take your point on that.
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The entire ad is about statutory rape..
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I can’t get past how weird those girls look. Haven’t stopped to consider the message at all.
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Copywriter and Gruen chick Dee Madigan (@deemadigan) just showed me this ad – much better, I think – what do you reckon?
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I think the two ads appeal to completely different people. The busty ads up top are telling men to think with their upstairs brain first – and personally I think they’ll work for many people because they invoke the “ick” factor.
The one that Dee found is speaking to young girls, primarly to deter them from being taken advantage of by their ‘prince’. I’m sure they’ll promote some interesting discussions between groups of girls.
I could be wrong, but that’s how it appears to me!
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SometimesKaren, you came back! When did this happen? People were commenting recently that they have been missing you. Hope all’s well
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my concern with this ad is that young girls will see a fun/young picture in purple colour and pretty font and see the word Rape in there and associate rape as something half acceptable…
this ad requires the viewer to have an awareness of rape and how terribly wrong it is.
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They are utter crap, designed purely to win awards (I hope they don’t). I’d be surprised if they even ran. A much better campaign was done by UNited Way which portrays a young girl covered in rats and another enveloped by a snake, asking, “What kind of man preys on underage girls?”
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I think that the posters would be more effective if the faces attached to the boobs weren’t those of five year old little girls.
We all know that there are 14, 15 and 16 year old girls out there who possess these physical attributes…..
Perhaps the posters should have featured the 14, 15 & 16 year old faces attached to the bodies with the message asking the question along the lines “Is She Old Enough ? If you don’t know for sure….then STOP what you’re doing”.
The posters as they are, are pretty disturbing and I can imagine would be delighting a few hundred thousand sicko’s.
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Hi Bradley,
I love this comment & I just wanted to say that I think you may have been misunderstood on some of your other comments here – I hope I’m right
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Hey Sharoncello. You are completely correct with your assumption. Many of the comments made after the one above have fallen victim to the spin of the individual reader.
I appreciate your support. Many thanks.
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“Just because she has the body, doesn’t mean she has the brain.” WTF? What the hell kind of ad is that?! As a woman AND an advertising copywriter, I want to slap whoever wrote and approved that line. These ads are terrible. Talk about a missed opportunity. If anything, they are creepy and demeaning and do nothing to solve the problem. Taking a wild stab in the dark, I think a man wrote them.
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I agree that they missed the mark. The message is actually a bit too pale to read in the background. Foregrounding it and using the right punctuation would have made more of an impact, for a start. ‘Just because she has the body doesn’t mean she has the brain’ is also poorly worded, in my opinion.
Perhaps: “It’s not about whether she LOOKS old enough” or “My body is NOT a measure of my maturity”. Actually, I like the idea of the message coming from the girl, it’s more empowering. What about “I’m NOT your plaything.”
I also think the idea of: cleavage showing = ready for sex is pretty shoddy. I suppose having the girls’ bodies in lingerie and heels would have been too shocking, but at least it doesn’t make a woman feel like she’s advertising herself as open for business just because she has an ample chest.
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You know what , lets stop just blaming the boys here. Girls underage should not being having sex. They have a brain, they know they should be not partaking in this behaviour until they are legal. There should be advertisements to make young girls think of the consequences of their actions. Reputations are at risk, pregnancy and std’s. Emotionally scarred. Girls earn a good reputation in life and dont be loose with your morals. Amen
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yes good idea, lets blame the children and not the adults in these situations.
if only those young girls had morals then those silly men wouldn’t get themselves in these situations.
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Bless you R, for putting that much better and much more politely than I was about to….
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So, after reading the comments, it seems that if a 15/16 year old female who looks old enough to consent, approaches a male and starts to flirt with him, touch him provocatively and offer herself to him, and he accepts, then it’s still the males fault? Legally, I know it’s statutory rape, but shouldn’t both parties accept responsibility? If she’s old enough to go out and flirt and offer herself, then she’s old enough to consent.
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The message is clear. Don’t make the offer if you don’t wan’t the offer to be accepted !
Many males won’t accept the offer but many will.
Takes two, if you what I mean.
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Bradley, if a 12, 13, 14 year old is “making the offer”, it’s because they’re a disturbed CHILD, not a woman capable of deciding whether she wants to have sex or not. That’s why we have an age of consent. And if a man takes them up on their “offer”, he’s committing a crime, whether the girl said yes or not – she’s not capable of consenting, because she’s ONLY A CHILD.
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It takes two, except one has the brain and reasoning of a child, with little experience of the world or the consequences of their actions. The other is an adult who should have knowledge and experience to understand the consequences of their actions. There may be two people involved but they are not equal in their responsibilities.
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when one is a child the whole ‘it takes two’ thing doesn’t really apply.
teach your boys to be decent men is the take home message here.
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How about we ALL teach our CHILDREN to be decent ?
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how about shoot the parents for messing up their child enough to want to have sex with a grown man?
how about we ban pop culture for making young girls want to gyrate like Lady Gaga?
how about we all have good morals.
if only there was a simple solution.
perhaps people are looking in all the wrong places for happiness.
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It’s ok Bradley, I can see what you’re doing, I believe you are having a go at ‘Anonymous’ and his/her antiquated attitude. (That is what you were doing wasn’t it?!)
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OMG Bradley, that is disturbing beyond belief, I think you need to attend some education on consensual sex.
Anonymous, come out of the 1950′s
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OMG Bradley – is this your version of ‘cats and meat’ ?!
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I’m sorry. But I really don’t understand what you mean.
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You must have been overseas or under a rock in Oct-Nov 2006. I’m referring to Sheikh Hilaly’s sermon in October 2006 concerning dress and rape:
“If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside on the street, or in the garden or in the park, or in the backyard without a cover, and the cats come and eat it … whose fault is it, the cats’ or the uncovered meat? The uncovered meat is the problem.
If she was in her room, in her home, in her hijab, no problem would have occurred.”
He also said, “in the state of zina, the responsibility falls 90 per cent of the time on the woman. Why? Because she possesses the weapon of enticement (igraa).”
Hilaly later claimed that he had intended to suggest that “if a woman who shows herself off, she is to blame…but a man should be able to control himself.”
He also contended that his references to the prison sentence of Bilal Skaf, the leader of a group of Lebanese Australians who committed gang rapes in Sydney in 2000, in which he said that women would “sway suggestively” before men “and then you get a judge without mercy (rahma) and gives you 65 years”, were aimed at illustrating the need for harsh sanctions for rape.’
Bradley, just Google ‘uncovered meat cats’ and 3.8 million results will be found.
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Okay. I now get your gist.
No. This was not my cats and meat moment.
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I had no idea what the cats and meat thing was referring to either.
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Well if young teenager girls had respect they would not go around sleeping with boys and young men. It is not hard to say no. They need to be reminded that it is illegal to have sex underage. Lets stop just blaming males here.
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Spam? Or total effed up weirdo with no morals or ethics? hard to tell…
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Yep Leah, is it not brain surgery to grasp the consept really is it… Be respectful of your body. dont be loose with your morals. Amen
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Except this is exactly the message that is constantly shoved in their faces from the age of about 12 anyway – don’t worry, slut shaming is alive and well!
The fact of the matter is that in statutory rape, the ADULT in the situation has the responsibility to act like an ADULT. The CHILD in the situation is a CHILD. Yes, children have brains but they’re more impulsive, less stable, more emotionally- and hormonally-driven, and less able to control instinctive behaviour.
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Surely that cuts both ways and its not only an issue for young girls?!
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Ummmm, no. The reason that sex under the age of 16 is illegal is because these CHILDREN do not have the emotional capacity to make decisions relating to sex that take into account the consequences. They may think they do, they make act and dress in a way that suggests that they do, but underage children do not have the emotional maturity to decide these things for themselves. That it is why it is our job as adults to protect and guide them, not abuse and take advantage of them. That’s just one of the basic tenets of a civilised society!
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I agree with your intent but I also think society has some ridiculous view that “children” magically develop this emotional capacity of which you speak the moment 16 candles appear on their cake (and conversely that a 14 or 15 year old does not possess this capacity). It’s murky where to draw the line on this, outside the obvious realm of the law.
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In some countries the age of consent is younger than 16 (or doesn’t exist at all). I think our law in Australia protects more young women and men who aren’t “mature” enough to make that decision (ie it provides a bigger safety net than some other countries have), but if applied to individuals it will still fall one way or the other – because everyone is different.
Very few safety net laws actually hit right on the mark when looked at from an individual’s viewpoint.
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Umm…. I’m pretty sure that this law exists because young girls aren’t cognitively able to understand the risk/consequences. The prefrontal cortex is still developing. So I think that the ads are aimed at those whose prefrontal cortex is developed, and SHOULD know better.
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Hi Anonymous, I think it’s equally important for our boys to think of THEIR reputations: as decent men, as respectful people. Because they can have sex with a girl, doesn’t mean they should.
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Kate, how about….never take what isn’t offered, and just because it has been offered doesn’t mean that you have to accept.
If you are out to play the blame game, then let’s blame both genders.
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Offered? I find the use of the word repulsive in this situation, what does offered mean? Dressing provocatively? Being friendly? Young girls are being coerced, persuaded and even forced into having sex. This has nothing to do with a silly young girl flirting with a ‘vulnerable’ older man, if the girl is underage nothing is on offer FULLSTOP.
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Oh Bradley, unless somebody is walking up to another and saying ply me with alcohol, lines and flattery, make me feel special and then take advantage of my inexperience by having sex with me…nothing is being offered. And even then, wouldn’t a decent man think to himself, wait, what? Body, yes. Security, no. Obvious immaturity. Danger, danger, go back?
My partner assures me any decent man – that is, an adult male of age – should not regard a female or female body as public property or fire sale. There is so much commentary on what females wear,how they act, as if it presents a silver platter, yet you’d never hear the reverse side of the coin.
“Did you see his clingy skinny jeans and ridiculous muscle shirt? He is totally asking for it, he’s offering it up and waiting to be coerced and bullied based solely on how he appears and how friendly he is.”
I wonder why that is? Not.
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