Legal Age to Consent in Greece

With the passage of the Violent Crime Act in 2008, the age of consent in Canada was raised from 14 to 16. It was the first time since 1892 that the age had been raised. The law applies to all forms of sexual activity and was developed with the aim of scaring off online predators. The law provides for an exception of proximity of age. As a result, 14- and 15-year-olds can legally consent to someone under five years older than them, and 12- and 13-year-olds can consent to a partner if the partner is less than two years older than them. There must be no relationship of authority, dependency or exploitation of the younger person for consent to be valid. The Prevention and Suppression of Prostitution Act 1996 regulates gratuitous sexual activity with partners under the age of 18 and is often interpreted by local authorities to include sexual situations involving ordinary people rather than prostitutes. In addition, the Criminal Code (Amendment) Act 1997 made it illegal to commit an “indecent act” with a person under the age of 18, even if that person is a consenting participant. It`s also a “compound” crime, meaning charges can be laid months later if a partner (or parent) has regrets. As a result of these regulations, Thailand has a legal age of consent of 15, but an effective age of consent of 18. Thailand does not have an age-related exemption.

In almost all Australian territories, including the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, Victoria and Western Australia, the age of consent in Australia is 16. However, two Australian territories, Tasmania and South Australia, have raised the age of consent to 17. As in many countries, the age of consent increases to 18 if the oldest participant is in a position of care or authority (teacher, guardian, clergy, etc.) over the minor participant. Many jurisdictions have age-related exceptions that also vary by region. The age of sexual consent in the Czech Republic is 15 years. The age of consent is raised to 18 years in the case of deception or abuse of a recognized position of trust, authority or influence over the minor. The age of consent in Malta is 16. [72] Sexual activity – usually by persons over the age of 16 – with persons between the ages of 12 and 16 may be considered desecration of minors by obscene acts or corruption of a minor, which may result in conviction at the discretion of the prosecution and the courts, depending on the circumstances. The age of consent in Andorra is 14 years, as stipulated in article 147 of the Penal Code, which states: 1) “Anyone who performs a sexual act with a person under fourteen years of age. is punishable by imprisonment from three months to three years. Paragraph 2 stipulates that if the sexual act involves sexual penetration, the penalty shall be three to ten years.

[5] Under the Criminal Law Amendment Act 2013, the age of consent in India is 18. People under the age of 17 cannot legally consent to sexual activity, which could lead to prosecution for rape. In 1892, the age of consent was 10, but it gradually increased over time to 18. The age of consent should be lowered to 16, as many police-reported cases of sexual assault involve people between the ages of 16 and 18 who engage in consensual sex but are reported by disapproving parents. Since 2001, the age of consent in Albania has been 14 years, regardless of gender and sexual orientation. However, in the case of a girl, sexual intercourse is illegal if she is over 14 years of age but has not yet reached the “sexual maturity” provided for in article 100 of the Criminal Code. [4] After German reunification, Article 149 remained in force for the territory of the former GDR in accordance with the 1990 Unification Treaty, in West Germany, Articles 175 and 182 were no longer published. The West German legislator also saw the need for sexual and gender neutrality as well as the rebalancing of sexual self-determination with the protection of minors. In the subsequent reform of 1994, the minimum age of 14 years was maintained for the whole of Germany and, on the basis of the legal traditions of both States, sexual acts of a person over 21 years of age with a minor under 16 years of age, which take advantage of the minor`s individual inability to dispose of himself sexually, were criminalized in new paragraph 182. Section 175 has been abolished. In principle, the obligation to report defects was maintained under the old West German law, but in the case of a particular public interest, the crime was punished ex officio, as had been the case under GDR law.

[39] The age of consent in Iceland is 15 years, as stipulated in Article 202 of the Icelandic Criminal Code, which states: “Anyone who engages in carnal sexual intercourse or other sexual intercourse with a child under the age of 15 shall be punished by imprisonment for a term of not less than 1 year and not more than 15 years.” [43] [44] Male homosexual acts were legalized in Denmark (lesbianism was never illegal) with an age of consent of 18, after a comprehensive reform of the penal code in 1930; At the same time, the age of consent to heterosexual acts has been raised from 12 to 15. In 1976, the age of consent for all acts was harmonized at 15. Sexual intercourse with a child under the age of 12 is punishable by double punishment, and sexual intercourse with a minor under the age of 18 is illegal for a person responsible for the child. The age of consent in Italy is 14, with a close exception to the age that allows people aged 13 to engage in sexual activity with partners under the age of 18, provided the age difference between them is less than 3 years. The age of consent increases to 16 if one of the participants has influence over the other (for example, a natural or adoptive parent, teacher, guardian, etc.). Not knowing that the victim is a minor is not a legal defense, unless it is an inevitable ignorance. If the minor concerned is under 11 years of age, the offence may be punished even without denunciation and the penalty will be increased. It is also illegal to engage in sexual acts in the presence of a minor under the age of 14 so that the minor can witness them even if they are not actively participating in them. [61] Until 1993, male homosexual acts were prohibited under Article 1221 of the Lithuanian Criminal Code, which was repealed that year. The new law sets an age of consent of 17 for male oral and sex, 16 for other male homosexual acts, and 14 for lesbian and heterosexual acts. In 2004, the law was amended to bring the age of consent for all sexual acts to 14 years; The age of consent was raised to 16 in 2010, regardless of gender and sexual orientation.

[70] The age of consent in Mexico is 17. However, each of Mexico`s 20 territories also has its own age of consent laws, with minimum consent ranging from 14 in Tlaxcala to 18 in many regions. Mexico does not have an exemption for consent to the completion of old age. This means that two people under the age of 17 who voluntarily engage in sexual activity will both be prosecuted for rape. This also applies if one of the partners is 16 years old and the other is 17 years old. Before 2014, sodomy was illegal, the age of consent was reserved for women, and sexual contact with a woman between the ages of 13 and 16 was a crime. Since 2014, the age of consent has been set at 16 for both men and women, sexual contact with any child under the age of 16, regardless of gender, is a crime, and the ban on sodomy has been lifted, legalizing same-sex relations. [17] Until 1992, male homosexual acts were illegal under Article 124.1 of the Latvian Criminal Code. This provision was repealed by the Latvian Parliament in 1992 and the age of consent for male homosexual acts was set at 18 years.

In 1998, the Latvian Parliament adopted a new Criminal Code containing a complex system of sexual offences: the age of consent for all sexual acts, except vaginal intercourse, was 14 years; For vaginal sex, there were 16 (with a near-age exemption that allowed 14- and 15-year-olds to have sex with someone under 18). In 2001, the law was amended to clarify the situation and confirm that the age of consent for all acts was 16 (only a person aged 18 and over can be punished for having sexual intercourse with a young person between the ages of 14 and 15). In 2002, under pressure from the EU,[15] Parliament finally scrapped the various provisions and changed the age of consent for heterosexual and homosexual acts to 17 under the revised Penal Code. [16] According to Chapter 6 of the Swedish Penal Code, the age of consent in Sweden is 15 years and is 18 years if the potential perpetrator is a parent or holds another position of power or trust over the minor (teacher, clergyman, foster parents, coaches, etc.). Sweden has an age limit law that can exempt those who have sexual contact with a partner under the age of 15, but who are not themselves more than three years older than that partner. Unusually, the Age of Consent Act applies in Sweden even if the sexual act in question took place outside Sweden, but the perpetrator subsequently travelled to Sweden. In the wording of the law, there is no discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. However, discrimination may result from selective application on a case-by-case basis. “This may therefore lead to a higher incidence of cases where the minor and the offender are of the same sex, as there may be parents who would not prosecute if their 17-year-old child has sexual relations with another person of the opposite sex, but would do so if the person is of the same sex.” [74] The age of consent for heterosexual acts in England was set at 12 in 1275 during the reign of Edward I.