Children's rights victory!
Apr. 18th, 2006 09:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
asterrocMaybe others won't see it the same way, but I feel that a Kansas ruling that abortion clinic workers do NOT have to report consentual sex between minors is a great victory for the rights of the underaged. Children under age 12 I think would still be reported, and relations between those over and above the age of consent (16 in Kansas).
It's a tough issue though. I was a precocious child, and I've always felt that children did not have enough rights and autonomy under the law. But I'm also a teacher, and children are precious and fragile and it is my DUTY to protect them in any fashion I can, whether stepping in front of a bus, or discouraging underage sex. Of course, educating about safer sex is also an important way to protect children (and adults), but I haven't been in a situation where I would do so.
ETA: In this week's Savage Love, Dan Savage interviewed an FBI representative who said that if two under-age people filmed each other having sex, it counted as child pornography and was illegal. *sigh* Can't we have some consistency here, folks? (Okay okay, I'm sure the column was written before the CNN/AP article, and besides one is state and the other is Federal, and they're slightly different issues, but you get my point!)
It's a tough issue though. I was a precocious child, and I've always felt that children did not have enough rights and autonomy under the law. But I'm also a teacher, and children are precious and fragile and it is my DUTY to protect them in any fashion I can, whether stepping in front of a bus, or discouraging underage sex. Of course, educating about safer sex is also an important way to protect children (and adults), but I haven't been in a situation where I would do so.
ETA: In this week's Savage Love, Dan Savage interviewed an FBI representative who said that if two under-age people filmed each other having sex, it counted as child pornography and was illegal. *sigh* Can't we have some consistency here, folks? (Okay okay, I'm sure the column was written before the CNN/AP article, and besides one is state and the other is Federal, and they're slightly different issues, but you get my point!)
