Joy as sexual consent remains at 18 years! After a motion was set in 2019 to lower the consent age to 16 years, a surge to have consent age reduced to 16 years was that more underage children were involved in the sexual act among fellow underage counterparts and some with adults.
Ministry of Labor and Social Protection and National Gender and Equality Commission stated on 17th on March 2021 packed up with research justifying why the consent age will remain at 18 years.
Mental and physical health were the prevailing reasons given, stating that a child sexually exposed at a young age will have severe mental and physical health issues that may affect them for a lifetime.
Citizens backed this statement, capturing that those fighting for the consent date reduced adults taking advantage of the young girls and boys.
The ruling on the consent age is a big win to our organization, given that we have a goal to end sexual abuse and re-abuse . The organization has been offering counseling and support to sexually violated children since 2018. We believe that the recent ruling will help reduce the cases of sexual violence in the country.