Dear Editor,

We write in response to a recent Jamaica Observer online article published on July 19 as a report of the Children’s Advocate Diahann Gordon Harrison’s interview on the Love 101 radio programme Good Morning Minister in which she opined that the age of sexual consent in Jamaica should be raised to 18 years.

We truly empathise with our children’s advocate’s passion and commitment to protect our children and adolescents from what is undoubtably abusive and predatory behaviour by some adults and are in full agreement that there is an urgent need for more action on these matters.

We recommend caution, however, regarding increasing the age of consent to 18 years. It may be useful to examine the experience of other countries that have increased the age of consent to 18. The actual experience of Caribbean countries such as Trinidad and Tobago, Antigua, and others that have taken this path may offer useful examples of why caution is advisable.

Criminalising older teenagers and young adults in their early 20s, for example, who are having consensual sexual relations with a teenager over 16 and under 18 years is a serious possibility under such a law. Would this be just? The criminalisation of innocent young people whose life trajectory would be hampered and undermined by having a criminal record is something to consider. Difficulty in getting visas to travel to take up scholarships to universities in other countries, finding employment, and opening bank accounts are just some of the potentially negative, unintended consequences. The law should be for protection from predatory individuals not criminalisation of normal developmental behaviour.

This proposed change may engender fear among young people whose intimate relations may make them vulnerable to prosecution. This can lead to them avoiding critical health services because they fear such behaviour would become known in the process of accessing the services. This barrier to health care may be further exacerbated as young sexually active individuals under the age of 18 would also not be able to access family planning and sexual health services without parental consent. This is already a major barrier to those under 16 years. This law would only extend this barrier to care for 16- and 17-year-olds, who now have access.

It should be noted here that some countries have included clauses in the 18-year-old consent law to allow for sexual partners of similar age to legally engage in intimate relations. Unfortunately, in practice, this appears to offer rather cold comfort as the consequence of anxiety and fear re running afoul of the law persists, leading to barriers to accessing health-care services as discussed above.

The available data already shows that young people are having sex, most of which is consensual sex. They urgently need access to family planning and sexual health services which are vital for reducing teen pregnancies and prevention and treatment of sexually transmitted infections. A consent age of 18 only raises the barriers to such services for older teens who are more likely to be having sex. Indeed, Jamaica having the third-highest rate of teen pregnancy in Latin America and the Caribbean certainly underlines the need for further urgent action; however, increasing the age of consent to 18 may not offer a viable solution as the Dominican Republic example illustrates.

Teens 16 and over who now have access to these services would lose this access, and those who are poor and living in rural and hard-to-reach areas would, by definition, be at an even greater disadvantage in accessing badly needed free family planning and sexual health services now available under the current law on age of consent.

While we fully endorse the impetus to find viable strategies to reduce the sexual abuse and exploitation of our young, we need to robustly examine the consequences of proposed actions as they may not yield the benefits we seek, and may set us back in the efforts to ensure the health and well-being of our youth.

The age of sexual consent is the age at which adolescents are assessed to be able to make competent, informed decisions regarding having sex. It is not encouragement to start having sex or for others to think that it is now legally safe to approach a young person for sex.

Dr Abigail Harrison

President, Caribbean Association for Adolescent Health

Consultant paediatrician and adolescent medicine specialist

abigailnhk@hotmail.com