Age of consent
Hong Kong government proposed to have a sex offender registry some months ago, mainly to keep a record of cases of high risk offenders. Records will only be checked by child-related institutions such as schools and child care centres. Employers can only obtain such information upon applicants' consent.
I didn't realise such registry was so powerful till I saw 20/20 last night. How come the US makes use of the registry in a wrong way. Its registry does not only include high risk offenders but also those teens who are reported to have sex with their girlfriends who are under the age of consent. The police makes home visits to your neighbours to warn them if you're listed in the registry. The public can also have access to the registry and know you're on the list but do not know what kinds of offences you committed. So logically they will assume you commited a crime like rape or molestation.
It is always a pro and con in certain systems like this one. It's not surprising to see teens to have intimate moves in their early ages. More and more people start to accept such fact. Sometimes I found it shocking to see girls to have abortion at the age of 16 or even 14. But it's a fact that teens get mature early, so it's totally silly for some of the states in the US stating the age of consent as late as 17 or 18. Most countries say 16. Parents may want to protect their children and are happy to see the legal protection with the age of consent. If you can recall, many of our parents are married so young and our grandparents are married even earlier, so is it right or wrong to impose the age of consent in the age of 16, 17 or 18? What if your own kid does offend the law and becomes an "offender"?
I don't have kids but if I were teens these days, I was probably not that innocent as I was before and was a lot more being influenced by movies, magazine articles and friends on such issue.
I didn't realise such registry was so powerful till I saw 20/20 last night. How come the US makes use of the registry in a wrong way. Its registry does not only include high risk offenders but also those teens who are reported to have sex with their girlfriends who are under the age of consent. The police makes home visits to your neighbours to warn them if you're listed in the registry. The public can also have access to the registry and know you're on the list but do not know what kinds of offences you committed. So logically they will assume you commited a crime like rape or molestation.
It is always a pro and con in certain systems like this one. It's not surprising to see teens to have intimate moves in their early ages. More and more people start to accept such fact. Sometimes I found it shocking to see girls to have abortion at the age of 16 or even 14. But it's a fact that teens get mature early, so it's totally silly for some of the states in the US stating the age of consent as late as 17 or 18. Most countries say 16. Parents may want to protect their children and are happy to see the legal protection with the age of consent. If you can recall, many of our parents are married so young and our grandparents are married even earlier, so is it right or wrong to impose the age of consent in the age of 16, 17 or 18? What if your own kid does offend the law and becomes an "offender"?
I don't have kids but if I were teens these days, I was probably not that innocent as I was before and was a lot more being influenced by movies, magazine articles and friends on such issue.
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