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A bus stop vision in orange Dream Matte Mousse and a carefully burnt side fringe, there are many words I\u2019d use to describe myself at 16.<\/p>\n
And many more, perhaps, for the sort of grown men who would be attracted to a child who still drew hedgehogs on her GCSE history folder, wanted mummy to let her go on the ski trip, and fantasised about being a vampire.<\/p>\n
Following Saturday night\u2019s Channel 4 Dispatches, where four women accused Russell Brand of sexual assault, abuse and rape, I was left thinking about \u2018Alice\u2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Alice \u2013 who was speaking under a fake name \u2013 says she was just 16 years old when she entered a relationship with then 31-year-old Brand. It made my blood run cold.<\/p>\n
It then started to boil when I saw the number of men on X, formerly Twitter, pointing out that \u2013 despite Alice\u2019s claims \u2013 going out with a 16-year-old isn\u2019t actually illegal.<\/p>\n
In a fit of rage, I tweeted: \u2018The age of consent is 16 because 16 year olds bang each other, not because it\u2019s ok to have a girlfriend in year 10 when you\u2019re 42, Clive\u2019.<\/p>\n
And it\u2019s something that needs to be said, over and over. In fact, I think we need an \u2018Alice Law\u2019.<\/p>\n
I propose that this law makes it illegal for those older than 21 to pursue\u00a0those under the age of 18.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve always hated the phrase \u2018the age of consent\u2019, not because it sounds like a bad Tolstoy novel, but because it implies that you wake up on your 16th birthday embodying the\u00a0intangible wisdom of sexual power dynamics and autonomy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
You don\u2019t.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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It\u2019s not because teenagers are stupid (I can speak from first-hand experience about how cunning, manipulative and sneaky I was) but because the complexity of what sex is \u2013 and what it can do \u2013 amounts to far more than a few sex ed classes on how to put a condom on and why developing AIDs is bad.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m talking about what you like, what you enjoy, what you need, what your boundaries are; all the messy individualities that inform what our sexualities become.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the kind of thing you can only learn through your own experiences and time. <\/p>\n
And I hope to God you have that \u2018experience\u2019 with an equally foppish 16-year-old, instead of a dangerously calculating adult.\u00a0Because,\u00a0in my opinion, any grown up who wants to have a sexual relationship with you isn\u2019t looking for an equal.<\/p>\n
They aren\u2019t looking for someone they respect. They aren\u2019t looking for someone who can enforce clear boundaries, vocalise discontent, and push back against their own wishes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Women\u00a0know what the men who tell your daughter she\u2019s \u2018mature for 16\u2019 really think. We know they aren\u2019t actually mistaking young adults for women and that they \u2018honestly couldn\u2019t tell\u2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s dark, nefarious, and born from their own deep misogyny about having a woman they can control.<\/p>\n
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According to the NHS in 2023, most teenagers become sexually active between the ages of 16-17.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Some are a bit later, some a little earlier, but that\u2019s to be expected.<\/p>\n
Hormones are raging and I don\u2019t think amending legislation to raise the age of consent will stop a 16-year-old having sex with her boyfriend in Year 11 any more than the usual preaching on abstinence does already.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But what might protect these young people is if we change the law to shield them from older adults who seek to abuse their innocence, naivety, and inexperience.<\/p>\n
The power imbalance of a man in his 40s with a vehicle, income, and housing alongside a GCSE student is frightening.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Platform is the home of Metro.co.uk’s first-person and opinion pieces, devoted to giving a platform to underheard and underrepresented voices in the media. <\/strong><\/p>\n Find some of our best reads of the week below:<\/p>\n Emily Bashforth explains that, even though Katy Perry was married to Russell Brand, she doesn’t owe anyone a response. <\/p>\n A mum to a 15-year-old vaper shares her concerns about the proposed ban on single-use vapes and how it might impact addicted teens like her own daughter. <\/p>\n An uplifting piece from Emily Powell, who ran away to Vegas with her groom and got married in a 15-minute-long, $150 ceremony officiated by Elvis. <\/p>\n And Pranjal Jain made us all cringe when she shared that she accidentally said ‘I love you’ on a first date after a language translation error. Her date’s reply left her gob-smacked. <\/p>\n He can choose to drive home if he feels frightened or uncomfortable, she can\u2019t. He can choose to live somewhere else if it doesn\u2019t work out, she can\u2019t. He can choose to spend his money on that train ticket, plane or bus home to people who love him, she can\u2019t.\u00a0<\/p>\n Anyone who has experienced a controlling partner should be able to relate to how dangerous a situation is where a vulnerable person without independence, employment, or financial means ends up with someone who holds all the cards.<\/p>\n I\u2019m not one to moralise on the personal preferences and sexualities of consenting adults in their private lives \u2013 personally I find myself primarily attracted to women and men who are older than myself \u2013\u00a0but I am adult and can clearly make my own decisions and will not be impacted by a power imbalance.\u00a0<\/p>\n It seems patently clear to me, and many others, that more needs to be done to protect young girls at bus stops, takeaways and shopping centres from the\u00a0lure of a grown up telling them they\u2019re special.<\/p>\n