Age Restricted

We live in a very interesting country.

A country where your age is pretty much a determining factor with regard to the law and all that’s related to it. You’re allowed to do certain things at certain ages that don’t necessarily make a lot of sense once you sit down and think about them.

The main thing that I want you to think about here is sex. Not that you already don’t think about it enough. I just want you to think about it in a legal context.

In South Africa, it is considered illegal to have any sexual intercourse (consensual or not) with anyone under the age of 16; which is all good and well considering the times we’re living under.

I’m all for that. Let’s maintain that. Long live the constitution. Yet the very same legal system that prohibits underage sex, it also says that you can have an abortion at age 12. How does that work? You’re not allowed to have sex before 16, but you can abort a life at 12? How? So in case you end up sleeping with someone (i.e. someone old enough to impregnate you) before you’re allowed to; you are more than welcome to terminate that pregnancy because your body is apparently not ready to bear a child.

What do you know about sex at that age? I mean really. How do you even know about sex when the law says you may not be exposed to any form of sexually explicit material [read: porn] before the age of 18?

I guess it if weren’t for these restrictions, we would be a lot more liberal than we already are.

I love this country.