The age of sexual consent among adolescents, a view from psychology

Consent, what is it? Basically, it is the criteria that allows the sexual act to be legal. The minimum age varies from country to country, and in Ecuador, the Constitutional Court has established it at 14 years, when it occurs among adolescents.

But sexuality is too broad a field, with many neglected areas, especially in education. “There is a tendency to think that the sexual act is exclusively the coital part, and this is not the case, there can be oral sex, touches, friction of any kind,” explains clinical psychologist Rodolfo Rodríguez.

Consent involves both saying yes and saying no, emphasizes this specialist in sexology, who works with adolescents and adults. “The ‘yes’ must be in play in the process, from beginning to end, and the ‘no’ can be expressed from the beginning or in any part of the sexual activity, even until the end.” If these conditions are not met, there is a violation of the person’s rights.

The main factor or condition is age, both chronological and psychological. “In Ecuador, the Code of Childhood and Adolescence typifies that the adolescent is from 12 to 18 years old. Age is crucial because it allows us to understand the degree of maturity of the person. But you also have to look at psychosocial factors, academic ability, social status, to find out if they have the necessary powers to consent to sexual activity,” Rodríguez details.

In 2021, the Ecuadorian Constitutional Court ruled that people over the age of 14 have the capacity to consent to a sexual relationship with other adolescents. In the scale of values, violence, degree of maturity, age difference, superior interests, specific justice and protection have been considered. This group of criteria, says Rodríguez, is deficient and does not apply to the reality of children and adolescents in Ecuador.

He insists that the analysis of age plus social differences, the cognitive, psychological and emotional capacity of the subject, the circumstances and the way in which the sexual act was carried out, is a priority, to determine that there is no rape, coercion or manipulation, “because of the difference between the ages of the boys”.

In addition, he expresses, it must be understood that there are various forms of sexual abuse; this is not always physical, it can be digital. “The variables are multiple, and in Ecuador we have so many deficiencies that we must make a scale adjusted to our reality, simpler and more basic than the one being proposed”.

The objective of the new standard of the Court to assess consent is to avoid the sexual criminalization of adolescents (280 prisoners for this cause in Ecuador). In Rodríguez’s opinion, this is not a convincing statistic. “We are approaching it from criminalization, a negative perspective, when the proper perspective is to know what tools are being given to adolescents to exercise their sexual and reproductive rights. The scale needs a biopsychosocial adjustment”.

In first world countries, he alleges, the age of consent is 16, “but it is a different reality, another level of sexual education.” Our adolescents, the psychologist reflects, are not ready for this. “We have to understand how the adolescent brain works, under what conditions they are making decisions and thus create a legal framework that defends the general population”, and not just to a group that needs corrective legal action.

Instead of avoiding criminalization, this would generate a rise in problems: rape, sexual abuse, rape, teenage pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases and abuse of emergency contraceptive methods.

“We are breaking the scheme by putting a very young age in one of the highest risk conditions. Let’s remember that Ecuador came to have the first place in adolescent pregnancy in Latin America” (currently the second).

Looking for solutions from sexual education

The brain goes through different stages. Between the ages of 6 and 8, modesty begins and the separation between boys and girls begins. Around the age of 12, at puberty, it is replaced by curiosity about the other. Y in the college stage they explore their sexuality in an “explosive” wayRodriguez says. There is curiosity about what happens in the body itself when faced with stimuli of the opposite gender or of the same gender.

The decisions they make will be directly linked to the amount of knowledge acquired, the experience lived, the living conditions, the relationship with the parents, the legal framework and the risk factors. “That way they learn what is right, what is wrong, what they can say yes to and what to say no to.”

The adolescent, in general (the adult is not exempt), makes decisions following a disrupted process: first he acts based on his physical impulses, then he relates it to the emotions that this generates, and in the end he reflects: this was not well, this didn’t suit me.

They must be taught to act backwards, says the psychologist. “The adolescent must use his reason as a filter for decision making, to later connect it to the emotional part, and finally involve his body”. Without that, there is no frame of reference to say yes or no, that is, to give genuine consent.

The deficiency originates in the home. Young people use what they see in their parents as a template. Then come the media, the educational system, and the political and social framework. “If we begin to modify variables so that information reaches the adolescent brain, and we can move the emotional part, we can have results.”

Sexologists, for example, do not educate only with theory, but also engage emotionality. Thus the young person identifies with the problems, but also with the solutions. Because as Rodríguez emphasizes, “this is a problem, but there are also solutions.”

1. The first objective is the parents or representatives of the teenager. These people are responsible for educating in sexuality from the values ​​they have at home.
2. The family receives the theory (the generic) and the tools to talk about sexuality, and personalize these resources according to the profile of the household. Keep in mind that a professional will not tell parents what is right or wrong, but rather will give them information about what is healthy and what is not.
3. The next group are teachers., who also need to provide correct information.
4. The healthy thing is to give complete information. “What is unhealthy is giving fragments of sexual education and leaving aside the rest for personal or political reasons.”
5. Emotionality is the way to reach the adolescent population. “One of the issues that leads us to venture into sexual activity is attraction, which goes far beyond the physical.” (F)