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Many countries, and the states within, have laws regarding the age that one can legally engage in sexual intercourse and, oftentimes, sexual activities. These laws are called Age of Consent laws and are defined as "The arbitrary age, assigned by legislators, that define the legal time at which a person may consent voluntarily to sexual activity with another person."

What this means is, if two people engage in sex or sexual activities and one of them if below the legal age of consent, one or both parties involved are committing a crime, even if the underaged party did agree to sex because his/her consent to sex or sexual activities is not considered legal. In this example, it would be considered statutory rape by the adult. It would also be considered illegal for two minors to have sex. Violations of age of consents laws can result in varying degrees of punishment from fines to jail time.

Many states have a lower age of consent for sexual activity (kissing, touching, oral sex, etc) than for sexual intercourse but a higher age of consent for homosexual sexual intercourse. Additionally, some states have age of consent laws concerning minors and those in positions of authority, such as students and teachers.

Generally, the age of consent for sexual intercourse varies between 16 and 18 years of age. To see an all inclusive list of world wide ages of consent, click here.


Additionally, other laws exist which relate to sex but are not age of consent laws. An example are lws which prohibit minors from buying or entering shops/store which sell sexually explicit material.

Several southern states (Georgia, Texas, Alabama, etc)ban stores from selling sex toys (or from selling sex toys as sex toys). A few of these laws go on to outlaw posession of sex toys over a certain number.

Rumour has it that there are laws in Japan which prohibit anatomically correct sex toys which led to the invention of toys such as the "Rabbit Habbit" and other toys which are animal shaped.

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