“Neither party can give consent.”
Obviously that is the law, but the question is, is it a sensible one? I think in many European countries these laws take into consideration the age difference between the parties, like if it is less than 2 years, then it is not considered a criminal act regardless of the age of the children. I guess (I don’t know for sure) a court could order counselling or whatever, but they would not be branded as sex criminals.
Seems like a more reasonable approach to me.
That’s how the law is written in Texas, although the maximum difference in age is 3 years, rather than 2.
But again - the slippery slope and inconsistency as already mentioned by another -
Either children can or they cannot give “consent”. If a 12 year old or 13 year old is not competent to give consent to sexual contact (which I fully believe), it doesn’t matter if the other party is 13 or 30 or 90... They are NOT able to consent.