Amid a series of pedophilia scandals, French MPs voted to amend legislation to protect minors from sexual assault.
From now on, any intimate relationship with a person under the age of 15 will be considered rape, despite the statements of the injured party about voluntarily entering into such a relationship.
“Since there was no such age limit in France until now, the courts were often faced with a dilemma,” notes French journalist Rudolph Balmer.
Indeed, in France, people who had sex with 11-12 year old children were acquitted on the basis that they had given their consent. Now it will be impossible to take advantage of such an excuse.
However, the law will work only if one of the partners is an adult. An exception is made for intimacy between teenagers.
When making this decision, the deputies were guided by the experience of world literature, and the position itself received the romantic name of the “article of Romeo and Juliet.” In particular, it was decided that sexual relations between adolescents will be considered normal if the age difference between them does not exceed five years.
