> Meanwhile France last year just dropped the age of consent to 15 and if you check Wikipedia you'll most EU countries have it set around the same age.
France's age of consent has been 15, since 1945 (1982, if you weren't straight). What they did last year was add a Romeo & Juliet clause that allows for below that age if you're within five years of your partner and not committing something that would otherwise be considered assault. So a 15 yro and a 12yro won't end up in a rape case for being partners.
They tightened overly loose definitions, basically. Not dropped - raised. (A lot to do with this [0] particular case that demonstrated just how damn loose the laws were.)
15 vs 12 is huge gap in relative age, development, and maturity. But it sounds worse from your description, like a 15yo can have sex with a 10yo and it's considered consensual??
It is _now_ that a 15yro and a 10yro _may_ be considered consensual if no other factors come into play, like authority. However, the court would have to examine it on a case-by-case basis.
Previously, it was _assumed_ that consent occurred. Such as in the case I pointed out - the court struggled to say there was not willing engagement between a 28 yro and an 11 yro.
Historically speaking, France has some of the loosest laws around consent in the world.
Meanwhile France last year just dropped the age of consent to 15 and if you check Wikipedia you'll most EU countries have it set around the same age.
It's doubtful you could even find a single case someone being prosecuted because their actual underage boy / girlfriend sent them an explicit picture.