Consent and the law
What is consent?
To consent means to agree to something, and the word can be used in lots of different situations. When it comes to sex specifically, to consent means to agree to have sex or engage in sexual activity.
What is a sexual activity?
Sex or sexual activity can include kissing, sexual touching, oral, anal and vaginal sex with a penis or with any other type of object.
Brook operates a number of sexual health and wellbeing services across the UK and they are committed to supporting young people.
Here's their page on consent.
In this video young people discuss the importance of learning about consent and getting consent when engaging in sexual activity.
Video from the Brook YouTube channel.
Understanding the law - sexual consent
Consent means agreeing to do something. When it comes to sex, this means agreeing to take part in a sexual activity.
The Sexual Offences Act 2003 (England and Wales) defines consent as when a person ‘agrees by choice and has the capacity to make that choice’.
The Brook gives explanations of:
Age of consent
The age of consent is 16 and having sex under this age is against the law.
What if you, or the person you want to sleep with, is under it?
The facts and law about under-age sex in the UK can be found on The Mix website.
The Mix takes on the embarrassing problems, weird questions, and please-don’t-make-me-say-it-out-loud thoughts that people under 25 have in order to give them the best support through both digital and phone services.