Editorial
Sex consent bill passed for wrong reasons

There was a lot of talk about concern for the welfare of children this week as the Legislature overturned Gov. Ben Cayetano's veto of the so-called "age of consent" bill.

But it was perfectly clear that the real concern was for the political welfare of those involved in this event.

Speaker after speaker described concerns about the bill, pointed out flaws in its drafting and worried about the severe criminal penalties being created for what amounts to consensual sex. There was even discussion about "prosecutorial discretion" — the idea that prosecutors wouldn't enforce this flawed law in cases where its application did not make sense.

That was rather odd. Prosecutors have the discretion to set aside cases when it appears they do not have the evidence to get a conviction. But it's not their job to choose cases based on whether they like the law or not.

For all of that, our Legislature voted this measure into law anyway.

The explanation is quite simple: While it is obvious that the new law is flawed and even might work against child welfare in some ways, it is a red-hot (if poorly understood) political issue.

No one can bear the thought of adults preying on the insecurities or naivete of children for purposes of sexual pleasure. And society in general worries about immature youngsters getting involved in sexual activity before they are ready to deal with its consequences.

So any law that proposes to deal with these matters has sure-fire political appeal.

But law enforcement officials, social workers and others have explained the difficulty of trying to deal with these social problems by trying to criminalize the activity. It is for these reasons that efforts to increase the age of consent have faltered in the past.

The bill passed this year largely because Republicans in the House had increased in numbers to a point where they could force the issue to the floor. Democrats knew they were about to be put into an untenable political box if they opposed the GOP effort so they almost unanimously went along.

But the product they produced was flawed, as Cayetano pointed out. Perhaps the flaws were because the bill resulted from a process that had far more to do with political gamesmanship — on both sides — than it did with the welfare of children.