PARIS (AP) – The French government wants to set the age of sexual consent at 15 and make it easier to punish child sexual abuse for a long time, amid rising public pressure and a wave of online testimonies about rape and other sexual violence by parents, and authority figures.
Calling such treatment intolerable for children, the justice ministry said in a statement that “the government is determined to act quickly to implement the changes our society expects.”
“An act of sexual penetration of an adult on a minor under 15 will be considered rape,” Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti told France-2 television on Tuesday. Consent could no longer be cited to lessen the allegations, but exceptions would be made for teens who have consensual sex, he said.
The change should still be enshrined in law, but the announcement is a major step after years of efforts to strengthen French protection for children victims of rape and sexual violence.
An impulse to establish the first age of France’s consent three years ago, following the global #MeToo movement, failed amid legal complications. But the effort has gained momentum since last month’s allegations of incestuous sexual abuse involving a prominent French political expert, Olivier Duhamel. This triggered an online #MeTooInceste movement in France, which led to hundreds of similar testimonies.
The Ministry of Justice says it is in talks with victim groups about toughening the incest punishment and extending or abolishing the statute of limitations on child sexual abuse, which has prevented prosecution in several high-profile cases in France in recent years.
It also says it wants to “ensure that victims of the same perpetrator do not receive different legal treatment”, which could widen the scope of criminal prosecution of people accused of abusing several people over the decades.
In the Duhamel case, the Paris prosecutor opened an investigation into the alleged “sexual rape and abuse of a person who exercises authority” over a child following public accusations in a book by his stepdaughter that he had abused her twin brother in the years 1980, when the brothers were 13 years old.
Duhamel said he was “the target of personal attacks” and gave up his many professional positions, including as a respected TV commentator and head of the National Foundation for Political Science. The foundation manages the prestigious Sciences Po University in Paris, whose director Frederic Mion resigned this week, amid the consequences of the accusations.