PARIS (AP) – The French government wants to set the age of sexual consent at 15 and make it easier to punish child sexual abuse long ago, amid growing public pressure and a wave of online evidence of rape and other sexual harassment violence by parents and authority figures.
The Ministry of Justice called such treatment of children “unbearable” and said that “the government is determined to act quickly to implement the changes our society expects.”
“An act of sexual penetration by an adult against a minor under the age of 15 will be considered a rape,” Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti told France-2 television on Tuesday. Consent could no longer be cited to reduce the charges, but exceptions would be made for teens who are in accordance with sex, he said.
The change will still have to be in the law, but the announcement is an important step after years of efforts to step up French protection for children who are victims of rape and sexual violence.
A push to introduce France’s first age of consent three years ago following the global #MeToo movement has failed amid legal complications. But the attempt has gained new momentum since allegations surfaced over the past month about incestuous sexual abuse involving a prominent French political expert, Olivier Duhamel. It sparked an online #MeTooInceste movement in France that led to hundreds of similar testimonies.
The Ministry of Justice says it is in talks with the victim groups about toughening the punishment for incest and extending or abolishing the restrictions on child sexual abuse, which have prevented prosecution in several high-profile cases in France over the past few years.
It is also said that they want to “ensure that victims of the same offender do not receive different legal treatment”, which could increase the chances of prosecuting people who have been accused of abusing several people over decades.
In the Duhamel case, the prosecutor in Paris launched an investigation into alleged “rapes and sexual abuse by a person exercising authority” over a child following public allegations made by his stepdaughter in a book that he twin brother abused in the 1980s, when the siblings were 13 years old.
Duhamel said he was “the target of personal attacks” and resigned from his numerous professional positions, including as a respected TV commentator and head of the National Foundation of Political Sciences. The foundation runs the prestigious Sciences Po University in Paris, of which director Frederic Mion resigned this week amid the consequences of the allegations.