Gareth Manning, Sunday Gleaner Reporter

Kelly (left) and Steele (right)

Some of the island's young people are throwing their support behind calls for the age at which adolescents can legally consent to sexual intercourse to be increased to 18 years.

"At 18 in Jamaica, that is when they say you are an adult. I think the age of consent should be 18," argues Kemesha Kelly, president-elect of the National Secondary Schools' Council (NCCS), who just turned 18. She was speaking at a Gleaner Editors' Forum on Thursday.

"Whether you raise it or not you still gonna find young people under the age of consent having sex. But we give them too much to feel adult about," the young student leader added.

The age of consent was last increased from 14 to 16 years-old in 1988, following a proposal in parliament by now opposition spokesman on tourism, Edmund Bartlett.But the issue found its way back in parliament recently, this time via Commissioner of Corrections, Major Richard Reese, who, concerned by increasing reports of carnal abuse, strongly recommended that the age be increased to 18 years.

Miller (left) and Smalling (right)

"There are too many discrepancies in Jamaica. You can drink at 21, but then they tell you that you can buy Smirnoff Ice at 18. It's not clear the age of being an adult and where we set the boundary between adult activity and adolescent activity," Kelly said.

Her colleague, vice president of the NSSC Roshane Miller shares a similar view. He feels current the age of consent has been what it is for the last 20 years because the law does not want to be overwhelmed by sex offenders.

"The prisons would be too crowded," he commented. He said while the age of consent should be raised, any changes in legislation needs to complemented by more rigorous care by parents and family members for their children's development.

Simone Steele and Sriya Smalling, both students of Northern Caribbean University (NCU), feel most teenagers at 16 are incapable of making responsible decisions and so should not be legally allowed to have sexual intercourse.

"Sex is a big deal and people make it seem so casual ... when it really isn't. Most young people at age 16 don't know themselves. They don't know what profession they would like to pursue,they don't how to get there," Steele opined.

Smalling contested that youth are not being educated or being psychologically prepared to make responsible choices.

"What we want to do is encourage our young persons to make good decisions ...," she said.