Age of consent in France

What is the age of consent in France?

The age of consent in France is 15.

The age of consent was not established by law in France until 2021.

In 2021, France raised the age of consent from 13 to 15. Until then, there was no clear age of consent in France, and this was triggered by the incident in which a 30-year-old man who committed lewd acts with an 11-year-old girl was punished only for sexual abuse, which led to heightened social criticism in France.

On April 15, 2021, France’s National Assembly (Chamber of Deputies) passed a bill setting the age of consent at 15, and the law was enacted. The Minister of Justice said it was a “historic” step in a country that has traditionally been sexually permissive.

Opinion in the legislature had been divided over whether to set the age at 13 or 15.

Lewd act with a person under 15 years of age is considered crime, unless there is an age difference of up to 5 years.

The new law will consider lewd acts with a person under the age of 15 to be a statutory rape unless there is a small age difference between the two, and will impose a penalty of up to 20 years’ imprisonment. In the case of lewd acts by a relative, the age of consent is 18.

The new law permits acts between a child under 15 and a partner up to five years older. Some legislators have criticized this age gap as too large.

Under previous French law, prosecutors could not charge a person unless there was evidence that the suspect had a lewd act with a child under 15 years of age by violence or coercion, which remained a sexual abuse charge.

In France, there was a law passed in 2018 to strengthen the fight against gender-based violence. The law aimed to establish gender equality and to protect minors.

However, under this law, in order to punish sexual crimes, it was necessary to prove that the victim had not given consent, i.e., that the perpetrator had violated, coerced, or threatened the victim, which was difficult to prove.

It was also pointed out that two thirds of crimes of lewd acts against minors were committed by relatives. Therefore, there were calls for stricter penalties for lewd acts on minors by relatives.

-Before the new law was enforced, was lewd act with a child under 15 not punished in France?

No, the lewd acts with minors under 15 was illegal, however, since there was not law setting the age of consent, the perpetrators faced lighter punishments as they could stress the point that the acts were consensual.