Did France pass law saying children can consent to sex with adults – Fact Check

An article written on a website called YourNewsWire.com is spreading virally that claims France has passed a law saying children can consent to sex with adults.

However, the article is written in a way that is causing plenty of confusion online as to France’s legal system works surrounding sex with minors. An excerpt from the article can be seen below.

France Passes Law Saying Children Can Consent To Sex With Adults
President Macron’s government has voted against having an age of consent in France, becoming the latest nation to give in to pressure from an international network of liberal activists determined to normalize pedophilia and decriminalize sex with children across the world.
Federal law in France now has no legal age of consent, meaning adults who have sex with children of any age will not be prosecuted for rape if the child victim is unable to prove “violence, threat, duress, or surprise.”

YourNewsWire.com is a site known for promoting fake or misleading stories, and often publishes articles that – while based in truth – are written in a way to deliberately mislead the reader, often to promote a particular agenda.

And this is the case with the story above, which claims France has passed a law that claims children can consent to having sex with adults, and that there is no legal age for consent in the country.

The most misleading aspect to the YourNewsWire.com is the omission of the pertinent fact that it is indeed illegal to have sex or sexual relations with a minor (15 years or under) in France. Such a crime is a sexual infraction that is punishable by five years in prison and a fine of 75,000 Euros. (A 2018 modification increases this charge in certain circumstance, see further below.)

Sponsored Content. Continued below...

Technically, YourNewsWire.com is correct by stating there is no legal age of consent in France. A legal age of consent would mean that an adult having sex with a minor is convicted on a rape charge, since the child is not considered capable of giving consent under any circumstances. A rape charge carries a much longer sentence, but because there is no legal age of consent in France, having sex with a minor is given the lesser sexual infraction charge, assuming there was no violence or threats involved.

But YourNewsWire.com omits any information about the sexual infraction charge, leading the reader to believe that sex with a minor is legal and would not result in any punitive action. The YourNewsWire article drills home that misleading point by claiming the country is “normalizing pedophilia”.

France has, in 2018, modified laws pertaining to sex with minors, but by making them stronger, not weaker. The country introduced a new offence, called “sexual violation of a minor by penetration.” That offence would mean sex with a minor could, in some circumstance, result in a 10 year prison sentence, not five years.

However in 2018, such changes to the law still attracted criticism from many who lamented the continued lack of a legal age of consent.

If you would like to share information about this story, we would recommend avoiding reading or sharing the YourNewsWire.com article that aims to deliberately mislead readers, and instead share any number of more balanced and accurate stories out there.