Should the age restriction for sex move to 21? (any country)

Seeing that my Opponent forfeited this round, I am going to present the arguments I promised to Raising the legal age limit for sex, will not effectively prevent teen-pregnancy. It would only make it illegal. The group of adolescents that do decide to have unprotected sex early, that are often stereotyped in the media, are undoubtedly a social problem because they are part of vicious circle of teen-pregnancy and low education. The reason why these young people become mothers around the age of 15 to 20 is not, that the law prevents them from having sex earlier, but they either don't have the sex drive yet or lack the physical constitution to conceive a child. Being underweight for example can mess up a girls menstrual circle in a way that makes pregnancy rather unlikely, leaving her with the false impression that she is on the save side. Raising the age limit would not influence these teenagers one may described as "irresponsible", as alcohol laws and bans are often ignored in the relevant social stratum as well. Making even the purchase of condoms and sex itself illegal for those under 21 will have extreme effects. For once, the endangered group of teenagers is going to be more like to have unprotected sex and pregnancies are going to be even more often kept secret. This means conclusively more children in toilets and dumps, young girls physically and emotionally broken, because they fear the legal consequences. While I am on that: I disapprove the statement that teen-pregnancy is "disgusting". It might be not pleasant to watch for some of us, including me, though pregnancy itself is naturally necessary enough to be not "disgusting" and a pregnant 13-year-old, is probably something bizarre to look at but does not deserve the degrading adjective "disgusting". Let's move on from that. There are many things that are allowed to people between the age of 15 and 21 in which context they may harm themselves. In some countries it's alcohol and smoking as well, but talking about the US it's still driving, vacations on their own, working and handcrafting with electrical circuits, using certain chemicals, and so on. All these things are not always supervised an small mistakes might lead to fatal accidents. Yet we allow teenagers to do these things because we regard it as a necessary skill for adulthood or because they have already the intelligence to understand what they handle as good as an adult and can therefore protect themselves. In terms of sex, the later one is relevant. A 16-year-old-teenagers has already a life-perception that allows her/him to understand what pregnancy means. He/She can interpret the costs of a child if you provide the calculation. They can physically master the technique to put on a condom or take oral contraception medication (which is probably the more difficult one). Conclusively are Teenagers perfectly capable of understanding the risk and capable of keeping themselves safe. Those who take the risk or don't know about it are not unable to understand it. They just have not been taught properly. Being informed about how sex works and how pregnancy and STD's can prevented is something that needs to be done before or at least as soon as the child is becomes sexually mature. Which is usually way before they turn 20 There is no way of preventing them from this and rape is only one reason why it's no option to withhold them from knowing their body till they are 21. Finally I am going to talk about my Opponents introduction, that there are people who think, one cannot live without sex. Although, talking only about higher species, there usually cannot be life without sex, a individual might either be born without a sex drive or have very little or choose not to have sex. Still, not only humans use sex for recreational purposes and to strengthen their relationships - there are also some more (1) or less controversial (2) articles about the positive effects of sex for the brain and hormone balancing. Something a lot of teenagers might especially enjoy. Considering the risk of a responsibly engaged sex act, there is no reason to raise the legal limit to 21. I hope to have shown that it would even create more problems than it could solve. (1) http://www.webmd.com... (2) http://www.plannedparenthood.org...