Birth Certificates: Sex and Consent

There is some retrospective absolutism and absent-minded nostalgia in these contrasting but connected stories.

The Guardian has news of condemnation of Max Clifford by 'child protection expert' Paul Roffey who claims "You don't need a birth certificate to realise the age of a girl even if she looks older than her age. People invariably know they are breaking the law and they still know now"

And also in the Guardian this artistic celebration of Groupies and their stories of actively seeking of sex with pop stars.  No mention of birth certificates here.  Not sure I know how old they are.

And since the age of consent varies around the world from: 12-21 (or any age provided married or even none) one cannot be too absolute when the legal concept of under age sex and the psychiatric, let-alone the media, definition of paedophilia all clash with the changing biological capacity for sex.

But the law in the UK is 16 now and was in the '60s and '70s (I write about the time here).  However willing, the fans, groupies and the merely curious were legally incapable of consent and a responsible man should have checked their age.  Just as a responsible man should check for informed consent.  So not only birth certificates but consent forms.

I think the point Clifford was trying to make was the unlikelihood of the young pop stars being that responsible at that age in that age.