Member Submission: Age of Consent

Following was sent in by a member.

I recently spoke to an attorney in Georgia. I was inquiring about the possibility to relocate and my residency and registration requirements as well as the time frame and procedure to be removed from Georgia registry. He informed me a few things but one thing that sticks out is that due to the age of my victim which I was convicted for, 17, I may not ever have to register in Georgia because the age of consent there is 16.

However, in my opinion, the fact that I’m required to remain in Florida registry forever may trump that and force me to register plus as long as I’m alive, in Florida or not, I’ll always always always have to follow travel restrictions to other states as well as international.

After speaking to the attorney, I researched age of consent throughout the country. In fact, there’s only a handful of states where the age of consent is 18. Many are 17, and a very large number, 16. Which is amazing. If I were just north of here when the incident occurred, I wouldn’t have gone to jail, been convicted, or have to register for life. It’s unbelievable how different every state is on something so, not only common, but criticized.

Just wanted to share and welcome any thoughts, or additional facts.