This is bad but to clarify this means marriages before 18, so 15/16/17 year olds are probably the bulk of them. Here in Europe age of consent is 14-16 is majority of countries for context. It's not referring to children 10 or younger for example (I hope)
"East Asia and the Pacific is home to an estimated 93 million child brides, accounting for 14 per cent of the global total, according to a new UNICEF analysis released today. Despite earlier gains, progress has stalled, leaving millions of girls at risk of child marriage and its lifelong consequences. Across the region, one in 13 young women aged 20 to 24 were married or in union before turning 18."
People at 15 literally start having casual s** here in Europe in many places, I know many who did during high school. People at 15 got drafted to WW2, last century it was completely fine for 15 year olds to get married.
I am more than certain same thing happens in South America, Africa, Asia.
I know you Americans are born and raised to think that a 17 year old is like 7 year old but try looking outside your country a bit.
Young people explore adult things, including sex, but marriage is another beast entirely, so it’s not a good comparison. Marriage is a legal contract that’s binding, can be used to potentially control others, and often an excuse to ignore abusive behaviors, and many laws systems around the world disadvantage women vs men.
Regardless of kids being kids, ending up in a contractual relationship at a tender age is terrible.
I agree it's bad, just wanted to say in my initial comment it's not literal prepubescent-children being married which is infinitely worse in my opinion.
We're not born and raised to think that. It's because the legal system is particularly slanted in that anyone under the age of 18 is handled differently.
Sometimes it's absolutely bat shit insane where two 17yos who've been dating for a couple years and once becomes 18 could technically be convicted of sexual abuse of a minor. It's still up to the judge but that's how fucked the laws & judicial system can be. Which makes everyone act a certain way when this subject is brought up.
It's not infinitely more okay, but it's much more okay.
Similarly: 18 year olds getting married is IMO not a great choice, but it's better than 15 year olds getting married.
There is no set threshold, psychologically or biologically, where marriage becomes okay. And many people in our society go into marriages that they clearly aren't ready for in their 30's. Don't take the legal line in the sand that we have drawn and tell us "It's rock on one side and sand on the other; People become mature enough the day they turn 18". No, it isn't, and they don't. We just needed to draw some kind of arbitrary line to engage the machinery of the state to fight obvious abuses. This isn't always the line others have chosen to draw, or that we have chosen to draw in the past.
PS: IMO it's a lot more fucked up for a 40-year-old to marry a 20-year-old than for a 17-year-old to marry another 17-year-old, but we have chosen not to care about age gaps institutionally with regards to marriage. Don't confuse your local legal standards with your moral/ethical standards.
If up to 25% of girls in Oceania are married before age 18 vs only 4% of boys, the problem isn’t 17 year olds marrying other 17 year olds, unless the gender ratio there is extremely skewed.
This is bad but to clarify this means marriages before 18, so 15/16/17 year olds are probably the bulk of them. Here in Europe age of consent is 14-16 is majority of countries for context. It's not referring to children 10 or younger for example (I hope)
"East Asia and the Pacific is home to an estimated 93 million child brides, accounting for 14 per cent of the global total, according to a new UNICEF analysis released today. Despite earlier gains, progress has stalled, leaving millions of girls at risk of child marriage and its lifelong consequences. Across the region, one in 13 young women aged 20 to 24 were married or in union before turning 18."
Whatever instilled the belief into you that 15 year olds being married is somehow infinitely more ok than 10 year olds, is fucked up.
Can we identify this so we may tackle it as a civilization?
People at 15 literally start having casual s** here in Europe in many places, I know many who did during high school. People at 15 got drafted to WW2, last century it was completely fine for 15 year olds to get married.
I am more than certain same thing happens in South America, Africa, Asia.
I know you Americans are born and raised to think that a 17 year old is like 7 year old but try looking outside your country a bit.
Yeah, with other 15 year olds, reas the article, the male child marriage rate is much much lower than the female one.
Young people explore adult things, including sex, but marriage is another beast entirely, so it’s not a good comparison. Marriage is a legal contract that’s binding, can be used to potentially control others, and often an excuse to ignore abusive behaviors, and many laws systems around the world disadvantage women vs men.
Regardless of kids being kids, ending up in a contractual relationship at a tender age is terrible.
I agree it's bad, just wanted to say in my initial comment it's not literal prepubescent-children being married which is infinitely worse in my opinion.
it's literally children who are being forced into arranged marriages with older men.
Equating exploring sex with forced marriages is wild.
Again, can we identify the underlying belief system that causes this mentality , expose it fully, so that we can then start to eliminate it?
We're not born and raised to think that. It's because the legal system is particularly slanted in that anyone under the age of 18 is handled differently.
Sometimes it's absolutely bat shit insane where two 17yos who've been dating for a couple years and once becomes 18 could technically be convicted of sexual abuse of a minor. It's still up to the judge but that's how fucked the laws & judicial system can be. Which makes everyone act a certain way when this subject is brought up.
It's not infinitely more okay, but it's much more okay.
Similarly: 18 year olds getting married is IMO not a great choice, but it's better than 15 year olds getting married.
There is no set threshold, psychologically or biologically, where marriage becomes okay. And many people in our society go into marriages that they clearly aren't ready for in their 30's. Don't take the legal line in the sand that we have drawn and tell us "It's rock on one side and sand on the other; People become mature enough the day they turn 18". No, it isn't, and they don't. We just needed to draw some kind of arbitrary line to engage the machinery of the state to fight obvious abuses. This isn't always the line others have chosen to draw, or that we have chosen to draw in the past.
PS: IMO it's a lot more fucked up for a 40-year-old to marry a 20-year-old than for a 17-year-old to marry another 17-year-old, but we have chosen not to care about age gaps institutionally with regards to marriage. Don't confuse your local legal standards with your moral/ethical standards.
If up to 25% of girls in Oceania are married before age 18 vs only 4% of boys, the problem isn’t 17 year olds marrying other 17 year olds, unless the gender ratio there is extremely skewed.
Child marriage is a human rights violation.
https://www.unfpa.org/child-marriage
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2672998/
https://www.ohchr.org/en/women/child-and-forced-marriage-including-humanitarian-settings
https://www.unchainedatlast.org/united-states-child-marriage-problem-study-findings-april-2021/