Messy military lawyer. Today’s public service announcement is… “You can have fun in the sheets, stay out of the deets, and if there’s a whoopsie, you gotta delete”. Okay? What do I mean by that?
The legal age of consent for people in the military to have intercourse with, to have in-person sexual activity with is 16 years old. Yep. You heard that right? Legal age of consent. Meaning they can consent. That the legal age where they can consent is 16 years old. When I say stay out of the deets, what I mean is engage in that activity. Be present in person. Don’t take snapshots, don’t take videos. Don’t go live. Don’t put it on Only Fans. Like there’s a whole lot of prohibitions about the deets when I’m talking about the details, because the legal age in which you can send, receive, ask for send messages about do a little dirty talk is not 16.
They got to be 18. That’s right. So you can have intercourse in a bed. No video captures no pictures if that person is 16. But you cannot solicit pictures, send pictures, talk dirty, entice somebody to engage in those activities that are lawful for you in person, unless they’re 18. There’s federal laws that prohibit it. Federal laws, federal laws, federal laws. When I say if there’s a whoopsie, you gotta delete, right? Maybe your partner doesn’t know this. Maybe you’re 19, you’re new to the military, you’ve got a 17 year old girlfriend. Just try to keep things spicy. Maybe she’s worried you’re going to leave her during basic. She sends you a spicy picture. Delete, delete, delete, delete. Don’t show it to your buddy, don’t forward it to your buddy. Don’t save it onto a different hard drive. If you get a whoopsie, you got to delete because now you’re looking at being in possession of perhaps some distribution of don’t be manufacturing images of child exploitation. You heard that, right? If she’s with you in person, legal agent consent is 16, but you can’t do any of these other activities involving the deets until she’s 18. So if you get a whoopsie, delete, delete right away. Not after you make 12 copies, not after you put it on three hard drives. Delete. Messy military lawyer.
Jocelyn Stewart is a UCMJ court-martial attorney who specializes in defense of allegations of sexual assault for all branches of the military worldwide.
Contact the Law Office of Jocelyn C. Stewart at 253-212-9582
