Legal marriage age

welbeck Yes, I do.

do you mean under 18 ?

As far as I know, someone in Britain who facilitates the marriageof someone under 16 is still covered by this law even if the marriage takes place overseas.

Doodledog

Norah

I wonder if young couples will still marry in Gretna Green?

My son got married there, and there is a thriving wedding industry 😀. It was a wonderful weekend - we had great weather, the venue and accommodation were fantastic and the officials made it feel like we were the only ones getting married that day, when I think they were doing a wedding every half hour. Even the other guests in the hotel were all in good moods and dressed in their finest, although there were a few who looked a bit green around the gills at breakfast . I can’t see that dying out, whatever happens to the minimum age to get married.

We celebrated our golden there. Nobody but us, like an elopement really. Lovely place. We may repeat the journey at the 65 year mark.

I used to work with a lovely lady whose family came from Bangladesh. She told me that when she was seventeen she went to Bangladesh with her family for a holiday. Once there she was told she going to marry someone who was ten years older than herself. She said she stayed in her bedroom and cried for three weeks, but then she still had to marry him. They then came back to England and he came with them. By the time I knew her they had four children and he still couldn’t speak English. I felt sorry for her but she was always happy and cheerful. She said she loves him now.
This law won’t stop this from happening. Sadly.

Seems to be the order of the day now GSM

They would also worry about the implications for themselves - honour killings.

I find it disappointing that the law for everyone has been changed in misguided attempt to protect the minority.

Does this mark a definite separation between Church and State? Having the age of consent two years younger than the age of legal marriage is suggesting that sex before marriage is sanctioned.

I doubt that many people marry at 16 in order to have sex, but there are likely to be more babies born out of wedlock with the new system. Whilst there is little or no social stigma around that nowadays, it seems odd to enshrine it in law.

Overall I don’t know what to think. I would not have been happy if my children had married so young, but if someone wants to it seems unreasonable to deny them the right to do so. As maddy says, forced marriages will still go on abroad- better to put more resources into stopping those from going ahead, really. There are things that people can do (eg phone apps that call for help but are disguised as games or music) but a lot of the time girls don’t know it’s being planned so don’t know they need to take precautions, and anyway would worry about the implications of backing out for their families.

There was information about this change for sometime. When the Act of Parliament was passed and since.

I have known about this legislation for at least a year and thought it came into law on 1 January.

I suspect lack of interest rather than anything else meant it wasn't headline news.

The number of 16 year olds getting married voluntarily under the age of 16 now must be vanishingly small. I know forced marriages, which are already illegal at any age, are a separate matter.In the past, while some very young marriages were very successful, the majority were not.

I'm so happy for this

Children need time to be children and teens need time to be teens, why rush them to grow up. Especially when they have to be in education until 18 and you can still claim child benefit until after that point.

Boys are still physically growing at that point.

Plus they don't hit all their phases of development at the same time

Good news

www.theguardian.com/society/2018/jul/09/metal-spoon-alert-authorities-honour-based-abuse-leeds

maddyone

I understand this is to try to prevent forced marriage. Mind you, I don’t know how anyone can do anything to stop a family going abroad for a holiday and forcing the marriage there in a different country.

make sure all youngsters know about the teaspoon alarm, at least.

karmanirvana.org.uk/get-involved/donate/a-spoonful-of-hope/

I wonder how many got pregnant to bypass the parental consent (or waiting to be 21)?

I got married at 18 in 1968 and had to have parental consent. (I wasn’t pregnant).

I understand this is to try to prevent forced marriage. Mind you, I don’t know how anyone can do anything to stop a family going abroad for a holiday and forcing the marriage there in a different country.

Norah

I wonder if young couples will still marry in Gretna Green?

My son got married there, and there is a thriving wedding industry 😀. It was a wonderful weekend - we had great weather, the venue and accommodation were fantastic and the officials made it feel like we were the only ones getting married that day, when I think they were doing a wedding every half hour. Even the other guests in the hotel were all in good moods and dressed in their finest, although there were a few who looked a bit green around the gills at breakfast . I can’t see that dying out, whatever happens to the minimum age to get married.

Norah

I wonder if young couples will still marry in Gretna Green?

My father did offer Mr T a ladder 😁 I am one of four girls

Yes, about time - when you're legally a child and have to be in some kind of education or training until 18 - it seems ridiculous to marry earlier.

I wonder if young couples will still marry in Gretna Green?

I think it's good news.
Will protect some from coercion until they are legally adults.

paddyann54

One of the first weddings we photographed when we started our business was a young couple who left school on the friday and got married on the Saturday they were both 16 ...and no she wasn't pregnant and yes they are still together 47 years on.We often meet them in the town and they still look as happy as they did back then

Lovely.

Quite similar to my husband and me. He's a little older than me, had been out of school - working for 2 years. I finished school at 16, married the next day, our first baby arrived a year later. Over 62 years ago.

It’s only the minimum age for marriage which has changed (just today). The age of consent hasn’t changed.

That is SO lovely paddyann54

One of the first weddings we photographed when we started our business was a young couple who left school on the friday and got married on the Saturday they were both 16 ...and no she wasn't pregnant and yes they are still together 47 years on.We often meet them in the town and they still look as happy as they did back then

I was married at age 18 in 1973 and didn't need parental consent because I was legally an adult. You used to be able to get married (in England) at age 16 with parental consent but prior to 1970 you needed parental consent if you were under 21; the age of majority being lowered to 18 in 1970. I believe that in Scotland you could get married at age 16 without parental consent provided you met certain residential conditions - which was why Gretna Green weddings became popular.

Going back to my A-level history studies of the early 1970's, I believe the age of consent (by which you could legally get married (with parental permission) was only raised from 13 to 16 in Victorian times.

I wasn't aware that the legal minimum age for getting married had now been raised to 18; does this mean that having sex before age 18 is also now illegal, or is the minimum age for that still set at 16?