The ages of consent vary by jurisdiction across Europe. The ages of consent are currently set between 14 and The vast majority of countries set their ages in the range of 14 to 16; only three countries, Cyprus 17 , Ireland 17 , Turkey 18 , do not fit into this pattern. The laws can also stipulate which specific activities are permitted or specify the age at which one or other sex can legally participate. Below is a discussion of the various laws dealing with this subject. The highlighted age is that from which a young person can lawfully engage in a non-commercial sexual act with an older person, regardless of their age difference, provided the older one is not in a position of power, a relative, or is committing another form of exploitation such as abuse of power or dependence. In some jurisdictions, including Italy and Hungary , there are exemptions if the age difference is within prescribed bounds. All jurisdictions in Europe, except the Vatican City , have equal and gender-neutral age limits.
Food & Drink Club
You may also be interested in:
Every year thousands of women are trafficked to European cities and put to work having sex with men. Jewel, a young Nigerian who had expected to become a carer, eventually managed to escape thanks to two chance meetings. It's very often dark where I come from because there's no electricity… But everything here was just blinking - it was very beautiful. Jewel - not her real name - is describing her arrival in Denmark. I was looking forward to starting work.
Navigation menu
German cars are not unusual in the Czech border town of Cheb. By day, the BMWs and Mercedes come to buy cheap cigarettes and alcohol. By 10 p. A black BMW with a German licence plate and a baby chair on the back seat stops at a street corner. The lone driver rolls down the passenger-door window and speaks briefly to the teenage girl standing in the bitter cold. The girl climbs into the car and they disappear into the night. Welcome to the child-prostitution capital of Europe. The men who go to the town know that to have sex with a child, you don't have to take a plane to Thailand, you just need to take your BMW over the border. Bavaria is seven kilometres to the west, Saxony is 10 kilometres to the north. A minute drive from Germany and everything has a price.
Subscriber Account active since. Prostitution is big business in Europe. By some estimates, the number of prostitutes across the European Union's 28 members states ranges between , and as many as 1. While prostitution has a long history in Europe, it's legality varies from country to country. In countries like Germany and Greece, the sex trade is fully legalized and regulated, whereas is many northern European countries like Sweden, it is illegal to buy sex, but not illegal to sell it. Brothels and red-light districts have been a part of major European cities like Amsterdam and Hamburg for decades and, in some cases, centuries. But the current era of prostitution began around when the Netherlands became one of the first major European countries to formalize prostitution's legality and regulate it like any other industry. Germany, Greece, and others followed suit, though Switzerland has had fully legal prostitution since
