people do whatever they want witth their lives, who are they to tell them to kiss or not?

are they not even allowed to kiss there parent?

basically anything that does not harm the public or the individual doing the action shouldn't be banned just on the basis on simple freedom

.....infact even if it does harm the individual, as said above it's their choice


on a different note i may be nit picking here but if i was putting this debate forward i would have made the second option "bad law" just to make the question unbiased if you know what i mean :)

I'm a bit biased since I was born in South Africa

They would be less teen pregnancy

you don't get pregnat by a kiss dsdsdrsf

Oh ok, I just thought the "nonsense" would create a better contrast to good law, I didnt mean it to sound biased, i was thinking for 10 minutes or so before i finally picked.

@dsdsdrsf : do you really think that kissing law could change that? :/

I know that you can't get pregnant by a kiss.
Kissing is a type of foreplay- foreplay usually ends up as sex so...Not many people just jump on each other and start having sex

*When I was in South Africa (Durban) I saw a lot of people kissing under 16

sorry olivine i really was just nitpicking, feel free to ignore me on that comment lol

dsdsdrsf by that logic surly the law which says you can't have sex under a certain age would stop so many teen pregnancies and yet we still have plenty

kissing is just a type of affection....i'm not sure i would call it foreplay as it's not sexually stimulating....well a kiss on the lips or cheecks isn't anyways lol

but surly even if it does leed to sex....it's that person's choice, they know the consequences of that choice

what the hell is wrong with this country
why don't they just put them in prison and take away their lives idiotic law for an idiotic country x

Don't call South Africa idiotic. X_ellie-X: That's just three steps too far

ellie i would agree with ds on that being too far, that comment seemed ....well very ignorant, laws do not make a country, the people and culture do

ds, you not answerering me? :(

*Can I just ask which president made this law?

If they haven't ever kissed someone then I don't think they would be ready to skip three bases and jump into bed with someone.If you take out kissing from a young society, then they would miss out basic affection but they would also learn respect for the opposite/same sex. You can't miss something you have never had.
It is the person's choice to have sex, but if the person lived in solitude confinement and had never felt human affection then they wouldn't be as tempted to have sex than if they lived with others.

It depends how you take kissing as a general subject. Kissing can be foreplay or sweet and innocent but sweet and innocent can also take a nasty turn.(*Just take a look at Micheal Jackson I bet he thought sleeping with a child was sweet but no one else did.) I think everyone has seen at least one movie where the man/woman kisses a woman/man on the cheeks and then they gaze into each others eyes and.....

*Sorry if this arguement is VERY BAD but I've actually don't know what to say and that Micheal Jackson thing was probably unecessary, but it was the only example I could think of.

It's pretty good in the sense that they are in Africa.
But i don't tolerate such thing if it's in my country.

What does 'It's pretty good in the sense that they are in Africa.
But i don't tolerate such thing if it's in my country.' mean?

Well, I can see where greenchoco is coming from. I certainly would be outraged if they introduced this in my country, but South Africa has a high rate of teen pregnancy, HIV and AIDS. So perhaps they are trying to prevent this with this law.

However, I do not think forbidding kissing will make much difference. Like Debs said, most countrys have laws for minimum age of sexual intercourse but that makes very little difference in the amount of teen pregnancy's. Good education does.
Former president Mbeki and his health minister denied that AIDS is caused by the HIV and that that is transmitted through intercourse. They accounted the many deaths to malnutrition. Only since 2007 is the government fighting AIDS. I doubt there is comprehensive sex education if this is the goverments stance on a serious treat like AIDS (and AIDS is a serious problem in South Africa)
It's these kind of gaps in education that causes teen pregnancy and HIV infection, the kids will kiss and have sex anyway. Make sure they do it safely.

Question: does anybody know what the punishment for kissing under sixteen is?

okay remeber AIDS is very wide speard in africa is makes sense .IN a way its savenig lives

Such a law will not make much difference on the spreading of AIDS.

Just like laws that don't allow people to have sex for a certain age are largely ignored, so will this law.

Uh... I don't think a law is going to stop people from making out, LOL! XD

Although I do understand where they're coming from. They're only trying to do what they think is best, even if it it really isn't a good choice in reality.

It seems unnesecary. It's just kissing.

Of course I would understand the concept of a law that forbids sexual intercourse of adolescents below the age of sixteen. But a law that exhibits kissing...reminds me of an overbearing and overprotective parent you would see in a kid's movie :/

Two main reasons why I say no to that are....
1) Kissing hardly has a negative effect on a teenager. Steps beyond that can cause pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases surfacing, rape, insecurity, and other horrible effects. The worst known thing kissing alone could do is give somebody a cold...if that's possible in a warm place such as Africa.
2) This may sound very...umm, odd...but a part of me says that sometimes teenagers NEED to kiss. To me, a kiss, whether in the teenage relationships or adult relationships, is a huge key in that relationship. It is an indication of trust, once you think more of it. If you kiss someone, you let them know that you care for them and that you will basically put your trust in them. I agree on the fact that sex shouldn't really be a huge key in the young teenager's relationships with boy/girlfriends. But if they're not even allowed a simple kiss...well, how will they know if they love and trust each other or not? They should at least be allowed to do something that indicates their safety in one another...

I can understand why they have that law standing in Africa but they could have other self aware programs to help: health and education, for one, knowledge is key to prevent: AIDS/HIV, sexually transmitted diseases, pregnancy, rape, etc, i can see the reasons, they are trying to avoid, stop these issues.

sapherequeen you do have a point there, but i believe there is an age where it just feels "too young" and i mean by sexual intercourse, kissing can be harmless til the person(s) take it too far.

Health and Education: in our schools, communities, and pplz to decide what to do with what they have learnt and still be responsible about it.

Im curious to know: is this law also against showing common affection in public?

Codswallop.