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Entering relationships as a teenager is both exhilarating and scary. There are possibilities but also pitfalls especially around intimacy, consent and rights. There are laws that are meant to protect us, but in the heat of the moment do they actually help? There’s also the problem that different countries have different laws, meaning that what might be legal in one place might be illegal elsewhere.

In this article, I’ll be explaining how consent works in the UK, including looking at court cases. I’ll also refer to 18-year-old Markus Fakana’s who received a prison sentence for being sexually active with his girlfriend in Dubai.

What Does Consent Mean?

Of course, most relationships don’t involve bringing a case to court. Thank goodness! And consent is more than just saying ‘yes’.

Consent whether it’s a new relationship or one that has anniversaries, is about two things; freedom and capacity. Freedom in this sense is about making a choice without coercion, pressure, threats, or manipulation and capacity is about having the mental ability and understanding to make that choice.

These are important because even if someone says 'yes', if they are unable to think clearly because they’re drunk, scared, have been deceived or are pressured, that 'yes', may actually be a ‘no’!

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16 Is The Age of Consent in the UK

In the UK, the legal age at which one can consent to sexual activity is 16. Notice ‘sexual activity’? Well, that means any form of sexual activity, not only penetration.

What this means is that under-16s cannot legally consent, no matter how much they believe they want to. The law presumes they are not capable of making such decisions.

And this is where it gets interesting because in practice, the criminal justice system tends to treat close-in-age consensual relationships differently from exploitative ones. Close-in-age simply means similar age, for example a 14 and a 15-year-old. This is because the main goal is protecting young people from forced or abusive relationships rather than punishing consensual ones between those of a similar age.

Consent May Not Be Valid Even If Someone Is Over 16

In some cases, even if someone is over 16, consent may not be valid. One example is where alcohol and drugs are involved. This is because if you’re so intoxicated that you can’t understand or control what happens, then you’re not capable of giving consent.

This makes perfect sense. However, that’s not the full picture as demonstrated by the case of R v Bree [2007]. Benjamin Bree in his 20s and someone known only as M, who was 19 at the time, had been drinking heavily before going to Bree's flat where they were intimate. After the encounter M reported that she was too drunk to consent. Bree argued it was consensual but was convicted of rape. He appealed. The Court of Appeal overturned the conviction because the judge in initial trial had given a wrong direction to the jury by saying that being drunk removes capacity to consent. The Court of Appeal did not agree and said that the question for the jury is whether the person was so intoxicated they were unable to make a choice. This case tells us that, drugs and alcohol may extinguish consent if one of the parties is so drunk that they couldn’t have given true consent.

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Being lied to is awful, especially in a relationship but in most cases it doesn’t lead to a court case. However, in certain situations consent might not be valid where there’s been deception. This is if you hide something important about yourself including, your gender, identity, or a serious health issue (see below for information on sexually transmitted infections (STIs)), the other party might not have truly consented as in R v McNally [2013].

In the case, McNally started an online relationship with a teenage girl (M). The problem was that McNally was a biological girl while pretending to be a boy called Scott. Eventually they met up and were intimate. At the time, M still believed that McNally was male. Later she found out the truth and reported it to police. McNally was found guilty of assault by penetration. The court said that lying about something so important meant M couldn't truly consent. This case shows that some deceptions about identity are so serious they undo consent.

In the iconic movie Raiders Of The Lost Ark, a student shows her affection for her professor, Indiana Jones by pencilling ‘LOVE YOU’ across her eyelids. Some of us know of real-life situations where a teen has a crush on their teacher and crushes are generally innocent jokes between friends and they fizzle out. But it is yet another situation where consent could be invalid because there are rules against abuse of power by people in trusted positions, such as teachers, care workers, coaches etc.

The law restricts people in these positions from having sexual relationships with young people under 18, even though the age of consent is 16. This is because of the imbalance of power which could make genuine consent doubtful.

STIs and Informed Consent

One of the strongest examples of why consent must be informed the issue of STI’s. If a person who has such an infection which presents a serious health risk to someone they have sexual contact with and doesn’t inform them, then this seriously undermines the partner’s ability to consent. This was seen in the case of R v Dica (2004), where Mr Dica who knew he was HIV positive had sexual relationships with a number of women and some became infected.

Dica argued that they consented but the court said that if the partner is unaware of an STI, then you can’t say they consented as they didn’t know what they were risking. This means that consent without honesty isn’t real consent.

Relationships Abroad: Laws Differ

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Consent laws are not the same everywhere. What might be legal in the UK might be illegal in another country.

The is shown by the case of Markus Fakana, an 18-year-old Briton arrested in Dubai in 2024 after being intimate with his 17-year-old girlfriend (who was just a month away from turning 18), while both families were on holiday from the UK. In the UK, the age of consent is 16, so their relationship wouldn’t have been illegal here. But in the United Arab Emirates, the age of consent is 18 and sexual activity under that age is strictly illegal, even if the parties are close-in-age.

After the girl’s mother reported the relationship to authorities, Markus was prosecuted and sentenced to a year in prison even though the girl admitted that it was consensual. This case shows that what’s consensual and legal in one country may be a criminal offence in another and how serious the consequences of intimacy while abroad could be. Unfortunately, just months after being released from prison in Dubai, on 3rd October 2025, Markus was killed in a traffic accident.

Sexting, Images & Digital Consent

In the UK, under the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015, it’s against the law to take, possess, or share intimate sexual images of anyone under 18, even if they gave their consent or if it’s picture of yourself. The big issue for teens is that relationships breakdown and once an image of you is in someone else’s hands you have no control over where it might end up. It really is best to say ‘No’!, to accepting, taking or posing for such a photo.

Final Thoughts

No one ever said that growing up is easy and relationships should probably come with some sort of health warning. In the case of consent, we should remember that it’s about treating others with common decency. This is about being honest, understanding that people may change their mind and knowing that you have the freedom to change yours.

It's about maturity to behave appropriately no matter how aroused you might be. And while holiday romances make great novels and movies, they can also be problematic if you don’t follow local laws, as Markus Fakana found out.

It’s not just about protecting ourselves; it’s also the responsibility to respect others and if we can't do that, it's probably best to put relationships on hold until we can!