RECENTLY SOME CHILDREN'S welfare groups proposed that the age of consent be raised to 18 years. This, they say, would among other things, help reduce the number of sexual offences being committed against minors and protect young girls.

Personally, I think this is a complete waste of time because of one reason and one reason only. Are we saying that if we raise the age of consent sick-minded men are going to want to have sex with only girls above 18?

You have got to be kidding. If these people who want the age of consent raised really believe that rapists and sexual predators are going to say, Hmmm, so now I have to rape only girls above 18, they're more naive than anyone could have imagined.

Look, there are men out there who no matter what the age of consent is 0-100 years, they have no interest in anything but some 12 or 14-year-old flesh. I know a guy, who for him, a 16-year-old is an old woman. Should he be in prison, yes. That he isn't is what the real problem is, not the age of consent.

The other day, some man who claims he is the human incarnation of God - which pretty much explains his state of mind - appeared on a programme on television, telling all of Jamaica, or those who cared to watch, that he intends on having sex with his daughters when the time is right. Now, if we were serious about protecting our young girls, his butt would have been in prison as soon as that show ended. But is he? I doubt it.

The problem in this country is that we turn a blind eye to too much of the real crap that goes on. Many of us know of a 65-year-old man who has a sweet tooth for underage female flesh and we watch as he wines and dines her, then impregnates her and then we call her 'wutliss.' We all know of the taxi driver who likes the school girls and is often seen out at night with them, sometimes in uniform, sometimes not. Most of us know of the man in our community who sexually abuses his daughter night after night. And what do we do? Nothing.

There are already laws in place that protect little girls and women in general. What we need to do is give those laws real teeth.

If, for example, we find, try and convict a sexual offender, after he is released from prison, we register him and monitor him wherever he goes, he is compelled by law to notify the police who then issue an advisory to the community that there is a convicted sexual predator among them.

Prior to that, depending on the severity of the offence, we neuter him, like we would a dog. Also, he goes back to prison for life if he uses his mouth (since he would have no further use of the offending organ) to commit any sexual offence, and that ranges from using lewd and lascivious language to performing cunnilingus on his victim, if he is of that inclination.

For those predators whose tastes are more for little boys, well, putting the offending tool into a meat grinder while it is still attached to him wouldn't be a bad option.