IT will no doubt upset some adults and delight others but, thanks to the Constitutional Court, it is now no longer a crime for children aged 12 to 15 to engage in consensual sexual activities.
The ruling comes just as spring tightens its balmy grip and the fevered lambs are seized by hormonally-charged urges to gambol about in loose clothing. Concerned parents are advised to stand by with the nettles and buckets of cold water.
In its unanimous judgment on Thursday, the court did not however rule on the criminal liability of 16 and 17-year-olds who had sex or merely even kissed and fondled those aged between 12 and 15.
This is a grey area in the legislation that struck us, here at the Mahogany Ridge, as potentially problematic. Consider a pair 15-year-olds who have not been saving themselves for the honeymoon, as it were. Does the farmyard behaviour become illegal the moment one partner turns 16?
I have mixed feelings about the ruling. True, it brings back cherished memories of Alison and our liaisons behind the swimming pool shed on those torrid Highveld afternoons in the early 1970s. After the al fresco clawing and groping, we'd lie back with our non-filtered cigarettes, inject absinthe straight into our veins and imagine the faces of our heroes in the clouds as they scudded overhead. Camus, Sartre, Kerouac, David Bowie . . . typical pop idols of the average 13-year-old. More importantly, we'd convince ourselves that it was society's crime, not ours, and then we'd copy one another's homework.
But all that has now been stripped of its illicit edge, the very thing that made it all so alluring and special. Forbidden fruit that is no longer forbidden? How wrong is that? Growing up will now always have been more fun for us and a greater adventure than it will ever be for our kids and that's a big pity.