Petition to Raise the Age of Consent in Arkansas to 18. Arkansas currently permits adults to legally engage in sexual relationships with 16-year-olds. While this standard has existed for years, modern neuroscience and exploitation data make it clear that the law has not kept pace with scientific understanding or with the realities facing young people today. Research from the National Institute of Mental Health and the American Psychological Association shows that the prefrontal cortex — the area of the brain responsible for impulse control, long-term planning, and evaluating risk — continues developing into the mid-20s. Adolescents and young adults are particularly vulnerable to coercion, grooming, and manipulation in relationships involving significant age gaps and power imbalances. This petition calls on Arkansas lawmakers to raise the age of consent to 18, while including clear close-in-age exemptions to protect consensual peer relationships. The purpose is not to criminalize teenagers dating one another. The purpose is to close legal gaps that allow substantially older adults to pursue adolescents who are still developing neurologically and psychologically. A 16-year-old cannot legally purchase alcohol, sign most contracts, rent a vehicle, or serve in certain regulated capacities without restriction. Yet under current law, that same teenager may legally consent to a sexual relationship with someone decades older. That inconsistency demands reconsideration. Protecting young people from exploitation is not partisan. It is not ideological. It is a matter of aligning state law with modern science, documented power dynamics, and a clear commitment to youth safety. We respectfully urge Arkansas legislators to introduce and support legislation raising the age of consent to 18, with carefully structured peer exemptions, to better protect adolescents from predatory age-disparate relationships. Arkansas’s laws should reflect what we now know — and prioritize the safety, dignity, and long-term well-being of its youth.