most jurisdictions allow minors above a certain age to marry with parental and/or government permission. in jurisdictions which allow this, a minor who is married is an exception to the law. for example, in wisconsin the age of consent for sex is 18. marriage is an exception. marriage usually prevents a party to the marriage from being charged under sexual assault laws, as long as both husband and wife are at least 16 years, although not if one of the parties is younger than this age and one is older. this varies from country to country. in some places kissing is considered a sexual activity. other places only count sexual intercourse. most countries have laws that say what the legal age of consent is. this is usually a fixed age. for example, in france the age of consent is set at 15, which means having sex with anyone below that age by anyone over that age is illegal. however, some jurisdictions use sexual maturity instead of age to determine capacity for consent. for example, when russia was a part of the soviet union, its age of consent was having reached "sexual maturity".