Children's rights groups, outraged by the case, have urged lawmakers to rewrite the laws. “The question of consent or its absence should never arise for minor rape victims,” ​​the Voice of the Child organization said. France's High Council for Equality Between Women and Men has called for a statutory threshold.

Under French law, an act can qualify as rape only if there is violence or a threat of violence during a sexual act. Though the age of consent is 15, sex with a minor does not automatically qualify as rape in France, like it does in other countries. Instead, sex with someone under the age of consent constitutes a sexual offense punishable by five years in prison and a fine of $88,000. In Britain, Germany and Spain, there is an “irrefutable presumption of an absence of consent” in all sex acts against those younger than 16.