JOURNAL OF THE NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION, INDIA VOL. 21, 2022 The alternatives must begin with primary prevention measures, such as support for disadvantaged and at-risk families and early childhood initiatives proposed alternatives to detention such as community-based diversion programmes. There must be criteria laid down for staff selection; training and remuneration accountability; registration, monitoring and investigation; and complaint mechanism for children in the criminal justice system. The victims and witnesses must be protected outside the courtrooms as well, while travelling back and forth to the courts and in institutions, before and after trial and conviction of the accused. The POCSO Act was never intended to prosecute teen romance. Article 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (“UDHR”), of which India is a signatory, holds that everyone has the right to the protection of the law against arbitrary interference with his or her privacy. Consensual sexual acts fall under the purview of right to privacy of a human being. This has been recognised under Article 21 as a Fundamental Right by the judgement of the Supreme Court in the landmark case of Justice Puttaswamy v. Union of India (2017).65 Considering consensual sexual acts as a crime violates the right to privacy of the minors, in addition to other rights of the children. There is a need for law reform to revise the age of consent and prevent the criminalisation of older adolescents engaging in factually consensual and non-exploitative acts. In order to change the age of consent and avoid criminalising older teenagers, who engage in factually consensual and non-exploitative behaviours, the age of sexual consent must be lowered to 16 years. Most of the American states, Europe, Japan, Canada, Australia, China, and Russia have 16 years as the age of consent. There must be guidelines laid down for mandatory reporting. As stated in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, every child deprived of his or her liberty shall have the right to prompt access to legal and other appropriate assistance. The United Nations Principles and Guidelines on Access to Legal Aid in Criminal Justice Systems provide specifically that States should establish child-friendly legal aid systems that enable children to contact their parents or guardians at once and to prohibit any interview in the absence of a parent or guardian, and lawyer or other legal aid provider. 65 68 AIR 2017 SC 4161