Do you agree with the current age restrictions for teens and young adults?

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Permalink Reply by Steph Woodward on October 8, 2009 at 7:16am

I've long held the belief that we need to determine a standard age for "adulthood" and simply hold people to it, rather than continuing to jump back and forth on a situational basis. Either people are mentally capable of making adult decisions at 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21... whatever age it might be, or they're not. Continuing to manipulate that age for whatever is legally convenient at the time makes no sense and undermines the entire purpose and legitimacy of establishing such an age for "adulthood" to begin with.

If you are "adult" enough to give your life to serve your country, then you certainly are "adult" enough to make decisions regarding alchohol, gambling, and legal contracts (be it marriage or buying/renting a car), and you should be legally viewed as an adult. As it stands now, there are some places where 14 year olds can be tried as adults if it suits the whim of the court in that particular situation. And yet, the SAME court would never consider allowing that SAME 14 year old to appeal for their driver’s license or the right to go into a bar or vote, but they have no issue sending them to prison for life for a crime they commit. How, exactly, does that make sense? Either they’re developed enough to make adult decisions and perform adult acts or they’re not. It really is that simple, and I don’t see why we continue to allow the government to complicate it.

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