Published on 12, July, 2020
Hello my name is Shola and I would like for the age for being an adult to be lowered from age 18 to age 16, 15 or even 14 or 13 in this country and all other countries too because I am so angry with older people and people who are young treating younger people which includes children and teenagers like they are babies/little children when they are all not babies or little children anymore. People seriously need to stop treating children and teenagers like they are babies or little children right now as that is not acceptable and children and teenagers should be allowed to have more rights, responsibilities and freedoms like adults already have please I need to know what are the full list of things young people want to change and what are the list of changes that they want to see happen on this planet?
Hello there,
I think there are two issues here. I sympathise entirely with your frustrations, but not the goals. I'll explain.
All legal limits must be set somewhere. You can't let a five year old vote or let a 10 year old drink a pint. Neither can you expect a 14 year old to go out and earn their own living and pay tax. Trouble is each individual matures at a different rate. I'm sure we've all met extremely mature and sensible 15 year olds who make better decisions than their elders, and also 20 somethings or older who are basically still spoilt, irresponsible brats, or 18 year olds so naive they are very, very vulnerable to exploitation.
But the bars need to be set somewhere. They should of course be consistent. Once upon a time we thought it fine that a young man could die for his country at 18, but not vote until 21. Or that a 16 year old could consent to sex and get married, but not watch an X rated movie in a cinema. Contradictions like that need evening out, of course. But the bar needs to go somewhere and the best any society can do is decide at what point the average person gains enough maturity to take adult responsibility and therefore also enjoy adult rights.
That said, where I have enormous sympathy with you is with respect to the consideration of the wishes and views of young people. Each young person should be treated by the adults, I agree, in accordance with the level of maturity they have attained. Adults should refrain from patronising and take the young person's views into account even if the decision can't be turned over to them and they may not be able to have what they want.
I'll give you a for instance. At 5 my son went to the school I chose. At 11 we viewed all the schools together and he sat the exams for the selective ones. It was legally MY decision to decide, but I wanted him to be happy in school and for him to feel it was the right school for him. There were a number of schools with good academic reputations, any of which I'd have been happy with. Two were boy's grammars, another was co-ed. I asked my son in what order he would like me to put the schools down on the form. He wanted the co-ed school in first place because he said although he liked the facilities at them all; "girls were half the population and he didn't want to grow up with out their perspective". He'd worked hard for the exam for that school because he wanted it and his argument showed real thought about how it would affect his future and a genuine respect for the girls. I was happy to give him his choice - he'd earned it. However, had he wanted a school I didn't think was suitable and the only reason was because he didn't like the colour of the uniform or because one particular mate was going there, believe me I would have exercised my parental right to say "no" and send him where I thought he'd get the best education, and I would have done that BECAUSE I love him. - Do you see?
Yes, young people absolutely have rights and their views should be respected, but respecting them does not always mean that a young person can or should be in control of the decision too soon.
Dawn if young people want to make decisions sooner at an earlier age so soon then that is acceptable and respecting their views does always actually mean that they can be in control of an important decision.
Why would we respect children ruining their lives? Their brains aren't even fully developed at the ages you are suggesting.
I lost my virginity at the age of 14 to a 19yr old man. At the time I felt it was my choice. As an adult and a parent to two young girls, I look back and feel that my innocence was taken advantage of and I have no idea why a 19yr old was attracted to my 14yr old self. It is pretty gross to be frank. I have friends with 14yr old daughters and they aren't fully developed. They don't look like women.
My mum also had me at 16yrs old. She did the best job she could but she didn't end up happily ever after with a career, a house, a car, or exotic holidays and whatever else we see as success in life. She was a child. She didn't get to have a lot of fun years that she should've still had ahead of her. I'm grateful to her but it was a sacrifice for her, not simply a joy.
You haven't actually said WHY you think this is a good idea.
I don't think there is anything wrong with working as soon as u can,and maybe it makes people mature. Think too much is put on people to go to university. And like colleges,universities from what i've seen make them close minded,particularly politically(all think the same way judged on no life experience!). Maybe doing dead end jobs to pay bills teaches responsibility,where getting learing debts causes all the problems of 'anxieties' they all seem to have. Or staying in a hostel cos ur homeless is a good way to see how some people have it.