i posted this in another part of the site...

Post Reply New Topic

i didn't get much of a response though, but i think it might be a bit more appropriate in this section. anyway...

one of my biggest concerns is youth rights and to try and stop age discrimination against teenagers(within reason, of course).

so, do you support it or oppose it?

the main reason i am concerned is obviously since i am a teenager myself and my biggest pet peeve is when people make assumptions of me or others in my age group(15-18 ) based on our age alone. it is frustrating when people are patronizing and condescending towards me and talk down to me. it's also frustrating to have other people tell me how i think and my reasons for thinking how i do, based on my age alone. comments like "you don't know anything, you're a stupid teenager" don't do anything at all except cause bitterness and resentment. it doesn't make me as a teenager respect the person anymore.

will i deny that a lot of teenagers(western culture, specifically) are generally immature? not at all, however my theory is the immaturity is not because of our age but rather the overall american/western culture. personal responsibility are really not taught as much it seems and instead of raising kids to be mature and independent by the time they're teens, they're instead overprotected and coddled. so, what are your thoughts? is it the age or the culture?

i think it would benefit society to realize this and start to make sure they can improve on the next generation. laws from the government are ineffective, and as the citizens, we do have more influence on our culture than the politicians do. instead of slapping useless laws in place (such as the drinking age at 21 which most do not follow) we should address the actual problems and work to make solutions that will work.

In my country, it is apparently illegal for me to have a conversation even remotely flirtatious with a girl under 18.

Is this the sort of thing you are speaking of?

- D

yes, that is one of the many issues i have with it. the age limits that are based on nothing but arbitrary numbers and these laws do a lot more harm than they do good.

What exactly do you want changed?

A particular law?

a few laws, actually. while most states have 16-17 as their age of consent, they also put harmless people on the sex offender list and these people end up serving time and with ruined lives. we're talking about 16-18 year-olds who had sex with their girlfriends getting put in the same category as child molesters eventhough the sex was consensual. these laws do a lot more harm than they do good.

the drinking age in my opinion should be lowered to 18 because at 18 the law sees one as an adult, therefore should be given adult rights.

but, also i think society in general would be much more effective in making the changes than some old politicians who can't relate to the people.

I agree with you on all counts, except for changing the age of consent and drinking age.

The age of consent obviously isn't reflective of everyone's maturity level, but it's the best measure we have. If an eighteen-year-old guy wants to have sex with his seventeen-year-old girlfriend, I think he can wait.

As for the drinking age, if we wanted to be the most effective, we'd have to make the drinking age come before the driving age. This system works very well in Germany, where drinking is no big deal and there are much fewer incidents of public drunkenness and drunk driving (with the locals, anyway). They can drink at sixteen, and drive at eighteen. We could do that here, ONLY IF we had as much public transportation and if it were feasible to ride bikes to wherever we had to go. Because in many areas of the US are not like that, lowering the drinking age is not a good idea. However, I think that if you're in the army and you're under 21, but over eighteen, you should be allowed to drink.