Yay or nay: the legal age sucks?

Post Reply New Topic

So I was on Wiki and it said basic adult thinking capabilities are reached by about age 15, and 16 has been culturally considered the threshold of adulthood/late adolescence for hundreds of years.

And people seem to understand this in high school.

Freshman: a little awkward, insecure, not really grown yet still children, worried about being normal/"popular".
Sophomores:care a lot less about "normalcy", rather more about dignity and respect, but still care what others think, hopeful, definitely.

Juniors/seniors:grown, confident, explore outside world a lot more, "OMG everyone's watching,am I normal?" has essentially worn off, expect considerable maturity out of themselves, MUCH more adult-like relationships.


And remember, I don't mean people will never act immature for their age, it's more about understanding and basic capabilities.

Many folks don't have anything straightened out in their life through their 30s and 40s? Doesn't mean they're not adults.


What I think: Driving age is alright, the way they've done it.
14-16 seems pretty reasonable.

16 should be age of majority.

21 seems reasonable for a lot of the other "adult" rights such as drinking or cigarettes or (?) voting, idunno.
minor public offices/military positions,etc.



And maybe 25 for *BIG* things, because the brain isn't really done developing till then

For women, the brain is done developing around 21/22. For me it is more like 25. When I say done developing, I mean when you are 18 you lack reasoning ability and think you are on top of the world and know it all. The brain has to develop that reasoning ability to be able to make you realize you don't know anything. 18 is legally an adult but it doesn't feel like it sometimes.

Relying on Wikipedia for data without providing the links to the relevant articles is like planning your life around your daily horoscope -- you might get a few hits, you might get a few misses, but any correlations between the two are tenuous, at best.

Never trust anyone under the age of 30.

I think 18 is too young for some people (not all). I remember when my cousin had got involved with a control freak when she was 18, and she was so naive that she believed all his lies and he took away her individuality. We tried to get her away from him but the police said they can't do anything because she's 18, unless she confessed herself that he was no good, which she didn't.

Stupid police. If the age thing was 21, we could have got her away. It's like just because someone's 18, it means everyone's expected to turn a blind eye to them.

In Sweden you can legally have sex from the age of 15, get a drivers linsence when you're 18, vote/ smoke/ drink in bars when you're 18 and buy alcohol in a store when you're 20.

I find it VERY strange that America consider people old enough to drive a car in traffic when they are 16 (? But not in all states, or how is it?) but you can't drink until you're 21 Although, the later you start drinking the better, I guess.

The drinking age is a function of heavy campaigning by Mothers Against Drunk Driving during the 1970's and 1980's. Any state that sets it's minimum drinking age below 21 (since states have the right to control alcohol) looses a percentage of it's federal highway maintenance grants.

^ I don't think that MADD existed until the 1980's.

- - -

I think there is a legitimate argument that if you're old enough to vote and join the military and kill people then you ought to be able to drink.

But I think the real reason for the drinking age is that at that point you're no longer cute enough for anyone to feel bad about you drowning in your own vomit or being locked up with rapists and murderers because you were driving drunk.

In some ways the legal ages are a bit silly. We have these ages to legally drink alcohol, smoke, and have sex. Yet nothing is done to enforce these "laws" when those that are underage do them. And yes, I know it means you can't buy the first 2 in shops, but it can be easily obtained by other means.

I completely agree, people are blithering idiots until they turn 30, not a day before.

I don't know what the "age of majority" is..but I find the fact that 15 year olds can drive in America really freaking scary!

I think it really depends on the person. I think at 18 (the time you go to uni here in the UK) it's about the right time to be able to vote, drink etc. You're by no means a wise adult, but I'm sure our views of maturity get re-evaluated the older we get.

I like the guidelines to which we work in my job in regards to contraception. I work in sexual health. The legal age to have sex in the UK is 16, which I think is about right. If someone is over 13 but under 16, we look a bit more at the relationship based on 5 things:
1) that the person understands advice given
2) that the person can't be persuaded to tell their parents about using contraception
3) that they are very likely to continue having sexual intercourse with or without contraceptive treatment
4) that their physical and/or mental health will be damaged if they are not given contraception
5) that it seems in the best interests to give someone contraception advice, without parental consent


People are all different. I've met 14 year olds who are making perfectly reasonable and justifiable decisions about life and then 20 year olds who are a mess and have no idea what they're doing. You have to have cut off points somewhere, but I like the leeway that guidelines like the above I quoted give.

That is very incorrect. The human brain does not start to stop changing (aka wiring itself) until age 25. The parts of the brain that wire last are precisely those that are linked with cognition and decision making.


Historically and culturally the low age of 12 to 16 to consider people as 'grown up' had nothing to do with biology and a lot to do with mortality. Most people back in the days died before they reached 21 and very few reached their 50's. Added to that, most people in the past had quite large families and having 6 or more kids was not uncommon. That meant the population base always had a lot more young people than adults.

Today we should actually raise the age of adulthood to 21 for voting and 25 for military service. It is in my opinion, a crime to accept people under 25 into a military since they don't really have full cognitive abilities nor life experience until then to sign their lives away to bleed for the old. Not in our modern day and age at least.

I think you should have to take a test for adulthood to be bestowed upon you by society. Some people never grow up! Certainly not by age 18. Some mature faster than that. Most don't. I think you need to be declared an adult in order to vote, drink, drive, lots o' s**t, OK. I think you should have to carry a card that proves you're an adult and not a 30 year old f**k up who drinks too much, runs red lights, and generally makes everyone's life around him hell for being a grown up adolescent.

In my experience 9 out of 10 people can't be trusted either way, regardless of their age.
In short, trust no-one, period. The sooner people figure that out, the better off they'll be.

Yes, that's kind of what I said in the original post is that it's not how you ACT, it's your actual emotional maturity and understanding of these things.

While one would be correct in saying that high school upperclassmen and college students party a lot and act pretty stupid, they know what they're doing, they're adults who feel empowered by their youth.

It isn't that they aren't grown,they just think they're cool, ya know?

Going over age restrictions in Canada for what I remember hearing about things. I will say not sure or for sure for each thing.

Legal age for sex- For some reason it has been brought up that a 12 year old can legally have sex in Canada provided that the other partner is no older than 14 years old. Of course, 14 years of age is the legal age in which people can have sex, but I think the age of partner is restricted on that front as well. I don't know for sure if this law exists as it is today as this was common knowledge when I read about it 10 years ago. The average age any women loses their virginity is 14-16 up here, while guys are in the 16-19 range for that.

Driving- 16 years of age. There is a graduating licensing system in the province of Ontario and the youngest you can be legally to have a full driver's license is 18 years of age minus four months. Very rare to see a 17 year old with a full license around here. There are also restrictions placed (G1, can't drive alone, G2, can drive alone with some restrictions that may vary based on age of driver, and G being full license which may have less restrictions than previous class based on age of driver). Anyone under the age of 22 I believe cannot have drunk passengers in their car and this is a pretty new law that has been passed in the last couple years. I like that law. I know for sure that most of this is true.

Legal Age to purchase Pornography- 18 years old. I am not sure about the laws in the rest of Canada outside of Ontario.

Smoking/Drinking- Legal age to purchase is 19. In Quebec, it is 18 I believe. Other provinces may vary as well. Of course, you see a lot of underagers drinking and smoking.

Legal ages are just stupid and reflect society's lack of knowledge. How can you set a standard age for driving/voting/military/drinking/tobacco when every person is individually unique? One 16 year old might have the cognitive adequacies for operating a vehicle and another 16 year old drives for 2 days and ends up killing someone because of pure negligence.

They should administer intelligence tests to determine one eligible for such privileges.