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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Age of consent, voting, betting,smoking and games

82 replies

McHappyPants2012 · 27/08/2012 22:27

To me it seems daft that a 16 year old can have sex resulting a baby and to be able to play the lotto.

But can not buy cigerettes, alcohol, vote, bet and some games.

Iabu to think every thing so be 18

OP posts:
sunflowerseeds · 28/08/2012 20:28

I think very few 18 year olds actually vote. Voting is a boring grown up thing, like council tax, unlike sex.

HmmThinkingAboutIt · 28/08/2012 20:33

I think I see it like this:

Do I think my younger 13 year old self was oppressed by not being allowed to vote?
and
Do I think I was mentally mature enough to fully understand what I was voting for?

And since, even though I was always bright and politically aware, and the answer to both is a very firm "no" i don't see how on earth you can use the argument about women voting verses children voting.

LineRunner · 28/08/2012 20:34

I do agree with Exit about compulsory voting (with 'None of the above' being an option).

LineRunner · 28/08/2012 20:36

Hmm, I was pointing out the similarity to me in Exit's 'mental capacity/reasoning' argument.

Like I said, I didn't get the votes on this one!

BigOldFanny · 28/08/2012 20:46

I don't believe that children who are uninformed would make the effort to vote.. If they care enough to make the effort they deserve to be there. Might they be reckless, yes.. but they are still voting for their needs. Same as an adult

BigOldFanny · 28/08/2012 20:47

Do you really want people who are totally apathetic to be forced to vote? Why? Someone who doesn't do or care is not who I want making decisions for me

LST · 28/08/2012 20:48

I started having sex at 14, started smoking & drinking at 12.

It never bothered me what age I was 'allowed' to do these things.

Original poster
McHappyPants2012 · 28/08/2012 20:52

At 13 I struggled to pick subjects for gcse, and at 16 struggled to make the decision on education. I cocked that up and ended up cleaning for a living.

I was thinking of 18 for everything

OP posts:
BigOldFanny · 28/08/2012 20:54

I don't think many people know what they want to do in 10 years time (at any age) mchappy but you still know whats right for you now.

monsterchild · 28/08/2012 20:55

The voting I agree with, many would simply vote based on their parent's views and would likely be more suceptable to coercion.

Drinking and smoking just isn't good for kids due to the ease of creation of addictions in adolescent brains. But it never stopped them doing it. (or sex either)

I'm confused, how is a 15 year old not the legal parent of a child he/she created?
I'm from the US, but are the children of "underage" parents taken away automatically? Provided the parents are near in age (both 14 say) why aren't they the legal parents? What am I missing?

Schrodingershamster · 28/08/2012 20:57

Actually i think it should all be 16 like in Holland.
Then they can vote , make babies , drink and get married. If we think they are old enough to work and marry surley we should let them have a drink and enjoy legal sex ?

Original poster
McHappyPants2012 · 28/08/2012 20:58

But 10 years in the wrong government effect alot of people for a long time.

I don't understand politics but learning slowly

OP posts:
Schrodingershamster · 28/08/2012 20:59

Sorry i meant like the age for drinking beer in Holland not that you can do all those things in Hollant at 16 !

ExitStencilist · 28/08/2012 21:00

The "mental capacity to reason like adults" is used because it is true. This is not my opinion, but well known neurological fact.
It has no analogy whatsoever with the women can't reason like men argument which has no basis in fact.

Honestly, you're not making any sense.

LineRunner · 28/08/2012 21:02

So why are children tried as adults at age 10?

HmmThinkingAboutIt · 28/08/2012 21:06

There is a difference between understanding right and wrong and being responsible for your own actions and fully understanding issues like finance and making decisions that ultimately may be on behalf of other people as well as yourself.

DontmindifIdo · 28/08/2012 21:09

For each individual thing (voting, marriage, babies, drinking, joining the army) you can argue 16 or 18, but for me, it should be that you reach a point when the government says "no longer a child" and you get all the age restrictions lifted - if we are saying you are too young to understand what you are doing with voting at 16, then you can't be mature enough to get married. If you are saying "well, 16 year olds are mature enough to cope with sex and mature enough to understand the full implications of joining the army" then why not let them buy a glass of wine? You can join the army before you can learn to drive.

Pick an age, make it all that. If it's too young, raise it for everything.

ExitStencilist · 28/08/2012 21:10

Thats a whole different argument. Although actually they aren't tried as adults, you're thinking about the age of criminal responsibility, which is the age they can be tried at all, NOT the age they are tried as adults.
Sorry, still not making sense.

Schrodingershamster · 28/08/2012 21:11

Dont has summed up what i was making a cock up of trying to say :)

monsterchild · 28/08/2012 21:24

Dont, it's the opposite here, you can drive before you can join the army. Mostly for historical reasons, not, as Exit explained, for neurolgical reasons. Personally I think basing age priviliges on neurological evidence makes a lot more sense than on historical/needs based information.

Socknickingpixie · 28/08/2012 21:46

linerunner in the uk children over the age of 10 are deamed to be over the age of criminal responsability they are not tried as adults,thats what we have a youth justice system for. they are not the same thing.

occasionally just occasionally this whole trial as adult thing comes up usually with regard to a blow your mind type of crime in a red top paper however with regards to the actual trial process great care is taken during it to be aware that you are dealing with a child. during remand and on conviction we also have youth detention centers,for you to state otherwise as if its fact is offensive and a huge slur towards the many people who take great care of children and young people with in the youth justice system.

lst out of intrest if you thought about it now are you pleased you started smoking at 12? and how do you feel now about having sex at 14?

Trills · 28/08/2012 22:55

YABU to think "everything" should be 18, yes.

musicmadness · 28/08/2012 23:12

Personally I think it should be 16 for everything - much simpler! However, If teens want to drink/smoke/have sex underage then they will, and I'm glad I did TBH.

I started drinking at 12 and am not particularly bothered by it one way or the other. I drink occasionally on nights out now but not often so I don't think it made me an alcoholic or anything. I can't say I regret it, I have some good memories from those parties! I had my first cigarette around the same age, I don't smoke much, just occasionally on a night out when we all have one at the end of the night (last time was months ago), again I don't see the problem. I can't say I'm glad I had my first cigarette then but I don't regret it either, I think I probably would have regretted it if I got physically addicted though so it probably was a bit stupid in hindsight.

I had sex with my then BF at 14 as well and still think of him pretty fondly, I definitely don't regret it. I knew it was against the law and quite frankly didn't give a stuff. There are plenty of things I regret from my teen years but overall I can't say I regret drinking/having sex earlier than officially allowed, I don't think it had a negative impact on my life. Most of my regrets involve things I didn't do rather than things I did - I know it's a cliché but it's true!

Mrsjay · 28/08/2012 23:12

Under 18 year olds need parental consent

Not in scotland you can marry at 16 , a 16 yr or 17 yr old needs an 'adult' to sign a tenancy agreement if they get a L A house,

Birdsgottafly · 28/08/2012 23:30

Society has a responsibility to leglislate against what it knows to be harmful.

The research is there about under 18's being exposed to activities that can become addictive, that is why the age has increased on lots of things.

The same with how we process what we see, having a sex life is a progressive learning process and ideally there is a healthy developmental sequence, to it, so rather than put types of porn into age categories, all porn is 18.

I don't agree with changing the legal age to have sex, 16 is old enough and for some 17 is old enough to be having their first baby (as i was).