Why would anyone think 16 year-olds should be allowed to vote?

[MsAmerica]

Be honest - think back to when you were 16. Did you have an understanding of a broad range of issues? Did you pay serious attention to national news? Okay, even many adults may lapse on the score, but still, it seems crazy to me.

In the U.S., voting age had been 21 and the only reason it was lowered to 18 was that teens were being drafted to fight in Vietnam, and it was felt as unfair for them to have no say.

My mum gets a vote, she has dementia but is allowed to go and vote.

At 16 I was superficially political but I doubt I had a good in-depth understanding of any issues not directly affecting 16yo girls.

Gillick competence and the number of women attending university were the only things I knew much about.

For my ds today, it is university fees and the cost of housing.

16 isn't old enough to see all sides of an issue..

The day after the GE last year, a woman in our local area complained that she she’d been to the polling staton but found Nigel Farage wasn’t on the ballot paper here. She’d argued with the people manning the station and left. We live in Yorkshire and she had no concept or understanding of how constituencies and elections work. She was arguing that she should have been able to vote for Farage because she’d been told she could.

So, imo if people like her, and she won’t be alone, are allowed to vote I don’t see why 16yos can’t tbh. A lot of them (mine were) are more switched on and intelligent than those a hell of a lot older.

I can wrap this up for you pretty damn quick : because 16yr olds are terribly naive and are the only ones left who may be willing to vote for an extreme left wing government

No taxation without representation.

Some 16 year olds pay income tax. All people pay VAT.

It will lower the average age of first voting from around 21 to around 19. The younger people are at their first vote, the more likely they are to continue voting as they get older.

I think we infantilise children much more than we were infantilised at the same age in the 1980s. We must give them credit for their opinions and responsibility for their views. We cannot expect to keep speaking for children then expect them to suddenly take responsibility for their views once they are 18. There is no magic cutoff on a birthday.

Moreover if our children are raised with our views and then repudiate them, we have to accept that.

If our children vote against our values, we have to ask why we haven't been able to convince them.

If we object to them expressing their views at the ballot box, then we lose the opportunity to discuss differences fairly and potentially set up conflict.

Ultimately, why would this worry anyone? If we have raised our kids with our values we should be confident they will vote appropriately.

I'm so sorry. I have gotten that very wrong indeed ! I've reported my post 🥴

I wondered as she still gets her voters card through.

You think the school current affairs quiz is about Lib Dems being caught with their pants down?

Not that kids are generally even aware of the Lib Dems.

My children were teenagers when the country voted for Brexit…they were bloody furious,they were right!

Sorry I was getting totally jaded by "capacity" and legalities. My mistake - sorry 😐

1 in 500 16/17 year olds pay income tax.

That’s fine, she doesn’t even remember my name often but she’s considered able to vote.

The USA said no taxation without representation so surely the reverse, no representation without taxation holds . Many 16-18 great loss are still at school and I think there is an argument that if you have not yet paid tax then why do you get to have say how other people's money is spent? We also know a lot of 16year olds that would be bothered to vote would vote for left wing parties in an unrealistic fashio n.....and why not it's not your money the government is spending.

They’ve been able to vote in Scotland since 2016 in council and Scottish elections.

it’s a good thing.

Saw a great rebuttal to a similar post on Threads, which went something like:

My 52-year old colleague just shared a status on Facebook formally stating they do not have permission to use her images, right after sharing a scientifically impossible AI-generated flower bed she’s going to try at home, and a 4-year old post about a missing dog from another country. She’s allowed to vote.

Life experience doesn’t automatically equal the critical thinking skills required to make good decisions. You can’t discriminate on age without opening a whole can of ‘are you smart enough to vote?!’ worms. 16-year olds can leave school and enter full time employment, and pay tax. They have skin in the game and should vote.

16-year olds can pay tax. Some just choose not to. Should people that don’t pay tax, not receive the vote? Disenfranchise the poor?

16-year olds can leave school and enter full time employment,

Not in England they can't.

1 in 3 people aged between 16 and 64 pay no income tax. Should we take their vote…?

Fair enough. They have to be on an apprenticeship scheme or in training. But they are classed as employed and pay tax. They’re out there working.

Maybe it will be an opportunity to engage young people in voting. At my school (in the 90s) we had a really good programme of political awareness in six firm. I would have been 16. They went through the manifestos of each party and brought in all the protective MPs for a question and answer session. Then also had debates around political issues of the time. It really set in my head an interest and understanding of the parties. There was some independent organisation that helped young people engage in politics in a neutral way.

Did you have an understanding of a broad range of issues? Did you pay serious attention to national news? Okay, even many adults may lapse on the score, but still, it seems crazy to me @MsAmerica

I think you seriously underestimate many adults based on that criteria.

My dm never watches the news, her only source of news is taxi drivers, google cards which is mainly about cats, and her sister who gets her *news" off facebook.

My DH's mother is even worse, she doesn't even try to understand anything current, has very outdated views on pretty much everything and is extremely opinionated despite spouting absolute rubbish.

16 year olds aren't being forced to vote but those who want to and are interested are given the opportunity to have a say in their future.

Can we apply the same rule to people living on the state pension? If they’re no longer paying income tax they don’t get a vote? In my experience that age group are less politically engaged than the young, happy to bankrupt the country to keep pensions high & believe everything Linda on Facebook says…

The people who voted proportionately for Brexit are those who have to live the least time with it. All those 16 and 17 yo kids will be living with the consequences for decades. And my 14 yo gave her great aunt a run for her money talking about it. In two years I absolutely trust her to vote.

I totally agree! At that age, no seriousness will be placed on who stands for what.
You only had to watch the news tonight to see half the kids they interviewed couldn't string a sentence together, along with adding "like" in after every couple of words!
Do I want them to have the vote at 16? Hell no! They haven't experienced the adult world. They'd contribute nothing at that age.
One had the cheek to say that old peoples votes were pointless. My comment was "If it wasn't for old people, you wouldn't be here love"!!!