Jamenta, I think young people today are far more intelligent and informed than I was at that age - more years ago than I wish to admit - and these rankings of voting age, drinking age or age of consent vary from country to country and so would appear to be arbitrary lines drawn by adults.
These same 'adults' have seriously fucked up the world young people are inheriting, so I strongly believe they should have a say.
Would you deny Greta Thunberg the right to take the actions she did as a16 year old?
I'll add a link to a recent piece in Australian media from a man who holds a chair in Human Rights Law in the Melbourne Law School at the University of Melbourne, in which he refutes the arguments against lowering the voting age:
The AVERAGE teen is not that smart, has little to no knowledge to base a decision on and most importantly is extremely subject to peer pressure and mass formation.
David, the question really wades into political theory, which I never spent much of my study time or book time on. (Spent more of my time in Psychology, Literature and Computers) As you say, consent for age varies from country to country, historical century by historical century.
At what point does youth take on the responsibility of adulthood? What is the best kind of government for a civilized society? Should someone smarter than Greta Thunberg decide whether she is allowed a platform to speak on or not? What censorship is good and what censorship is bad?
These are all areas of debate and political theory, which I can throw some of my uninformed opinion out upon, but I doubt would be able to match in argument - someone who is chair of the Melbourne Law School.
Jamenta, I think young people today are far more intelligent and informed than I was at that age - more years ago than I wish to admit - and these rankings of voting age, drinking age or age of consent vary from country to country and so would appear to be arbitrary lines drawn by adults.
These same 'adults' have seriously fucked up the world young people are inheriting, so I strongly believe they should have a say.
Would you deny Greta Thunberg the right to take the actions she did as a16 year old?
I'll add a link to a recent piece in Australian media from a man who holds a chair in Human Rights Law in the Melbourne Law School at the University of Melbourne, in which he refutes the arguments against lowering the voting age:
https://www.thenewdaily.com.au/news/politics/australian-politics/federal-election-2025/2025/04/01/voting-age-16-australia
The AVERAGE teen is not that smart, has little to no knowledge to base a decision on and most importantly is extremely subject to peer pressure and mass formation.
is there very much difference with the average grown-up?
David, the question really wades into political theory, which I never spent much of my study time or book time on. (Spent more of my time in Psychology, Literature and Computers) As you say, consent for age varies from country to country, historical century by historical century.
At what point does youth take on the responsibility of adulthood? What is the best kind of government for a civilized society? Should someone smarter than Greta Thunberg decide whether she is allowed a platform to speak on or not? What censorship is good and what censorship is bad?
These are all areas of debate and political theory, which I can throw some of my uninformed opinion out upon, but I doubt would be able to match in argument - someone who is chair of the Melbourne Law School.
Thanks for the link however! heh.
Cheers, let me know if you find someone smarter than Greta.