While one can legally be considered an adult at the age of 18, age is often just a number. Brain development, maturity and responsibility are also determining factors in adulthood. Although 18 is considered the age at which a person grows up legally, many people believe that at this age one is not developed or mature enough to make responsible decisions. The human brain doesn`t fully develop until the age of 25, and the prefrontal cortex — which helps control impulses, solve problems, regulate emotions, and organize behavior — is not semi-developed until a person reaches the age of 18. As a parent who raised two millennials, I understand that the concept of adulthood is sometimes complex. Is sexual maturity adulthood? Maybe, maybe not. Do people mature differently at different times? Sure. My son was ready and eager to drive at the age of 16, but my daughter said she wasn`t and waited a few more years to feel confident. I thought it was a very adult decision, and they were both right. So if 18 is the age of adulthood, why is 21 the legal minimum age to drink alcohol? The age of 18 is identified in the Jewish Talmud as the age of adulthood, as opposed to good judgment for making financial decisions as a judge. [7] Here, the Talmud says that every court given to Josiah, the sixteenth king of Judah (c.
640-609), who was delivered from the age of eight when he was crowned at the age of eighteen, was overthrown and he returned the money to the parties he considered responsible because he feared that in his youth, he did not judge the cases correctly. Other Jewish commentators have debated whether the age of 13 or 18 is the age to make decisions in a Jewish court. [8] The age of majority refers exclusively to the acquisition of legal control over the person, decisions and actions, and the corresponding termination of the legal authority of the parents (or guardian(s) instead of the parent(s)) over the child`s person and matters in general. In Washington, for example, you can have consensual sex at 16, and you can get married at 17 without parental consent. You can apply for emancipation at the age of 16 – that is, accept adulthood for yourself. As far as the law is concerned, you are an adult at the age of 18, although for crimes such as murder, 16- and 17-year-olds can automatically be tried as adults. Theoretically, older teenagers could even be sentenced to death, although there is currently a moratorium on executions. Many license ages correlate with the age of majority, but these are still legally different concepts.
You do not need to reach the age of majority to have permission to exercise certain rights and obligations. Some license ages are actually higher than the age of majority. For example, to purchase alcoholic beverages, the age of license in all U.S. states is 21. Another example is the voting age, which was 21 in the United States before the 1970s, as well as the age of majority in all or most states. [3] In the Republic of Ireland, the age of majority is 18, but one must be over 21 to stand for election to the Houses of the Oireachtas. [4] Also in Portugal, the age of majority is 18, but one must be at least 25 years old to run for public office and 35 years old to run for president. [5] A child who is legally emancipated by a competent court automatically reaches maturity when the court order is signed.
Only emancipation confers the status of maturity before a person has actually reached the legal age. First, the due date must be set. Maturity in terms of aging is a natural process that everyone is hopefully going through. But maturity is also the development of the mind. Minds differ and decisions about each individual life differ. Legality cannot be measured by maturity, so the age of majority should not exist. As it stands, however, it is imperfect. Lowering the age to 16 would not be legally beneficial and would cause difficulties in the current system.<<<A sign of maturity is to see a problem for the whole and not just for the small part that upsets you. The whole picture here is a process. What can 18-year-olds do that 16-year-olds cannot do? Well, on the one hand, they can play. You can also buy cigarettes.
Cool, so you want to make one? Well, every adult 18 and older has to go through a process to have their ID card verified for the legal age. With what you are proposing, there should be some sort of way to identify maturity. The only way I can think of is to have a maturity test and give people maturity cards. The biggest problem is that you may know what`s ripe but don`t follow. Therefore, they could pass the test, but that does not mean that they obey what they have written off. Or if it`s an adult who goes somewhere to say, “Yes, my child is mature.” Well, I bet 80% of immature children have parents who consider them mature anyway. And now we`re also asking stores (who seem to be having trouble asking for ID) that need to ask for maturity cards. The whole process is more than flawed, easy to cheat and simply more complicated than it`s worth. Big problem, you`ll have to wait another two years to buy cigars that you can`t smoke at school and need a job to support your unhealthy habit. Or you`ll have to wait 2 years to blow up all the change you make on your minimum wage job in a casino. Anything to create a complicated and easily damaged system? It doesn`t make sense We may have learned more, but there is also more to learn.
Your intelligence has nothing to do with your intelligence on the street. At 16, I realize that I need the support and guidance of my parents, without them I would never get anywhere. I think 18 is a good legal age.<<<If you think you`re smart, you`d look at the whole process you`re corrupting, making it easily obstructible and asking for ways to throw away the little money you make from your job at minimum wage OR throw away your parents` money. It`s not worth it, because then people can vote. The right to vote in the United States has long been linked to adulthood and the age of majority. Before the passage of the 26th Amendment in 1971, 21 was the minimum voting age in most states — and therefore served as an adulthood in most areas of law. Congress lowered the nationwide voting age to 18 in response to unrest and heated debate over the Vietnam War. Many felt that those who were old enough to be drafted into the armed forces should also be able to vote. Maintaining a higher age of majority seemed to make no sense if lawmakers let young people vote at 18, so states began using 18 as a new measure for legal adulthood. Many 16-year-olds do not behave with maturity, they are extremely childish and impetuous.
For the few who act reasonably, there is a flood of them who generously participate in the act of drinking minors in order to act with maturity. Maturity is not found in a pint of beer. Go to a town or town that has a college nearby, and you`ll often see packs of teenagers walking around childish and noisy. 16-year-olds simply behave too immature for the simple reason that they are immature, they have just left school. Definitely let them humor you with their chatter and little debates, but at the end of the day, 18 is the legal age for most things and even then, many people still can`t grasp the concept of maturity.<<<So there is the group of 16-year-olds ruining it for the rest of them. You know that companies do a bad job of verifying identifiers as they are, now they have to verify identifiers, testimonials and wise tires? There are many opinions about when to grow up. Some are based on science, while others are personal opinions. Although the age is currently 18, science argues that 25 is a more logical age for adulthood, and I agree. Although one is legally considered an adult at the age of 18, it can be argued that one is not yet fully mentally developed and that one has many limited abilities until the age of 21. New York authorities on Monday proposed raising the legal age to buy cigarettes from 18 to 21. In 47 states, the age of majority – the age at which a person has the legal rights and obligations of an adult – is 18.
Why is 18 considered the age of adulthood? The age of majority is the legally recognized or declared threshold of adulthood. This is the moment when minors cease to be considered as such and take legal control over their persons, actions and decisions, thus ending the control and legal responsibility of their parents or guardians towards them. Most countries set the age of majority at 18, but some jurisdictions have a higher age and others lower. The word majority here refers to having longer years and being of age, as opposed to the minority, the state of being a minor. The law of a particular jurisdiction cannot use the term “age of majority”. The term usually refers to a set of laws that confer adult status.
