Should there be one, single age for being an "adult"???

[jumbo_jim]

I will base this on the UK. At the age of 16 you can legally have sex, yet you can't buy porn or even make it although you would be allowed to do the same things that happen in a film but only in private.
You can get married but not be allowed to ***** at the reception.

There are also varying rules when it comes to *******. From the age of 5 you can ***** in your own house. At 14 you can have a glass of **** in a pub with a meal, at 16 you can have a pint with a meal. Yet you have to wait until 18 before you can ***** without having a meal. You could have been ******** **** with a meal for 4 years before you are allowed to walk into a shop and purchase a bottle. So yes I would like to see clearer rules put in place for when you can do things.

 

[Facial_King]

^^^

jumbo_jim's comment above gets right into what I was hoping to address in this thread. So many of us - including myself - like to point out the discrepancies in the legal age requirements for various rights, responsibilities, privileges, etc.

When we point these out, are we saying that inconsistencies are intolerable?

This is all so ambiguous and necessarily arbitrary. It's a judgment call, and many of us have rather different judgments.

As I'm getting older, I'm starting to think this way:

17 for provisional driving license, 18 or 19 for full driving privileges.
21 is too old for the ******** age, I'm thinking 18 might be doable, maybe 19 makes sense. But maybe there could be a strict provision in the law to discourage *****-driving.

I'm really starting to think at least 19, maybe 20 or 21 for making or participating in porn.

It doesn't bother me if it's past the age of consent for sex.

Voting?? Maybe we ought to bring that down to 17 or even 16.

Draft age? Oughta be higher than 18. I'm thinking 20 or 21.
Voluntary enlistment age - 19.

These are just off-the-cuff ideas, I'm open to arguments and change.

 

[Facial_King]

In all honesty, I don't think it matters what anyone thinks. I think such things should be decided by public referendum, so nobody is disgruntled. The majorioty decides these ages. Hopefully they're not idiots about it.

In my world, 16 is the age for everything, some things are even younger (you should be able to vote at 13), and military service is no longer an option for anyone under 21.

Fox

Fox, don't think I'm picking on you, cuz I'm not. For better or worse, some of your comments - esp. when they confound me and/or I beg to differ - just seem to grab my attention. You might as well take it as a compliment!

Anyway, saying that it doesn't matter what anyone thinks AND that "such things should be decided by public referendum" where majority rules seems a little contradictory, unless of course you're really pushing for the pure democracy route, where it doesn't matter what any ONE person thinks, only what the majority wants.

And how are we to know if the majority aren't being "idiots about it" - when they agree with you, me, us???

I think you and I both know that if the U.S. - at least, maybe plenty of other countries too - decided more and more things by majority ruled public referendums then we probably would have an even more extreme police state with ******* as a matter of policy within our prison system. Maybe the Bible would become the official state religion and English the official language.

It would be interesting, to say the least...

And when you say "In my world, 16 is the age for everything..." I presume you mean in your ideal fantasy world, not the actual place you live now (which is in NY state or somewhere in the States)??

 

[titsrock]

What I don't like is the government picking and choosing when you can be considered an adult in different situations based on what's convenient for them.

I look at it being helpful to ME! Assuming it makes my world a safer, better place...

 

[Jagger69]

All of you professing ridiculous ages like 14 and 16 for ages of consent.....I can damn sure tell you don't have any *********!!!!