What Age Constitutes A Child? An Adult?

This political football of bullshit makes me crazy when there is no definitive line drawn between childhood and adulthood. In the USA we have two pronounced ages of adulthood, both 18 and 21 years of age, but during trials folks who are younger than 18 are criminally tried in court as adults.

How does an apparent child suddenly become an adult? How or why is this even happening?

Then back to the USA’s two definitive, two not one as would be reasonable, adult age breaks at both 18 and 21. At 18, you can serve and die for your country, but not legally drink a beer? WTF? You can sign a legally binding contract that will hold up in a court of law but you cannot carry a handgun, unless you are in the employment of the military. WTF?

What is a reasonable age to be considered an adult in every respect and why?

At 16 a kid can drive. At 18 he can die in war. At 21 he can get drunk. At 25 he can get a car insurance discount. Sometime after 30 he becomes an adult just in time to begin the process of returning to childhood again :wink:

Then at 70ish he’s eligible for the presidency

So 30 years of age? I fancy 20 Years of age hoping that most young people get to experience some hardcore decision making by then as well as some distance in years from their stay in the required public school system programming.

Seredipper,
Are you familiar with kids being prosecuted as adults?

20 is still a kid imo, but they’re old enough to be responsible for their actions. I just don’t think they have the experience to know what they want in life because too many things are still new to them.

I don’t know about women, but 30 is about the age that testosterone starts declining allowing men to think more rationally, less emotionally. And by then they have some life-experience under their belt. I don’t think people should marry under 30, or at least one partner be 30ish. Two people who have no clue shouldn’t be making life-long commitments to each other.

I’ve heard of it, but not an expert on it. Carleas would probably know more, but I think there is a trial to decide if the child can stand trial as an adult. A lot of the time, though, it seems the severity of the crime factors into that, which doesn’t make sense. If a kid steals a car, he’s a kid. If he murders in cold blood, he’s an adult. I’m not sure why there is a distinction.

Are you responsible enough for your actions while you are still in high school? Many kids reach 18 while still in school.

Perhaps children need to pass a test to receive adult privileges, a situational kind of test that would evaluate their ability to make sound judgments.

The perspective has changed in recent times since it used to be that people were self-sufficient at younger ages than today. Now it seems your elementary education is not over before you graduate from college. If all you’re going to do in life is farm and raise animals like Little House on the Prairie, then you’re good as a teen, but if you’re going to join technological society, there may be more maturing necessary in order to assimilate.

I think someone is responsible for their actions for the most-part at 18 and even 16 since we let them pilot a 2 ton projectile unsupervised. By then, one should know not to commit crimes, as most kids do.

The proper test for adulthood might be to put someone in an emotionally troubling situation and see how they react. I dug up a couple trees, potted them and drove 600 miles to a friend’s house to give them as a gift. When my friend’s son was told he wouldn’t be allowed to drive the lawnmower, the kid uprooted the trees I brought in protest. That’s how an 8-10yr old acts. Older people get mad, but don’t throw fits as much. Kids also tend to hurt animals then stop when they grow up, so it seems parts of the brain continues to develop for quite some time.

35 for sure.

Many people never become adults, even at old ages. I was an adult at an early age. It has to do with inherited intelligence and wisdom, a sense of morality and responsibility. Being adult implies independence, thinking for yourself, and becoming responsible for yourself. It also implies that you are ready to reproduce and have children.

Urwrong, I agree that some people never reach maturity, but either I receive an age to legalize adulthood or it’s test based like I mentioned then you could have tested to be considered a legal adult at a relatively young age. Either way there needs to be a definite age established where all people who have reached physical maturity are considered mentally mature as well especially regarding following the laws of civilization.

I think you need a clear definition for adult in order to test for it and I doubt age would fulfill the requirements.

In the United States, a person is to be aged 35 or over to be President or Vice President, 30 or over to be a Senator, and 25 or over to be a Representative, as specified in the U.S. Constitution. Most states in the U.S. also have age requirements for the offices of Governor, State Senator, and State Representative. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_candidacy

I’m not sure Trump is mentally qualified even at 71.

I remember watching CNBC or some financial show with dad and this 20-something kept interrupting and being a general nuisance to the debate. I quipped to dad that there should be an age requirement for talking heads on tv.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Youth_suffrage

Arguments for:

The get rid of sales tax completely and end income tax on youth.

Having sex is more difficult than making an informed voting decision? Well that’s stupid.

Why do we want voter turnout for the youth to improve?

Why?

Government entitlements suppress fertility?

The rest is like saying an 8yr old has no power to offset the power of the parent.

Oh well then let’s let felons and mentally ill vote too along with the infants since everyone gets a say!

This is ridiculous.

When is physical maturity reached via the scientific definition? Aren’t the growth spurts still happening at 18 years old? I stand by my suggestion of 20 years old unless you can think of reasons for something better.

Adult
noun
4. a person who is fully grown or developed or of age.
5. a full-grown animal or plant.
6. a person who has attained the age of maturity as specified by law.

Fully grown? What’s that? Height? Beast cup? So when boys stop getting taller and when girls stop requiring bigger bras, then they are adult?

Here’s the test:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YwEArrXNnI[/youtube]

If you survive Prince Henry Stout, you’re an adult :smiley:

I think 35 is the bar-maximum by which the vast majority of people must be considered “Adult”, with 16 at the minimum. So the most mature/wise types of individuals can be considered adults at the age of 16, but these are rare and not suitable for including into “normal” people.

“Not suitable for including into “normal” people?” What does that mean? 16 to 35? A 19 year spread does not solve the adult age dilemma. Pick one age that is most representative of a matured human and tell me why.

I already told you. If you can’t pay attention then that’s your own problem.

Your posturing is boring. Move along.

I was in court a few weeks ago and watched a bit of a trial of an 18 year old who allegedly shot and killed a gas station clerk. Prosecution wants to put him to death. He’s indigent. Had a team of public defenders. Prosecution was being stingy with discovery and wouldn’t produce some evidence before trial in a timely manner. The defense asked for the case to be open file as opposed to a narrow discovery situation. Defense wants the text messages of all the cops involved, since there were a handful of detectives on the case. Prosecution wants them to say why they think those are important. They’re trying to put an 18 year old to death. Transparency should be a priority for justice. The defense wanted a video that the prosecution claimed to have. Prosecution didn’t produce it since the last hearing. They said that the DVR that it was on would have to be sent someplace and that it would cost 2 grand to get the video off it, so they didn’t think it was relevant to the case so they just didn’t bring it to the next hearing. They’re trying to put an 18 year old to death. The judge scolded them since you know…the “innocent until proven guilty” person in the room is indigent and the “burden of proof rests upon them” people have the entire state behind them and a budget to boot. But they don’t want to pay to extract video from a busted DVR, and they don’t want anyone looking at their communications. Interesting stuff. I say through a few of these hearings. The kid has been in jail for some time. So far, not looking too good for him. He’s probably going to spend the rest of his life in jail with some facts about his case still hidden from the record, and if he’s lucky he’ll die a natural death in there instead of being gassed, because oh yeah…Alabama wants to bring back the gas chamber now.

I think a person is an adult when they can take care of all their own needs and don’t have to appeal to others with any argument other than that they’re willing to earn what they need.

What about conscious of laws and an aptitude to abide by them? Someone can be a thief or a pirate by your definition of an adult also a murderer, rapist, pedo, etc.