Youth Rights

What are people's thoughts regarding the youth rights movement

1.http://www.school-survival.net/

2.http://www.proyouthpages.com/

3.http://www.youthfacts.org/

4.http://www.youthrights.org/

5.http://www.youthrights.net/index.php?title=Main_Page

6.http://www.youthrights.net/index.php?title=Main_Page

7.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Youth_rights

I'd probably think it was all a joke if I wasn't familiar with the laughable earnestness with which adolescents can latch on to foolish ideas.

School is a job. I hate my job, but I still have to go because I have bills to pay.

Pretty stupid really. Makes me shake my head then laugh as I can already see the vast amount of fail that would occur.

edited 25th Feb '11 4:43:24 PM by TuefelHundenIV

It's been discussed in roundabout fashion here before.

I think minors should have basic human rights like everyone else, but due to inexperience, shoudl have some limitations placed on them for their own safety. Like, minimum driving ages, voting age, drinking age, minimum age to work, stuff like that.

A child's job, until they're ready to enter adulthood, should primarily be to learn - not that learning should ever stop happening - and if they dont' have to worry about working a job, which political party to vote for and what effect alcohol will do to their still-forming minds, then their capacity to learn will benefit from that.

In the case of some of those age-dependent things, they may not be ready to exercise that particular right. Yes, some grow faster and mature quicker than others, but short of some test or examination you could take to prove you're ready to hold a steady job or drink or something, an age-based criteria is just about the only way to go. Does the voting age need to be stuck at 18, for example? Maybe, maybe not.

My gut reaction to those websites is to remember the stories of the school-children who claim that being punished for a misdeed is a violation of their human rights, or the parents who said that their son shouldn't be obliged to follow the school rules because the teachers hadn't earned his respect.

Maybe there's a case to be made, though. I admit that the above is only my first impression and I haven't read those links yet.

I defiantly think that the drinking age should be dropped to 18. Lord knows that politics these days makes me want to drink.

I am an earnest believer in youth rights. My personal belief is that we young people have the best ideas, and that the wars in the present are all caused by evil adults.

^^^ Huh. I should remember that when I get a speeding ticket. "Oh wait, I broke the law and that means a punishment...?"

Um, yes. Yes it does.

^ That strikes me as reversed Ageism.

edited 25th Feb '11 4:58:16 PM by pvtnum11

I thought the whole thing was silly even before I turned 18.

For some reason, I recall that alcohol consumption by minors is legal so long as they have permission of their parental unit and that it's in their own home. Can anybody clarify?

Voting age should stay at 18. There are intelligent, knowledgeable sixteen-year-olds, but the majority have an easier time naming members of the Jersey Shore cast than members of the president's cabinet. Not to mention that there are already enough unknowledgeable adults.

all the majority of adults can think of is profit and money. We teens, we young people, we have shown ourselves to have only progress forward in mind.

edited 25th Feb '11 5:04:30 PM by NickTheSwing

@Apassingthought: It varies from state to state.

@Nick: Untrue. I know plenty of adults that want to better the world, just as I know plenty of teens that just want to dick around online and play video games.

edited 25th Feb '11 5:10:18 PM by DrunkGirlfriend

I said a majority. There are good ones like Obama and others, but a lot of adults just care about their pockets.

@Nick: And a lot of kids just want to goof off and have fun. Besides, as an adult, we kinda have to think about our pocketbook a lot more than the average teen. It's a part of life.

edited 25th Feb '11 5:16:28 PM by DrunkGirlfriend

Nick is being completely sarcastic, I asume hope.

edited 25th Feb '11 5:16:26 PM by CaissasDeathAngel

@Nick: Care to back up your generalizing statements with either some numbers or personal experiences?

In other words, your conclusion is interesting. Defend it.

I am not sarcastic. I am all for Youth Rights.

As for my evidence, I cite the Koch brothers, two greedy bastards who have set their talons into politics. And countless other corporations full of greedy adults on the highest rungs who have somehow gotten this grand idea that possessing money makes them able to make things go their way. Then we have the Bush family, Oil Barons who have had countless family members controlling and cheating in politics.

That's 10 at the most. Hardly a majority. And I can name at least as many teenagers who don't deserve the rights they do have, let along an increase of them.

Question: Are you below the age of 18, Nick?

@Nick: I dunno about you, but making sure that I can afford to eat ranks a lot higher on my list of priories than changing the world.

Power corrupts, unfortunately. It also is no respecter of race, age, creed or gender - power will corrupt, and money is a form of power.

Teen pop stars are turned into self-centered media hounds by it. So if you think that political power won't have the same effect on a minor that it does on a fully-grown adult, I'd have to be shown lots of evidence to the contrary that minors are above corruption.

EDIT: I kant spel

edited 25th Feb '11 5:36:19 PM by pvtnum11

I don't understand.

If you give youth the same rights as adults, that's just lowering the age of adulthood. And I don't think anyone here is seriously advocating 6 year olds to drive, or vote, or drink.

So its advocating lowering the standard of adulthood, I assume.

Sorry, there are concrete facts about brain development that indicate kids minds don't have the same tools developed that older people have. In fact, some of the most important parts of the brain, particularly those in the "making good decisions" region don't finish developing until 25, so if anything we should raise the bar. Kids just do not have the mental facilities to make good decisions for themselves.

Or for more anecdotal evidence...everyone here who's an adult, raise your hands if you remember being an absolute fucking idiot when you were a teenager. *Raises hand*

raises both hands YO!

edited 25th Feb '11 5:39:47 PM by drunkscriblerian

Nick, do you think that most teens are both willing to accept and capable of carrying out the responsibilities that go with rights? My experience with most youth rights positions is that they want the rights that laws deny them due to their age, but they aren't so enthusiastic about giving up the protections that other laws give them, also due to their age.

^^ Raises hand and waves it. Right here.

edited 25th Feb '11 5:41:57 PM by Madrugada

^^ Double high five, man!

Can I raise both hands? I made some pretty stupid decisions, and not under the influence of anything aside from hormones.

I had also heard of the 25-26 age for males. It was some survey for when people thing gusy finally have 'grown up', and 26 was the average given age. So I've been grown up for less than a decade now.

edited 25th Feb '11 5:41:17 PM by pvtnum11

Yeah, I might even still raise my hands in regard to how I am now (I'm 20) in a few years, if experience is anything to go by.

For anyone who's not an adult, I have a similar question: How many of you remember being an idiot a year or two back?  ^*