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In which case — if maturity matters — then who’s to say the trend should always be down? If 12 is to be preferred to 10 on this basis, 14 must be preferred to 12. If 16-year-olds are more mature than 14-year-olds, so an 18-year-old is more mature, on average, than a 16-year old. It is no more self-evident that we should lower the voting age from 18 to 16 than that we should raise it, say, back to 21. Or further.

If maturity matters - then who’s to say the trend should always be down?

What is it, then, that recommends this change? Are today’s teenagers noticeably more mature than teenagers in generations past? By the time they left their teens, in a previous generation, most young people would have been employed full-time; many would have been married. Today more than third of all adults under 35 are living with their parents. The average age of marriage is now over 30.

We are told of the grave responsibilities we already entrust to 16- and 17-year olds. Why, we even let them drive! (Yes, we do — and they crash at three to four times the rate of adults.) Less often mentioned are the many ways in which we continue, rightly, to regard them as children. We do not typically try those under 18 in adult court. We prohibit those under 18 (19 in Ontario) from buying alcohol, or cigarettes, or — soon — pot. You can join the armed forces, with parental consent, at 17, but you cannot serve in combat until at least 18.

In any event, it does not necessarily follow that because a 16-year-old is (barely) capable of operating a motor vehicle, he or she is in a position to compare the foreign policies of the different parties, and to weigh these against their social and economic policies, the character and judgment of their leaders, and so on. Yes, there are adults who are similarly mentally incapacitated: but as the exception, not, as in the case of children, the rule.