Childrens rights

Are children treated like equals in today's society, or are their needs thrown aside and ignored in place of those of bigger people?

I'm about to turn 20 and I've personally found it quite astonishing how differently people treat you as you transition from a child to an adolescent to a young adult. You can still be exactly the same person with the same personality inside, but people will judge exclusively from your age and treat you very differently, and in general the treatment seems to be worse the younger you are.

Society has gone and continues to go through many equality movements (equality for ethnic minorities, equality for sexual and gender minorities, equality for the disabled, rights for animals, etc) and to a significant extent the treatment of children has also improved over the past couple of centuries in the Western World. But is there a long way to go until children are considered and treated as full human beings?

Most of TSR's user base is quite young, so I am interested in hearing your experiences.

Please explain what you mean. How are they treated differently? And why is the treatment worse?

If you're out in public, you'll be perceived very differently by people if you're a child vs. a teenager vs. an adult. Service people (bus drivers, shop keepers, etc.) are a lot more polite the older you are. I don't really see the problem with children being "perceived differently" of course they are going to be perceived differently they have different laws surrounding them for a start. As for politeness, I think everyone should be polite to everyone unless given a reason not to.

Both by most parents and society as a whole (through compulsory education) children are ordered around and told what to do. The child who doesn't want to go to school doesn't have his or her experiences and feelings listened to, he or she is just forced to go. And they should be forced to go to school, it's for their own good a lack of education because a child just couldn't be bothered going to school is appalling and will lead to hardship later on in life when employers see they don't even have GCSEs. I wouldn't hire them that's for sure.

It is legal in the UK for children to be physically assaulted by their parents . In comparison, physical assault is illegal against all other classes of humans. Parents can be charged with abuse and battery of their children, I think there is some "reasonable force" thing or something like that dictating that you cannot actually harm your child, like leave a bruise or bring them a tonne of pain. But a small spank on the bottom of a 5 year old who just did something they should never do I think is a reasonable punishment as they are to young at that age to usually understand reason.

I think children/teenagers deserve more rights
but I'm pretty much alone on that position, I feel
for example, I think children should have the right to work earlier - consensually working a job for money is no worse than being forced to go to school in all honesty
and I think the age of consent should be lowered, possibly to 13 - japan has it as low as that and they're just fine over there (in fact japan is one of my favourite countries)
I also think kids should have the right to purchase cigarettes and alcohol at 16 as well but maybe that's going too far? countries in scandinevia do pretty well with that rule
but weirdly enough, I don't think 16 years olds, like many people think, should have the right to vote but maybe they should if they're being taxed at 16?

I definitely agree on the right to work point.

Age of consent is a difficult area and I think the more important factors are age difference and maturity of those involved.

On the issue of the voting age: pensioners form an enormous block of people who don't pay taxes and are the biggest beneficiaries of government spending yet nobody is questioning their right to vote.

I think children/teenagers deserve more rights
but I'm pretty much alone on that position, I feel
for example, I think children should have the right to work earlier - consensually working a job for money is no worse than being forced to go to school in all honesty
and I think the age of consent should be lowered, possibly to 13 - japan has it as low as that and they're just fine over there (in fact japan is one of my favourite countries)
I also think kids should have the right to purchase cigarettes and alcohol at 16 as well but maybe that's going too far? countries in scandinevia do pretty well with that rule
but weirdly enough, I don't think 16 years olds, like many people think, should have the right to vote but maybe they should if they're being taxed at 16?

The right to vote is disgusting it should be set at a minimum of 11 years old and probably younger.Voting only requires the need to form an opinion with evidence, you can't pass basic English Sats without forming opinions of texts.I do feel that with implementing this policy school visits by members of every party would be good to ensure little political bias and to educate young minds.Children are affected by policies at any age and can form an opinion so they
should be able to vote.I don't feel like a human being because of the massive heaps of discrimination against children that exist in the law nevermind in other people's minds.

One quarter of adults in some parts of England have maths skills below those of nine year olds, therefore surely nine year olds should be able to vote if these adults can.
I am also very unconvinced by the high consent age and feel that for children above 11 years old if adults have sex with them there must be proof of malice or intent to use the person, the persons maturity should also be tested for to see if they understand the main
consequences of sex like STIs and pregnancy and if they pass the test then they can't really be classed as immature.I also believe that children should be allowed to make mistakes and learn from them instead of ridiculous rules that lead to dependency.I think that relationships can happen at any age(I personally think primary school is a bit too young) and my best friend was a reasonably old maths teacher, proving that it can be possible but you can't add them on facebook, go out with them or anything.

The drinking age doesn't make much sense to me either because people keep claiming oh so immature but if you look at the scenes at a lot of universities then you have to start thinking how bad could 16 or 17 year olds abuse alcohol because if 18 year olds are abusing alcohol this much then the immaturity argument is thrown out of the window again because both groups are acting immaturely.I personally think that the drinking age should be increased but the question is would this do anything? because men deep in their 30s, 40s still abuse alcohol a lot and in large numbers.

I also hate the use of wording in law saying a child is a minor is probably as bad to me as saying a ****** to black what can be worse than basically saying your insignificant.

I I also hate how every letter has to be addressed to your parents and guardians instead of you who the letter is actually for.

A lot of these things show how the Government is keen to legalise discrimination against young people, who like to make them feel as if they are owned by the Government and their parents and that they are dumb, immature and other rubbish basically it is as if you only become a true human when you are an adult .Children are forced to do this that and the other.

The right to vote is disgusting it should be set at a minimum of 11 years old and probably younger.Voting only requires the need to form an opinion with evidence, you can't pass basic English Sats without forming opinions of texts.I do feel that with implementing this policy school visits by members of every party would be good to ensure little political bias and to educate young minds.Children are affected by policies at any age and can form an opinion so they
should be able to vote.I don't feel like a human being because of the massive heaps of discrimination against children that exist in the law nevermind in other people's minds.

One quarter of adults in some parts of England have maths skills below those of nine year olds, therefore surely nine year olds should be able to vote if these adults can.
I am also very unconvinced by the high consent age and feel that for children above 11 years old if adults have sex with them there must be proof of malice or intent to use the person, the persons maturity should also be tested for to see if they understand the main
consequences of sex like STIs and pregnancy and if they pass the test then they can't really be classed as immature.I also believe that children should be allowed to make mistakes and learn from them instead of ridiculous rules that lead to dependency.I think that relationships can happen at any age(I personally think primary school is a bit too young) and my best friend was a reasonably old maths teacher, proving that it can be possible but you can't add them on facebook, go out with them or anything.

The drinking age doesn't make much sense to me either because people keep claiming oh so immature but if you look at the scenes at a lot of universities then you have to start thinking how bad could 16 or 17 year olds abuse alcohol because if 18 year olds are abusing alcohol this much then the immaturity argument is thrown out of the window again because both groups are acting immaturely.I personally think that the drinking age should be increased but the question is would this do anything? because men deep in their 30s, 40s still abuse alcohol a lot and in large numbers.

I also hate the use of wording in law saying a child is a minor is probably as bad to me as saying a ****** to black what can be worse than basically saying your insignificant.

I I also hate how every letter has to be addressed to your parents and guardians instead of you who the letter is actually for.

A lot of these things show how the Government is keen to legalise discrimination against young people, who like to make them feel as if they are owned by the Government and their parents and that they are dumb, immature and other rubbish basically it is as if you only become a true human when you are an adult .Children are forced to do this that and the other.

wow, that actually makes a lot of sense! respect I don't know if I'd say I completely agree but there were a lot of rational points there
what do you think about kids and driving?
and I should have said this earlier - there shouldn't be "18+" movies/games/materials as a matter of law, anybody should be able to buy anything no matter the content, but this probably, after what I've already said, isn't too significant
and you could happily argue against any kind of drinking/drug age as well if kids are allowed to do a lot of dangerous things already e.g. dangerous sports etc

I personally think a higher driving age is required than is currently in place with a lot of accidents on the roads from very young people but this could be prevented by the strengthening of driving tests(the main problem with them is that they are taken only once to pass I would make you pass at least 10 with good gaps between them to prove consistency) and I would include strong background checks on drivers to check for any dangerous behaviour this would usually catch out people who do silly things like drive far too fast around corners as a joke because these things can easily be identified by Facebook posts and I think this method could help prevent drink driving which is very serious.

I also have one more thing I have missed out that the working age should be lower(about 11 because as shown these people can do these jobs if the adults working in them are dumber) but their should be some guidelines to make sure adults aren't forcing them into jobs like they did in the past for income and I want to get rid of lower minimum wages for young people that basically discriminate against young people-if I said that I wanted to lower minimum wages for women/older people in concerns that they weren't employed as much due to pregnancy concerns or in hope to reduce the amount of women staying at home after having a baby or to prevent older people, who are often employed less due to being too old to develop new skills but these would be backlashed by feminists and Age UK in seconds.Instead there should be either a set minimum percentage of younger people as compulsory by law or you could use stratified sampling with the total number of applicants who have the required qualifications/experience having to match up to the number of successful applicants for age group,gender etc.

The problem with licensing for driving is that it (and roads) are in the hands of government, and government is incapable of doing anything effectively. Imagine a system where roads were privately owned and road owners decided which drivers they wanted on their roads. Competing entrepreneurs in a free market would be far more effective at figuring out ways to differentiate the responsible drivers from the irresponsible, delivering safer roads as a result.

There is a strong economic argument for abolishing minimum wage laws completely. They make it harder to get a job if you lack experience, so you just end up with a lot of unemployed people. Given that young people begin with no work experience, I think the best thing for them would be no minimum wage so they can get into the job market as easily as possible and work their way up to higher income.

Children are very cosseted in this country. Rights come with responsibilities though and being an adult isn't much fun a lot of the time. I think children should just enjoy being children.

All of them? Many children in Britain are growing up with incompetent parents, and as a result have to take on a lot of responsibilities at a young age. Britain did score right at the bottom in UNICEF's study on child well-being in developed countries.

And why should immature, irresponsible adults e.g. welfare dependents and public sector union members have rights if rights are only given to those with responsibilities?

These arguments are very bad in our society no minimum wage would work very badly because this would happen people would be on JSA and then forced to apply for £1 per hour jobs and then they lose most of their benefits and then absolute poverty becomes common.People wouldn't be able to afford basic essentials like food if the minimum wage is removed, people already struggle as it is.Without the minimum wage there is a huge risk Britain would just turn into one of the typical NICs that are very rich but have poverty as bad as Ethiopia in areas.Minimum wage has worked very effectively in reducing poverty.

Lower wages for younger people are ridiculous if they don't have enough work experience get work experience and get qualifications

you could implement minimum x% figures for young people to prevent young people from not getting jobs, this would be very effective because the Government could control how many young people get a job to the desired levels.

Life isn't fair. To be honest, this whole thread just sounds like one huge childish rant/tantrum.