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and add to the list: be charged, tried and punished as adults for crimes.
Drawing the line at eighteen is pretty reasonable as the point when a majority of people have sufficient knowledge of the world, and have sufficiently developed the ability to understand the consequences of their actions (and desire to minimize harmful consequences for others), that we can/should
- let them make major life-altering decisions for themselves (in respect of things that it is possible to prevent them from doing or make them do, of course), e.g. get married
- hold them fully accountable for the effects of their actions on others, e.g. be charged/tried/punished for crimes on the same basis as adults
- give them the power to make decisions that affect other people in significant ways, e.g. vote
I was one hell of a knowledgeable and "responsible" 16-year-old. I'm not sure that I was knowledgeable enough to understand that not all 16-year-olds are/were sufficiently knowledgeable and "responsible" to be given input into the choice of the government, and in fact I'm not sure that I was myself. Probably more so than lots of 40-year-olds, of course, but no line we ever draw accounts perfectly for individual variances.
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