First part of your comment is a hot take (especially with Americans) but personally I kinda agree, even though I would maybe say 16yo aren’t children, and 14 are borderline children, but then you by saying you can be a child (in the same sense) even when you are 30 and viceversa which is… something more of an hot take.
The point is that you don’t go from being a first grade kid to an adult the day you turn 18, at that age every month you grow and learn and mature, and calling 14-17 year olds “children” is just disrespectful to me, as someone that has been a teenager. Do you just pretend many people don’t start having their first sexual experiences at that age or what? That does not make them adults, and I am not saying that I think it’s ok for that to happen with adults, that predators don’t exist, and that they aren’t a vulnerable group. Just that 16 years old aren’t children, and saying that doesn’t reduce the gravity of episodes like in the pedofiles - to the opposite effect, the current use of “children” creates an ambiguity of “could be 8, could be 17” that benefits them because they did do terrible things to actual, literal children, plus to teenagers which is heinous too. It creates a plausible deniability so that when you read something like “Epstein had a plane full of children” you picture high school girls
Most people don’t label 17 year olds as “children”. The process is something more like baby>toddler>child>pre-teen>teen/adolescence>young adulthood>adulthood.
Since everyone matures at different levels at different times, and maturity itself is subjective, most societies air on the side of caution by legally defining people as minors (not children). They are called this because they are still in a state of cognitive development. The ones who are above average are the exception to the rule.
It makes sense why we do this, because minors are supposed to be ushered into adulthood with gradual increases in freedom, such as being able to drive with a permit or go to school dances by themselves before they are considered a tax-paying citizen.
First part of your comment is a hot take (especially with Americans) but personally I kinda agree, even though I would maybe say 16yo aren’t children, and 14 are borderline children, but then you by saying you can be a child (in the same sense) even when you are 30 and viceversa which is… something more of an hot take.
The point is that you don’t go from being a first grade kid to an adult the day you turn 18, at that age every month you grow and learn and mature, and calling 14-17 year olds “children” is just disrespectful to me, as someone that has been a teenager. Do you just pretend many people don’t start having their first sexual experiences at that age or what? That does not make them adults, and I am not saying that I think it’s ok for that to happen with adults, that predators don’t exist, and that they aren’t a vulnerable group. Just that 16 years old aren’t children, and saying that doesn’t reduce the gravity of episodes like in the pedofiles - to the opposite effect, the current use of “children” creates an ambiguity of “could be 8, could be 17” that benefits them because they did do terrible things to actual, literal children, plus to teenagers which is heinous too. It creates a plausible deniability so that when you read something like “Epstein had a plane full of children” you picture high school girls
Most people don’t label 17 year olds as “children”. The process is something more like baby>toddler>child>pre-teen>teen/adolescence>young adulthood>adulthood.
Since everyone matures at different levels at different times, and maturity itself is subjective, most societies air on the side of caution by legally defining people as minors (not children). They are called this because they are still in a state of cognitive development. The ones who are above average are the exception to the rule.
It makes sense why we do this, because minors are supposed to be ushered into adulthood with gradual increases in freedom, such as being able to drive with a permit or go to school dances by themselves before they are considered a tax-paying citizen.
Cognitive development?
Look around you and tell me just how much chronological age has to do with cognitive development, please.
It comes down to experience, patience, etc.
Sometimes I take children or “children” to be smarter than adults that are hurrying and complicating at everything