Child Services: Going too far?

[Kasreyn]

I'm well aware that not all things are at their best at one age, and individual people mature at different rates. But that's a pretty vague thing to measure, and when one is talking about the law, it's best to set down black and white lines (IMO) to avoid future misinterpretations and thus miscarriages of justice. People (i.e. juries) are too easily swayed by appearances and good acting (in the theatrical sense) to be relied upon to exercise judgement calls about who is "old enough" for such things. Rather, an age cutoff. It would certainly be unfair to those who have matured faster than others. However, if you find the best age to set the limit at, you can minimize this harm while maximizing the benefit of the protections it will give society against irresponsibility. And that's really all you can do, really - make trade-offs that try to minimize the grief and friction people suffer from living in proximity to other humans.

Since we've *already* decided, in this society, to treat people differently based on whether they are a "child" or an "adult", what I say we need is a very clear legal definition of exactly what those are. I'm not arguing for or against the validity of classifying people that way. I'm just pointing out that with our current lack of a good, concrete divider, our laws can't help but be inconsistent and vague, which is not necessarily a good thing.

-Kasreyn