I was thinking about how 16 year olds in England are full adults, the idea that teens can decide their own medical care and move out without parental consent sounds amazing and could have honestly saved the lives of some kids I went to high school with. letting 16 teen year olds vote too makes sense since the obviously have a stake in the future more so than older people I would say. On the other hand the idea of 16 year olds binge drinking and being with older adults, and god forbid getting married to adults turns my stomach. I know we have some users from England so I am curious to hear your thoughts. I guess my instinct is to stagger everything at the appropriate ages. honestly sometimes i think 18 is too young to get married lol.
I think this sort of thing varies wildly with individual situations and the amount of support you have. The first time i remember having achohol was my mum giving me basically a whiteclaw when i was about 8, then very occassional drinks with family until i was like 14 and i started drinking with friends. Just video games and a few shots, nothing serious. I blacked out once before i was 18, and it was in a safe environment with friends i trusted and their parents in the house. When i got to university i knew my limits and how to drink socially and how to look after myself. Personally, i think the UK method of drinking age (5 to drink, 16 in pubs with a responsible adult, 18 for clubs etc) is pretty perfect. I know we do have a very unhealthy drinking culture in this country, but personally i think that comes from other factors and honestly i've never seen it myself, only read the numbers, despite coming from a very "bad" neighbourhood.
When it comes to sexual age of consent, again anecdotally i saw a few kids in my school sleep around a little when they turned 16, and it seemed chill? Like, there was a lot more upset and lasting trouble caused by kids in school sleeping with each other (manipulating each other, disrupting educations, public slut shaming, suicide threats, etc) than there was from the few times that people slept with older people from tinder or whatever. Years later my friends still talk about their shitty bastard highschool boyfriends and how much that fucked them up, but the flings with older people don't even get mentioned. I think one was brought up once as a joke. But i know we were all very lucky and my friends had strong support networks and people they could go to in need. As with the drinking thing, i didn't see the bad end of it because people in my life had that support, safety, and confidence. Thats what we need to work on.
Obviously i appreciate that that is very flimsy anecdotal evidence, but personally i think 16 as an age of consent (with proper education) is more or less fine and power is the problem. There is a massive difference between a teenager sleeping with a 20-something vs a teenager sleeping with a teacher/cop/etc. In my personal experience, a shitty 15 year old who has your nudes and knows all your friends is a lot more dangerous than a 25 year old you slept with once and forgot you.
I do absolutely agree with you that the marriage age is too low though. Marriage is wayyy too permanent and is entering into a contract that gives someone massive power over you. I personally don't think that should be an option until way later.