Poll: Legally an adult

[Death God]

So today I am 18 and am now legally and officially and adult according to the American government. I am held fully responsible for smoking, gambling, credit cards, the whole shibang. So, because I now each country has different laws, what is the legal age of an adult in your country and do you think that it is a good age to be held responsible for every action or do you think that it should be a higher/lower age?

Congratulations, welcome to the war.

I thought 21 was the age in America?

Ah, no. 21 is the legal age for drinking. At 18 you can enlist in the military, kill/die for your country, buy cigarettes and get cancer, get a drivers license without parental consent, get a job to pay for the apartment you just rented, get credit cards and go into massive debt, you can even get married to the school whore (male or female) while telling your folks to fuck off, and a whole bunch of other things. You just can't get wasted. Funny how that works.

I know right? You can do everything but get drunk. Weird stuff indeed.

 

[Kitteh]

Hi,
I am german, and as you may know out of your stereotype index, we as people love to drink beer (ok the Polish drink more, but we Germans are insteadbest in Coffee and Tea).

I think the czechs might have germans beat in boozing. doesn't matter, cuz everybody love the bier!

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

Technically 18 is when you are considered an adult but it isn't until 21 you can do the more adult action of drinking alcohol.

Also, you can't rent a car until you hit 25. That's a policy of the rental places, though, not a law; it has something to do with minimizing insurance premiums. Some places let you rent younger, but you pay through the nose for it.

OT: It's 18 here, and I don't have a problem with it. I think the drinking age should either be lowered or changes so it's okay at any age so long as the parents provide it under a certain age. That would do wonders for this country's drinking problems.

 

[tthor]

18. Spain.

For everything from going to jail and voting to drinking and driving. Nearly nobody drives till they are in their 20s, which makes it strange when I watch American movies or talk to Americans and see them driving at 16 or so. And yeah, about drinking... people drink whatever their age is, pretty much.

So 18, legally. Except sex. I think it's 14. Or maybe 16. Something like that. Not that anybody cares.

BTW, do you drive since you are 16 because you don't have any other ID? It's pretty weird for spaniards (and many others) that Americans don't have a National ID. Not a passport; that's another thing. So the driving license functions as an ID... is that right-ish?

yup, since most people do have a drivers license, it is used as a main form of ID. Tho i do think it would be much more efficient if we had a National ID, I have actually never heard of that before

 

[DementedSheep]

18 is the age in NZ as well. You can do pretty much everything at 18 including drinking. I?m 19.
I always found it kind of weird that drinking is 18 but sex, driving and firearms is 16. Tho you need a licence for the latter obviously and I?m not sure if you can get and endorsement for anything higher than sporting guns.

 

[Creator002]

In Australia, it's 18 for pretty much everything.
Legal purchase and consumption of alcohol, legal purchase of tobacco products and a probationary license[footnote]Though the laws regarding getting to this stage in Victoria are, in my opinion, bullshit. 120 hours of driving practice on your learner's permit minimum, then there's two stages of having a probationary license. You don't get your full license until 22, at the earliest.[/footnote] are the main big things I can think of.

 

[Baneat]

And you have to be 14 to have sex(but max distance between age is 2 years older) .

Damn, I was just about to pack my suitcases too.

Anyway I'm from the UK. I'm also 26 so I'm too old to remember or indeed care about the age of consent for anything.
I do know that the local co-op won't sell you fags or booze if you look under 21, even though the legal age is... 18? Which seems a tad silly.

Oh, also I don't consider myself an adult. I'm a 26 year old boy.

It's not really, past 21 you'll look old enough not to get ID'd so they're just covering their asses by not giving you the benefit of the doubt if you look 18 but have no identification.

Some places do it all the way to 25

 

[Grygor]

Legally (at least in my state) one can obtain a driver's permit at age 15. This is similar to a license but with restrictions - mainly not being able to drive anywhere without a parent or guardian in the vehicle. It is used in driver's education courses as we can obtain a license on our 16th birthday, provided we pass the driver's exam. The exam is done through a state licensing center (Department of Licensing).

Once we have a driver's license, that is our primary form of identification. It is provided by the state one resides in (usually) and each state has a different design for the license itself.

Each license lasts 5 years before it needs to be renewed. There is no reason for this other than a steady income for the state. There are no "re-tests" or anything of the sort. Once you've earned your license, you have it for life (barring certain circumstances).

Once you reach age 21, the license is then horizontially oriented when renewed, giving grocers and the like a quick way to ascertain the age of a person. There are counterfiters out there so there are a lot more ways to verify the authenticity of the license than just the orientation.

Non-American readers, however, should note that most of this varies from state to state.

For example, in Arizona, a driver's license is valid until age 65 (though they require you to update the photo every 12 years). Citizens 65 and older renew their licenses every 5 years provided they can pass a vision test.

Oregon licenses are valid for 8 years.

California licenses are valid for 5 years, and occasionally require you to retake the written test to renew - for younger citizens, they also have a blue stripe and a red stripe that indicate when the bearer turns 18 and 21 respectively.

In Hawaii, the state doesn't even issue driver's licenses - it is instead the responsibility of the counties.

Most states also offer ID cards that can be used as photo ID but do not confer driving privileges - these are almost always issued by the same agency that issues driver's licenses.

---

Back onto the main topic, age of consent varies across the US from 16 to 18, and the driving age varies from 14 to 17, because the states of the US have a relatively high degree of political autonomy. (The voting age - defined by the Constitution as 18 - is the only age restriction in the US that applies nationwide as a matter of law; even then, the states actually have the authority to set even lower voting ages if they are so inclined.)

Similarly, the drinking age in the US is technically up to the individual states and territories to decide - in practice, it's 21 nearly nation-wide because the federal government will deny a portion of federal highway funds to any state that sets a lower drinking age (similarly, the federal government reduces emergency aid from FEMA to states with a smoking age below 18). The only parts of the US with a lower drinking age (18) are the US Virgin Islands and Guam. Also note that the "drinking age" here is actually the age to legally buy alcohol - the conditions under which people can legally consume alcohol while underage again vary from state to state.

 

[Alade]

In my country, 18 makes you an adult, allowing you to drink and drive, and able to travel alone I guess. 16, however, allows you to fuck.

 

[Candidus]

I'd say that 15 is an appropriate age to be held responsible for the majority of your own behaviour, as well as for you to decide who you sleep with. Although it's still too young in my mind to be given a credit card.

What's the actual age? Well in the UK, legal adulthood happens in two steps. You get one wave of additional freedoms and responsibilities age 16, and the second wave at 18.

 

[kickassfrog]

I'm 19 and British- I can do whatever I like. Within reason, anyway.

You should turn one of your doors into a book case and confuse house guests.

Well, I don't own my own home yet, and won't for at least another 7 or 8 years until I (hopefully) finish studying.

I'll probably forget by then, but thanks for the idea.

Incidentally, why not try and convince people you own 10 Downing Street?

 

[Dark Knifer]

Here in Australia it's 18 for alcohol, voting but 16 for sex funnily enough... And it takes 5 years to get a full driving license. You can start at 16 but still...

 

[Vault101]

I hardly drink ever,

but I have a feeling Australia is going to eventually resort to raising the drinking age OR putting extra limitations on peopel under 21...fat lot of good it will do if you ask me

 

[cWg | Konka]

I'm 19 and British- I can do whatever I like. Within reason, anyway.

You can't be a bouncer till your 25

thats bullshit, im 23 and have been working the doors for just under 3 years

 

[Proverbial Jon]

I'm American, so you know my legal age. Adult at 18, can do almost anything by 21...except rent a car. Apparently, you must be something like...23. Weird.

Being 21 myself, I could drink and smoke and do whatever I wanted if I wanted. I just can't rent a car for a few more years.

Yeah same in England. Some hire companies let you drive their cars under 23 but there's a huge surcharge simply for being young.

I'm 24 this year so I don't think there's a great deal of things I can't legally do...

In England:
At 16 you can have consensual sex.
At 17 you can drive a car.
At 18 you can buy/drink alcohol.

Does that not seem a little backwards to some people? How is drinking alcohol more dangerous than sex or driving a car?

 

[Liquidcool]

Does that not seem a little backwards to some people? How is drinking alcohol more dangerous than sex or driving a car?

A drunk person is a lot more likely to crash a car, or have sex with someone they never would have sex with sober.

 

[CannibalCorpses]

I'm 19 and British- I can do whatever I like. Within reason, anyway.

You can't be a bouncer till your 25

thats bullshit, im 23 and have been working the doors for just under 3 years

Thats very strange because when i was 22 and looked into it i was told i wasn't allowed a licence until i was 25. Maybe it's changed in the last 10 years though i can't think why

 

[tahrey]

Britain has a few...
14 you can have some kind of job over and above a paper round IIRC. Maybe 12 or 13. Erm.
14 is also the age you can ride an electric bike (upto 300w, or a little under 1/2 hp) on the road. Bizarre but true.

15 3/4 you can join the army - and with that, it's the lowest age you can drive any powered vehicle on the road, if you get thru the requisite training REALLY fast (exempted from the usual license requirements when in the armed forces I think)

16... age of sexual consent, USED to be age for buying cigarettes, quite possibly you're allowed to APPEAR in porn (but not buy it!), ride a moped... and, at least in Scotland, get married. Maybe elsewhere too, and scotland is 15.
(see, it's confusing! too many of them!)

Somewhere between 12 and 16 you can have alcohol with a meal, so long as you're with and it's bought by an adult, in a pub. Probably 14 again - I've seen a few signs on the doors of more traditional pubs prohibiting younger would-be patrons from entry.

17, drive a car, "real" motorbikes (though there are limits on which of THOSE you can be take tests for straight away thanks to EU meddling; learner license gets you a 14hp/125cc, base level "full" license restricts you to 33hp for 2 years - ie til you're at least 19 - after which you can ride anything... though this will probably be changing again soon)

18 is the "big one", comparitively. Drinking, smoking, buying the porn that you starred in two years earlier, voting, possibly marriage, and a whole raft of other things I probably haven't even heard about. I think it's also the lowest age for getting a big-truck license (anything over 3.5 tonnes), which, uniquely, has come down from 21 in recent years.

21 brings a few things as well, but damn if I can't remember what they are. The higher rate minimum wage is one of them I think! You can do pretty much everything an adult can, at 20 1/2 years old, except be paid a sensible amount!

And if you want to hire a car easily, or get non-ludicrous insurance prices, you're gonna wait til 25 :-/

EDIT: Well, crap, appears I got ninja'd by... well, just about everybody. That's what I get for not doing ctrl-a, ctrl-c, F5 before posting.