DEBATE IN SCOTLAND
Sweet sixteen
Should 16-year-olds be allowed to vote — and star in
porn films? They can marry, leave school, get a job, join the Army and
have sex. Yet they can’t vote, drink alcohol or drive. Sixteen — sweet
or otherwise — is something of a No Man’s Land between childhood and
adulthood.
Yet now the middle teenage year is coming under the
spotlight from political parties attempting to woo 16-year-olds with
policies which could give them more rights and responsibilities than
ever.
The Labour Party, for instance, is hoping to reduce
the voting age from 18 to 16 — which would give the UK the lowest voting
age in Europe, although ironically would likely see the percentage of
potential voters turning out at elections fall further. Meanwhile, the
Liberal Democrats have just agreed they want to see a relaxation in
pornography laws to enable 16-year-olds to legally view and perform in
hard-core porn films and visit sex shops as part of a wider shake-up of
the party’s stance on censorship.
Of course, there are those who believe such policies
are too much for 16-year-olds to deal with given that they are still
children and need to be shielded, as far as possible, against anything
potentially damaging. The civil rights lobby, on the other hand, argues
that individuals who work, pay tax and are affected by government
policies and laws should be treated as adults in every aspect of the
law.
Both issues beg the question of whether or not
16-year-olds should be given rights and responsibilities currently
deemed appropriate only for those over 18. Is there a general trend to
recognise 16 as the beginning of adulthood rather than 18?
Currently, the UN Convention on the Rights of the
Child internationally states that young people be classed as children
until the age of 18, but there are historical anomalies in British
legislation which means 16-year-olds are given some rights, but not
others.
According to Edinburgh City Council’s education
convener, the Reverend Ewan Aitken, politicians need to err on the side
of caution when dealing with teenagers. “The problem you’ve got is some
16-year-olds possibly are mature enough to take on rights and
responsibilities currently deemed fit for over-18s, but some aren’t,” he
says. “I’m comfortable with the idea that they should get the vote, but
frankly, I think that giving a seal of approval to 16-year-olds to watch
hard core porn or visit sex shops is a big mistake. You have to ask
about the issues of child protection in those cases.”
He adds: “It’s difficult to make generalisations about
16-year-olds. They are much more aware and have an awful lot more
knowledge of the world than when I was 16, but whether they’re more able
to handle that knowledge is a moot point.”
And Douglas Hamilton, research policy officer for
Barnardo’s in Scotland, says: “There are obviously discrepancies in the
law in Britain. You can marry at 16, you can leave school at 16, you can
start working at 16, you can join the Army at 16. There are a lot of
historical anomalies with that — that’s why we end up with this
situation where you can do some things at 16 and some things at 18.”
“Barnardo’s has for some time argued that young people
should have voting rights at 16. That’s based partly on the views of
young people themselves. They’re working, they’re paying taxes, they’re
affected by a large number of government decisions, but they aren’t able
to vote. Also, on a practical basis, it would help to get young people
into the voting habit — that in itself would have a positive impact on
politics and voting turnout.”
“One of the issues about pornography that would be a
concern would be about keeping young people safe — and that would have
to be balanced against a young person’s right to participate in adult
activities. We would have concerns about vulnerable young people at that
age.”
But what do those affected by the current debate
think? Ella McCram, a 16-year-old trainee hairdresser at Klownz, in
Stockbridge, believes that she should have the same rights as
18-year-olds. “I definitely think 16-year-olds should be allowed to
vote, as what goes on with the Government affects us as well. When I was
at school I thought that too, so it’s not just because I am working now.
Schools, colleges and universities are all affected by the Government,
so it’s only fair we get a say in what goes on.” She adds: “And at 16,
we can legally have sex, so why can’t we watch it or go to places that
sell it? I went to an Anne Summers party recently and it was a good
laugh. We should be given the same rights — we are mature enough.”
Natalie Hill, 16, from Marchmont, is similarly
confident she is mature enough to make her own decisions when it comes
to voting. “I study economics and modern studies at school and I know I
could make an educated, informed choice when it came to voting. I may be
young, but I am not immature or ill-informed. We know a lot more than
people give us credit for and I am sure all my friends could make good
voting choices if they wanted to.”
As for pornography laws, she says: “To be blunt, if we
are legally old enough to do it, we are old enough to watch it, buy it
and do whatever we want with it. It’s as simple as that. You can’t give
people permission to carry out the act and then take everything else
away — if we are mature enough to have sex, then we are mature enough to
carry out the rest.”
However, Dawn Smith, 16, from Bonnyrigg, disagrees and
says at her age teenagers are simply too young to make informed choices
about such responsibilities. “I would like to be given a couple of years
as I don’t really understand politics right now and wouldn’t know who to
vote for. I think 16-year-olds should wait a while as they can be very
immature and don’t think much. They may just decide to vote anyway for a
laugh. I think with pornography the age should be 18 too, as most
16-year-olds would be silly with it. Most are too immature.”
Sixteen-year-old Steven Christie from the New Town,
who works for Charlie Miller, is similarly against being given added
responsibilities. “I don’t think I know enough to be able to vote at my
age,” he admits. “I don’t think it’s pitched to us or this age group, so
we don’t really know enough about it to be able to vote. I think we need
those extra years.”
Mike Smith, meanwhile, says his school has held mock
elections in the past, which often result in people voting for the most
unusual party which sounds “cool”. The 16-year-old student from
Merchiston explains: “I think the Government would need to be careful as
we’ve had fake elections at school before and we always choose the party
with the stupid name or the one who will get no votes just for a laugh.
It really annoys the school so I can only imagine what it would do to
the Government. I reckon if we were allowed to vote for real, some would
ignore it completely and others would take the mickey.”
That’s not something Samantha Robertson, 18, a
volunteer at Edinburgh Youth Social Inclusion Partnership (EYSIP) and a
member of the city’s Youth Service Advisory Committee, believes. “I
agree that the voting age should be lowered, because young people should
have a say in what happens in the policies that affect them, so it would
be good for them to have a chance to vote for who they think would be
able to facilitate that,” she says.
And John Hughes, a sociology lecturer at Queen
Margaret University College (QMUC), who specialises in sex, gender and
sexuality, believes 16-year-olds are ready for more responsibility. “If
we’re arguing that teenagers are well informed and mature enough to make
the decision about whether to have sex at the age of 16, then surely
they should be extended the same rights as other adults, like the right
to vote and the right to access pornography? But broader questions need
to be asked. The idea that pornography threatens accepted standards of
behaviour is commonly argued. The right-wing argument that children
should be censored from these images is valid enough. The debate tends
to oscillate from the classic liberal emphasis on freedom of speech and
access on the one hand, to the right-wing concerns of censorship.”
“The boundaries between youth and adulthood seem to be
changing as society evolves. We seem to be seeing radical change in
society and perhaps this is a response to different expectations placed
on young adults as they move towards engaging with the outside world.
What I think is interesting is the way legislation is designed to either
protect people or extend equal rights. The whole issue around the vote
is equal enfranchisement before the law. We need to have a much more
sophisticated debate about why people at 16 should get the vote.”
At the moment, the idea of reducing the voting age is
simply that and the Home Office says there are no plans to change the
laws on pornography. However, Lib Dem culture spokesman Don Foster, who
is championing the softer line on porn, says 16 and 17-year-olds are
“living in a twilight zone between childhood and adulthood.”
But the Scottish Conservatives disagree entirely. A
spokesman says: “We’re not in favour of reducing the voting age to 16.
The age of 18 is accepted as being a major turning point where people
achieve adulthood. We don’t think that is something which needs to be
lowered. If you look at things like alcohol, credit, certification for
films, these things are all 18 and we think voting should be along with
that. As far as pornography goes, the Lib Dems’ priorities seem to be
very questionable. It’s not just as simple as saying the age of sexual
consent is 16, so the age to view pornography should be 16. Questions of
exploitation come into it as well.”
And as Barnardo’s Douglas Hamilton says: “Laws have to
reflect the position society’s in just now. There is a certain group who
would say that young people are growing up quicker and therefore should
be given more rights at 16. The opposite side to that is that young
people can often still be vulnerable at that age and maybe need
protection until the age of 18 in some cases. We would be arguing for
some commonsense notion applied to interpretation of laws between 16 and
18-year-olds, recognising that young people do vary a lot between those
ages.”
By Miranda Fettes
24 March 2004
http://news.scotsman.com/features.cfm?id=335542004
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