What changes do you want for young people?

[BLueRibbon]

Beyond sexual reforms, what changes would you like to see for young people?

[G@yWad69]

The abillity to vote at a younger age, probably around 8. The abillity to work at a young age, any age as long as they are paid properly and trained properly. Even with more deadly jobs like the millitary or something, older children, like teenagers, should be allowed if properly trained and compensated. Not having your finances controlled by your parents(children get full financial freedom starting at age 8. The abillity to open their own bank accounts, to not have their money stolen by parents, etc).The abillity to freely play outside without a tracking app or a suffocating helicopter parent like in the 80s. School is only 3 or 4 days a week, or if it must be 5 days a week, shortened by a couple hours. School being optional at a younger age, like 12 or something, or being completely optional if the child has proven they know fundamental basics through homeschooling like reading, writing, math, etc.

Ik someones going to be like “8?! Isnt that too young?! Shouldnt it be 16 instead?!” But to me, a large part of childrens incompentcies and “innocence”(ignorance) is how much we shelter them. If a child tries to do or learn anything not “childlike” enough, even if they are perfectly capable of learning to, they are shamed and restricted for “acting grown” and told that “a child should stay in a childs place” or that it isnt “appropriate”. Everything a child does from the food they eat to the clothes they wear to the time they go to bed and when they can pee or poop is heavily monitored and restricted by adults, if children where allowed to grow naturally, instead of being artificially sheltered and restricted in this manufactured state that is the typical modern day western “childhood”. Then they would be alot more capable. Modern day childhood artficially restricts a childs natural development and growth because so many adults are scared of the natural capabillities of children. It isnt “protection” to shelter and hinder someones growth and ban them from participating in the world they will be living in from 18-death and then expect them to magically become fully competent overnight on their 18th birthday

[wildly]

The abillity to vote at a younger age, probably around 8. The abillity to work at a young age, any age as long as they are paid properly and trained properly. Even with more deadly jobs like the millitary or something, older children, like teenagers, should be allowed if properly trained and compensated. Not having your finances controlled by your parents(children get full financial freedom starting at age 8. The abillity to open their own bank accounts, to not have their money stolen by parents, etc).The abillity to freely play outside without a tracking app or a suffocating helicopter parent like in the 80s. School is only 3 or 4 days a week, or if it must be 5 days a week, shortened by a couple hours. School being optional at a younger age, like 12 or something, or being completely optional if the child has proven they know fundamental basics through homeschooling like reading, writing, math, etc.

It is still tough for some kids to find other kids to play with outside, modern society (at least in large portions of the world) are car centric society, which leave kids out. I believe cars have had a hugely negative impact of kids lives, not only can kids not drive them (unless we have drivers licenses at much younger ages, which I doubt would get any support) they are the source of the most danger for most kids. They also aid in making huge centralized schools easier to create, rather than making local friends at a small neighborhood school, kids are bussed in from half-an-hour away and the friends they make are unlikely to live anywhere close. I'm hopeful that self-driving cars will help to fix the issue.

Another solution would be a complete restructuring of schools. Rather than as a placed of coercive learning of a set curriculum, move towards the model of democratic and sudbury schools, where kids are free to play, but have access to opportunities to learn whatever they desire. Incorporate parks into these schools, so kids have tens or even hundreds of acres to roam that are car free.

My ideal would be to make car free neighborhoods and towns, where the average person has to park half-a-mile outside of town and walk/bike in. Stop catering to cars and start catering to kids, but that also seems highly unlikely.

[example]

O yes, I am a full youth rights liberationist. To the greatest extent reasonably possible should kids have the majority of the rights adults have, starting with all essential freedoms that should be granted to all human beings on planet Earth, which of course includes kids.



The first and most important right is of course the right to a life without fear. Meaning, no militaries anywhere on Earth let alone where they live. They only cause unnecessary deaths and losses, especially at wartime or amongst the people working for them. People who come out of a military or war zone alive are often heavily traumatized and this might even cause PTSD (aka shell-shock back in WW1!).
In addition, this should also include that no kid should be afraid of their parents. Therefore, I am for strict regulations for parents to prevent abuse and coercion, and active enforcement of such laws. Yes ACAB at the moment, but a good training and the elimination of laws that arbitrarily limit kids should help alleviate that as much as possible.
And finally, I am straight up against the death penalty per se, and not just for the 'right to a life' part of the first sentence below the quote.

Kids should also have the right to their own finances and full management thereof. Given I am for a Unconditional basic income (UBI), that means I think kids should be able to benefit from that from day one. The UBI for a kid below age 8 or who doesn't have a bank account yet is split fairly between the parent(s)/caretaker and a 'birth trust' that no one has access to until the kid opens their first bank account, which shouldn't require permission from any parents. Then does the 'birth trust' get moved to it, and following UBI payments are split between the parent(s)/caretaker and this account. From the moment the kid gets a debit card (if they didn't get it with their first bank account, i.e. it is a savings account), the second part of the UBI gets paid on that instead, so the kid can spend it and what they have in their savings account. In addition, I am for the right of a kid to work or start a business if they intend to do so and are not pressured by their parents to do so (such pressuring being illegal per se) at any age, if they are able to do the work they are assigned (physical abilities/aids, safety regulations and training are big parts of this right).

I am however per se against lowering the driving age. In fact, I believe the world is better off with less cars than there are now. Neighborhoods should be made to be based around people, not cars. Kids shouldn't be allowed let alone expected to drive for safety reasons. The one I absolutely can NOT debate AT ALL is that kids are harder to see from a car, and especially younger kids can have difficulty seeing the road from the driver's seat as well. Add noise pollution, air pollution, demolishing of public places, the fact that cars are expensive as HELL (if you don't just look at the fuel prices) and the argument for walkable neighborhoods, good bike infra (Netherlands/Copenhagen), gratis and high-quality rail and interurban transit and affordable local public transit (Luxembourg) is made. Such also allows kids to find a place to meet and play with friends or family members, of any age, something they also have an inherent right to do without constantly being spied on ("supervised") by their parents, the State or Big Tech companies. In addition, for safety reasons, any road speed limits over 30 km/h outside highways should be forbidden, and such speed limits actively enforced.

Ideally, schools should change from places kids are forced to go to and listen to adults who think they know what's best for them (effectively low-security daytime jails) into playrooms: places where kids can go to meet and play with other people and attend optional events and education programs held both by other kids and adult teacher-tutors. However, going to such a state is a long trajectory, and so I see this as not 'the last day of school for all kids forever' but more of a gradual transition: reduction of school days, lowering of school leaving age, less homework for all kids, et cetera until this final state is reached.

Kids should also have the right to access at least the information and media that their parent(s)/caretaker can and the information and media that is available in any playroom. This should mean that parents are absolutely forbidden from censoring any non-personal information from their kids in an attempt to "protect" them. The same should apply for open-source Big-Tech-free social media like Mastodon and Lemmy.

And yes, kids should also have the full right to choose who takes care of them. In case of a divorce, this means the kid should also have a say and be heard by a judge if a decision has to be made about contact agreements. These should in fact be written kid-first: the kid has the right to contact their parent(s) instead of the other way around.
Outside of that, a kid should be able to appoint someone to take care of them instead of their parent(s) or alongside their single parent, and to be taken care of by them if the appointed person (and only in the case the kid wants a second parent, the parent they live with) consents to the new situation. The only case in which such appointment should be denied regardless of consent is if it appears to come out of an immediate emotional response of the kid (being angry at their parents) or if the parents forced the kid to appoint a new caretaker. If a kid can't appoint anyone as a caretaker yet intends to move away from their parents, temporary and collective youth-care centers should be provided.
This should also mean that it should be forbidden to 'engineer' a kid or store reproductive cells with the intent to use them for assisted reproductive technology, and the parent-first adoptive system, in which kids chosen by their parents to be taken care of instead of the other way around, should be disbanded. Any adopted kid, finally, has the right to all information about their birth parents and the right, if alive, to visit them.

Kids also should have a right to make decisions about their health and identity. This means the right to be fully informed about any medical treatment they (wish to) undergo, the right not to require parental consent for a medical treatment (this might be replaced by a waiting period in non-emergency cases), and the right to deny non-life-saving treatment their parent(s)/caretaker wish(es) them to undergo. 'Conversion therapy' should be forbidden, being defined as specific and intense religious, spiritual or medical treatment with the intent to change one's sexual orientation or gender identity. Transgender and non-binary kids deserve specifically the right to all psychological, hormonal and medical treatments they intend to receive, all according to the latest Standards of Care.

And as a last and almost forgotten remark, kids should also have full voting rights from a younger age than even 12 years old, including local, national and (if applicable) intergovernmental bodies of representation. I'd hope that there would also be Youth Council for which only kids can vote, and the people in which work part-time to give youth-centered advice to local and national governments in the protection of youth rights.

[Curson]

I think it should be like how things used to be. Kids should have the rights of an adult when they undergo puberty. Anything less and it would be denying them the world. We already know they aren't innocent creatures just as much as the internet has exposed the nature of women. So why do we have to keep treating them like they are innocent?

[HumanBeing]

1:
Ending the ageist stigma about young/older social relationships, most people assume that if you are 18 or older you shouldn't be friend with younger people (even children are segregated by age) although I think this will change naturally with MAPs de-stigmatization

(because the hysteria against MAPs is the main excuse that allows the age apartheid to exist on a large scale)

2:
Replace the absolute ban on child labor with a ban against hiring young people in dangerous jobs like mining, chemical industry, etc, but if a teenager or even a toddler wants money for whatever reason he should be able to work in safe jobs like modeling, shop assistant and so on (even without his parents approval)

[G@yWad69]

The abillity to vote at a younger age, probably around 8. The abillity to work at a young age, any age as long as they are paid properly and trained properly. Even with more deadly jobs like the millitary or something, older children, like teenagers, should be allowed if properly trained and compensated. Not having your finances controlled by your parents(children get full financial freedom starting at age 8. The abillity to open their own bank accounts, to not have their money stolen by parents, etc).The abillity to freely play outside without a tracking app or a suffocating helicopter parent like in the 80s. School is only 3 or 4 days a week, or if it must be 5 days a week, shortened by a couple hours. School being optional at a younger age, like 12 or something, or being completely optional if the child has proven they know fundamental basics through homeschooling like reading, writing, math, etc.

It is still tough for some kids to find other kids to play with outside, modern society (at least in large portions of the world) are car centric society, which leave kids out. I believe cars have had a hugely negative impact of kids lives, not only can kids not drive them (unless we have drivers licenses at much younger ages, which I doubt would get any support) they are the source of the most danger for most kids. They also aid in making huge centralized schools easier to create, rather than making local friends at a small neighborhood school, kids are bussed in from half-an-hour away and the friends they make are unlikely to live anywhere close. I'm hopeful that self-driving cars will help to fix the issue.

Another solution would be a complete restructuring of schools. Rather than as a placed of coercive learning of a set curriculum, move towards the model of democratic and sudbury schools, where kids are free to play, but have access to opportunities to learn whatever they desire. Incorporate parks into these schools, so kids have tens or even hundreds of acres to roam that are car free.

My ideal would be to make car free neighborhoods and towns, where the average person has to park half-a-mile outside of town and walk/bike in. Stop catering to cars and start catering to kids, but that also seems highly unlikely.

Yes, I find it cruel and barbaric that we make small children as young as 5 sit completely still, making no noise, at their seats staring at a board learning shit they dont care about for 8 hours straight 5 days a week 9 months a year. It is basically a full time job, and they dont even get paid! School should be fun and engaging. The most memorable moments I had as a kid was in 7th grade when my history teacher would teach us lessons by having us dressup and roleplay. I was far more engaged with the lesson when I was actively playing the role with other kids and not just staring at a whiteboard for an hour or filling out a packet that can be easily cheated on with ai. The more hands on class is ans the less sitting in a cold hard seat for hours without talking or moving around while staring at a white board the better. More fieldtrips, more hands on lessons, more breaks

[Brain O'Conner]

One of the more achievable things I've been thinking of is getting rid of the high premiums that young people under the age of 25 have to pay for car insurance. Instead of high premiums, young people are going to pay the same premiums as older people.

[Bookshelf]

I'd like to see quite a few changes.

1) More funding for accessible third spaces, higher quality outdoor green areas, and more affordable and localized activities like cheap bowling or arcades would be great for young people. Most youth don't really have anything to do when they're allowed outside, which leads to them idling; which in turn just means they get bored, and are more likely to take part in crime or try out drugs/drinking.

2) We also need a change in perception towards what ages youth are actually allowed outside without constant supervision. The trajectory for the minimum age is heading up and it's more common to hear that even younger teens aren't allowed outside without being supervised.

3) Ways for youth to take part in the political process. I've seen the idea floated around that we should abolish a voting age entirely (which I personally agree with), but that might not sound good for everyone. An alternative could be to open polls for more localized votes for young people. For example, if a local town/city council are holding a vote on what to do with an abandoned building, why not let 12+ year olds cast a vote? First we would need to encourage voting on more minor issues like this, but still— this is something that adults could benefit from as well.

4) An alternative balance around school life. Not only do kids need to spend 6-8 hours in school, but they're expected to give even more time studying and doing homework outside of it. Kids could spend anywhere between 8-12 hours a day on school work if they were to do all their homework and study for each subject appropriately, and still sometimes have to give parts of their weekend away if they have bigger projects.

5) Allowing young people to have a source of income would absolutely delete so much abuse. Where I'm from, the government have recently created a new law specifically designed to target sexual abuse through offering children something in return (eg, money). This has been in response to a growth in reports of people doing things like offering impoverished teenagers money for takeaways in exchange for sexual favours. If young people were allowed to earn money, you'll cut out a significant portion of youth that seek out adults for money, or are coaxed into accepting something they don't really want to because they're offering something like a game their parents won't buy them.

[John_Doe]

I can't really think of much off the top of my head.

I guess I would like adults to take young people more seriously in terms of their opinions and what they have to contribute to various political and philosophical conversations (if that sounds rich coming from me; since I've often said that I don't care what other people think is inherently good or bad and as I'm of the belief that experience is our only source of knowledge I don't accept much of the perceived authority of philosophers and psychologists and academics and religious figures and random people, I don't think that their opinion should be dismissed because they are young, even considering how much people tend to change in their early twenties or early adulthood. If you can, for all intents and purposes, inter-subjectively demonstrate authority on a given matter or introduce me to a new angle that I haven't considered I want to hear about it). The rest of us can greatly benefit from the leadership of young people (teens, maybe even preteens) and that doesn't even have anything to do with their benefit (I don't find 'paternalism' to be inherently degrading or insulting as humiliating or frustrating as it an be).

I truly hate the idea that children and teenagers should be subersevient to their parents, particularly to their fathers (as that's generally more common), that I assume/hope is becoming more relaxed in modern Western culture. The idea of honoring one's mother and father (because they are one's mother/father, not because you should, in some sense, respect all people, or in terms of admiring someone for their compassion and altruism and love for others or appreciating what they've done for you. With procreation, you are indirectly responsible for all the suffering that your children might experience, even if they should appreciate what good you do for them in their lives, so that puts things into perspective a little). I wholly reject the norm of obligatory one-sided respect between children and patriarchs or even the idea of there being a moral obligation for children to obey their parents for the sake of obedience (if I had children, I would make it clear to them that I don't want them doing x because it will hurt or disadvantage themselves or other people. The prospect of my child disobeying me does not fill me with rage. Nor does back talk, challenging my authority etc. Bringing some drug that I've asked them not to consume home would not anger me, it would concern me. Disrespect from anyone would be uncalled for, it's not especially humiliating because it's from a child or young person, and even then violence or abuse would not be the appropriate response).

I do not want to negatively stereotype them, because minus only one that I can immediately think of none of the Zambian fathers who were friends of the family when I was growing up seemed to be as egoistic, violent, abusive and controlling as my own (which isn't to say that he was the absolute worst of the worst when you hear some of the horror stories out there but he was/is unambiguously a bad father and not at all someone I have ever admired or felt any emotional attachment to), they were all, to my mind, very gentle and kind, but I've thought for a long time now that if, hypothetically, I ever had children I would make it a point to raise them in a very 'unAfrican' way. No violence (especially not violence rooted in spontaneous anger and ego as opposed to calculated reluctant discipline for a greater good). No shouting. No insults or disrespect or self-serving hyper-authoritarianism.

School-life balance is something else but I'd also support work-life balance, when that's a practical goal, so that's not totally specific to very young people. Much of the grading that occurs in high school isn't based on objective criteria (outside of the hard sciences and math and maybe things like memorizing data or being able to perform some task that one clearly succeeds or fails at without the need for interpretation). I haven't read all of the other replies but skimming through one- I agree with children having a say in custody when their parents divorce (unless the parent is someone we have reason to believe will be negligent or abusive), in fact, I think one of the big problems with denying fathers custody when preference goes to the mother by default because of gender is more with preventing the child from associating with who they want to associate with than it is with denying the father his 'right' to them. I can't really argue against children being allowed to work if we're on the same page about worker's rights in general.