In the society that we live in today there are laws and restrictions that we have to abide by to maintain order and safety. The Government set age restrictions for many things such as driving, voting, drinking, gambling, films/games, marriage, sex and work but the question that many people ask is why do we need them and are they really necessary? There are positives and negatives to age restrictions as they are there to keep you safe however they control our actions we do in life and when we do them. However, there are many levels of maturity, whether these are right or wrong is a personal opinion. There is no possible way to measure maturity when there are so many contradictions within the law.
There is a positive side to the argument as the law enforces these age restrictions to keep members of society safe and therefore recommend a sensible age as to when people are able to be part of such activities. For example, in the case of driving, the age one must be to take the test to achieve a license is seventeen. This is enforced due to the fact that people must be sensible and mature to drive a car to therefore not impair themselves or anyone else. The Government aim to protect society from the dangers that come with drinking alcohol due to the serious risks concerned with drinking excessively. However, most people are well aware of these dangers; alcohol is a drug and can become a serious addiction. It is illegal to sell alcohol to a person under the age of eighteen and also illegal to buy alcohol for someone who is under eighteen. It is a personal choice whether a person wants to drink or not. Although there is a drinking law in place not many people choose to follow it, there are many people that go against the law by drinking ...
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...f something that is less significant like voting? They can fight for their country yet they cannot draw a cross on a piece of paper.
The Government set these age restrictions as that is when they deem people are mature and responsible enough to handle the task in hand. But why should the Government control when we do things, shouldn’t it be a personal choice? Everyone knows the dangers and warnings concerned with such activities, therefore if they do not think they can handle the situation then they should not get involved. Although the Government are just trying to protect society, people should be responsible for themselves. We are expected to act like adults yet we are not treated like them. In many aspects of life we have to make choices as adults yet in so many more we have no choice.
Works Cited
http://www.findlaw.co.uk/law/criminal/yourrights/500373.html
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This issue hit home for me because it puts many people at risk for things such as car accidents, binge drinking, alcoholism, depression, suicide, and rape, things no one should ever experience, let alone in middle or high school. These reasons are why the legal age to purchase, and consume alcohol should remain at 21 years of age.
Many adults these days could tell stories from college about all the frat parties they've been to, all their high school house party experiences, and how many times they've been absolutely ¨hammered¨. And during these uncontrolled occasions, there is no adult supervision whatsoever. Furthermore, it is nearly impossible for police authorities to be able to monitor and know what is going on in an individual’s house. Besides, enforcing the drinking age isn’t really a priority for the police anyway. Many of them know it will continue, plus, when they do manage to catch and arrest someone for illegal drinking, it takes a great amount of time and effort for paperwork and processing. (ProCon.org)* And also because most youths view the age limit as arbitrary, which causes them to have a certain disrespect for the law. (Chafetz)* One main reas...
There has been debate on what age should people drink. Many think we should be able to drink at 18 or many people think we should be able to drink at the age 21 or older. Both cases makes some good points of why. There shouldn’t be any debate at all because bottom line the age limit on drinking is fine where it is for many reasons.
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... They are mature enough to understand the problems with the law, but that maturity also lets them realize that their freedom is restrained and that they have no power to change these laws.
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...y safety, and a deterrent for future goals. The only way to insure health and safety for all is to insist that lawmakers not lower the drinking age to eighteen and keep it at twenty-one.
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Many people believe that the drinking age of 21 protects teenagers from harming themselves but the age restriction is only causing more harm for them.
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