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Youth rights vs. parental rights vs ?

Posted by Theo on 2014-April-14 10:40:22 EDT, Monday
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Since Rascal69 brought this up, I thought it might be worth its own thread. Where do we stand on parental rights anyway? Most of us are in favor of more rights for children but does that mean less rights for parents?

Speaking for myself, I would say sometimes yes. For instance I think it's horrible that if an abused minor runs away, the authorities' default response is to drag them back their abusive parent(s). I would like to see the minor appointed and attorney and given a chance to make their case that they would be better off on their own. But that's not even a pedophile issue, just a human rights issue.

The obvious pedophile-specific example is the age of consent. You as a parent already have almost no say in this. If your State says the age of consent is 16, you can neither let make it legal for your 15-year-old to have sex nor press charges against someone for having sex with your 17-year-old. Of course that doesn't mean you have to allow it to continue; you do have substantial authority over your minor children's lives. But as far as criminal law goes, a parent doesn't have much power. If the age of consent were lowered to 13, then as I see it, children would have more rights, and you would have the same amount. Only the State's hold would be loosened.

More broadly, I think a decent system for handling important life decisions effecting minors would have to give the parents (together), the minor, and the State each one vote. Two out of three wins. This could apply to things like education, medical treatment, housing, employment, and of course sex. If the parents split their vote (e.g. in a custody dispute) I would give the minor's choice more weight than the State's (it is their life after all), so I guess you could say the minor has 1.5 votes or something.

Comparing my hypothetical system to what currently exists, it looks to me like once again most of the minor's increased power comes at the expense of the State's, not the parents'. I've heard for example of heart-breaking stories where the government insists on a certain course of medical treatment for a child, against the wishes of both the child and their parents. That wouldn't happen anymore. Britain is currently threatening parents with fines and even jail for taking their kids out of school to go on a family vacation. I'm assuming most kids would be down with that plan, so once again, parents would come out ahead.

I don't actually have any idea how representative my thoughts are of what others here think. I'd be interested to find out.

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