Should 16-year-olds vote?

With England’s proposal for lowering the voting age, the debate is on. Grown-ups and teenagers face each other and state their opinions in a fiery discussion in which the issues of being sensible and discriminated against are recurrent topics.

Those who are against of giving 16-year-olds the opportunity to vote would argue that it is not sensible to give them the right to vote. They back up their opinions by saying that teenagers are just interested in the Jonas Brothers, Hannah Montana and Playstation videogames and know nothing about politics. Some even go as far as saying that the world of politics is too difficult to be understood by a “little child” and only grown-ups who have studied are able to grasp the meaning of politics.

Some teenagers counterattack this argument by claiming that if they are considered old enough to go to war, then, by the same standards, they should be given the right to vote. What is more, that is the age when they begin to shape their future by choosing a college and a career. School systems are different from one country to another. For example, in England or in the US an adolescent finishes school at 16, while in Argentina at 18. And also the legal age of adulthood varies among countries: 15 for Iran and Iraq, 16 for UK, 18 for Argentina –or even within countries such the US. This is in no way sufficient criteria to try to measure the knowledge of a person.

In my opinion, adolescents are being underestimated by thinking that they are not mature enough to understand what politics is about. We are always complaining about politicians and saying that we are tired of hearing the same names. What we need is a change. And that change may rely on giving 16-year-olds the right to vote.