Stop Treating Children Like Adults

For they have forsaken me and made this a place of foreign gods; they have burned incense in it to gods that neither they nor their ancestors nor the kings of Judah ever knew, and they filled this place with the blood of the innocent. They have built the high places of Baal to burn their children in the fire as offerings to Baal-something I did not command or mention, nor did it enter my mind. Jeremiah 19:4-5

The National Institute of Health states that the female brain is not fully developed until approximately 25 years of age. The NIH also states that male brains develop along a similar time frame, despite the rumor that male brain development takes years longer. In the U.S., the legal age of adulthood is 18. Citizens cannot vote until they are 18. Drinking alcohol is prohibited under the age of 21. These are all indicators for when a person is- or can be treated as an adult.

 "Photo Credit: Ben Wick and Unsplash".

The above statement is to help clarify where the United States, the most advanced civilization, indicates some level of sufficient maturity; biological maturity, neurological material, and emotional maturity. Reason being- there has been an undeniable trend of late to treat children as if they were adults. This occurs in a number of ways. Some are harmless parenting techniques to instill confidence and self assurance for young children. Unfortunately that is not the issue here.

In January of 2023, a Democratic Congresswoman from New York introduced legislation that would lower the voting age to 16 years of age. This attempt to bring children into the political process is not new. Former Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, supported lowering the voting age. It is widely known that younger voters are less intelligent than older ones. That statement needs no scholarly journal to be cited; it’s common sense. They have less schooling, less life experience, and a less developed brain. Although there is room for arguing that voter participation between the ages of 16 and 18 would be low enough that it would not matter, a consequence of lowering the age to vote could literally harm “the quality of democracy.” You read that correctly. And, regrettably, a threat to democracy is the milder consequence.

The first example of treating children as if they were adults is discouraging, but certainly not evil. Unfortunately, there are many more sinister examples of the occurrence. One of the most heinous examples of this trend comes in the form of “minor attracted persons.” This rebranding of pedophiles is still almost universally condemned outside of the far fringes of the LGBTQ+ community (the danger of the “+”). Most LQBTQ+ sympathizing individuals still deny this is occuring at all. People can deny all they want, but there is simply no doubt that it’s happening. The United Nations is advocating for intercourse with children not only as a legality, but as a human right. Earlier this year in Connecticut, the state legislature passed a bill that would ban discrimination based on sexual orientation… all sexual orientation. The Family Institute of Connecticut argued that “even people with sexual attractions like pedophilia and nepiophilia would be protected from discrimination.”

The United Nations “Photo Credit Mathias Reding and Upsplash”

This is not the only push to give children complete bodily autonomy against their best interests. In 2023, these concepts are introduced to children as old as nine. Not only that, they are learning about sexual acts outside of the repreductive process. Elementary school educators are instructing children on sexual concepts that they cannot even fathom because their own bodies are not developed enough to be able to reference themselves. The psychological damage to this generation of children is immeasurable, or at the very least, unforgivable. The debauchery does not stop at the educational level. Children are now allowed to transition from one sex (sex/gender, it doesn’t matter because there are only two) to another without the consent of their own parents in some states. What does a gender transition look like? It looks something like; consuming potent mind and body altering drugs partnered with irreversible surgery to the human reproductive organs (in this case, sexual organs of children). If this practice happened in an Islamic extremist community in Sub-Saharan African, we would call it genital mutilation. In the United States, we call it healthcare.

The West generally, but specifically the United States, is going down a dangerous path that will result in untold and horrendous consequences for children. Childhood depression is worsening and suicidal tendencies are skyrocketing. We are reckless with our children. How do we fix this? It’s going to be a long fight. Let’s start by giving them their childhood back. Stop treating children like adults.

-The Conservative Response Team writing for Common Sense