Adultism is discrimination against the young. Sexual adultism is when young people are discriminated against in a sexual way, such as being presumed incapable of consent to sex, porn, etc. Almost all legal age limits are adultist. Working age, driving age, age of consent to anything, drinking age, compulsory education, you name it, it's adultist. There are a few exceptions though. For example, when it comes to criminal justice, minors are afforded some protections adults aren't, like freedom from the death penalty, not having ridiculously long sentences, the police not being allowed to lie to them and privacy. The other case is when minors are forced into medical treatment to save their lives. This is one of the few cases when protecting someone from themself is justified. It's a double-edged sword though, since minors are also not allowed to end their lives if that's what they want. All ages should be forced into life-saving medical treatment unless they actually want to die, and they should have the right to euthanasia. My justification for forced life-saving treatment is that the right to live actually trumps the right to refuse medical treatment, so it's actually better respecting a person's autonomy to force them to have the treatment, since they want to live, they just don't realise that the treatment is necessary to save them. In addition to laws, social attitudes can be adultist. This includes your example of setting a bedtime of 9pm for your child. Not only is it adultist, but it disregards the science of sleep. A person knows their circadian rhythm. Their parents don't. Interference with sleep patterns causes problems. If someone sets a bedtime of 9pm for their child, it was likely triggered by their child going to bed much later, such as after 12am. As such, it's likely that they will sleep at their usual time despite the intervention. And then if the parent makes them get up earlier, the result is sleep deprivation. Like other forms of adultism, sleep adultism makes it hard for a child to develop independence and maturity. This is why age limits are rising. Because after for example, under-13s are subjected to adultism, teenagers will be less mature than they would otherwise, hence they too will be subjected to the adultism. And the cycle continues. I wouldn't be surprised if later in the 21st century, many legal age limits currently at 18 will have risen to at least 21. |