Shadow Wolf
Certified People sTabber
The point I've been trying to make is their brain is not yet mature enough to appreciate those consequences as an adult can. This is basic human psychology. The frontal cortex plays a very significant role in this exact cognitive function, and at 16 it is not matured. Which is, as I've also been saying, why teenagers and emerging adults are high risk groups, and the studies and statistics do support the idea of them being considered high risk. And it revolves around the brain not yet being fully matured.And a 16 year old is capable of appreciating that consequence just as well as they are capable of appreciating the consequences of their current choices and their choices with which we would advocate to empower them (i.e. abortion, beginning transition, vaccination without parental consent, etc.)
It's not so much trust as it is the acknowledgement they are not yet fully matured. There is a reason more states are placing more restrictions against 16-year-olds when it comes to driving.It seems the crux is that you simply don't trust 16 year olds.
It's also a position of defending childhood from having the demands of adulthood unreasonably expected. We need to allow our children to be children. This does include teenagers. We need to stop expecting them to have everything figured out before we even give them a high school diploma. Sure, some do know where they want to go in life even before high school. But, at the same time, switching majors in college isn't unusual because people tend to lack enough experience to know what they want and where to go when they graduate high school.