Maltese society has arrived at a time of change. Change this time around meaning giving 16 year olds more responsibility; whether to give them the right to vote in the upcoming referendum and whether to lower the current age of sexual consent to 16. The truth is that the maturity in 16 year olds varies from person to person, and while you may find a 16 year old who acts and reasons like a child, you are more likely to find 16 year olds who are wise beyond their years.
KSJC- Junior College’s Student Council recently conducted a vox-pop among Junior College students, to gather some opinions about the age of sexual consent and vote 16.
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Not only did the majority of students agree on 16 year olds voting in future referenda, but they also agreed that the age of consent should be lowered to 16. So evidently, youths feel like they should be given more responsibility when it comes to national matters and also when the subject concerns their own bodies.
As many have pointed out already, the Church in Malta would allow a couple between 16 and 18 years of age to marry. However what many fail to mention is that parents’ consent is needed for a marriage to take place. Still, this does seem hypocritical since a 16 year old is "trusted’ to know if they would want to marry someone (a decision that should last a lifetime according to the church), but suddenly is not mature enough to consent to sex. Malta is the only other country in Europe besides Turkey and the Vatican to set the age of sexual consent at 18, whereas most other European countries stand at around 14 to 16 years, with Spain standing at 13.
However, lowering the age of sexual consent while leaving the sexual education – if even present at all – Maltese children and youth receive how it is, in its terrible state, would not make sense. With a right approach to teaching sexual health to older primary school children and secondary school children, lowering the age of consent to 16 would be the right and logical way forward. Lowering the age of consent to 16 would also make contraceptives more available to youths, therefore further decreasing the cases of teen pregnancy and STDS.
Presently, precious time in court is being wasted on cases where two consenting youths are taken to court because one is 18 or older and another is 16 or 17. Usually taken up to court by prudish parents, this time could have been used up on more urgent cases, rather than a case where no damage has been done.
Where voting is concerned, a 16 year old can vote in the local council elections, but suddenly when it comes to referenda, 16 year olds are deemed too "immature’ to decide on their own future and that of their future families’. After all, it is today’s youth who will grow up and have to live with the result of this referendum, so it only seems just that they are given the right to decide about their own future.
However, a survey conducted by "Agenzija Zghazagh’ in February 2014 shows that youths did not feel prepared enough to vote in national elections and European parliament elections. And since the right to vote comes with the right to contest for an election, youths were even less keen on contesting. The participants in this survey felt they were not mature or responsible enough.
But are youths already being given a lot of responsibility?
It appears that many people, especially those who belong to an aging generation forget that 16 years olds already have to get face to face with important decisions. At 16 today, you’re expected to know what career path you want to take for the rest of your life. You’re expected to decide between an education and a minimum wage job, or even better expected to study and work at the same time. Why do we underestimate today’s youth when we already put them under so much pressure to make life changing decisions?
We are already expecting today’s 16 year olds to behave like adults, so giving them the rights they deserve shouldn’t be such a difficult topic.
