Tuesday Morning we talked about the laws in Singapore regarding age of consent and why 18 is the generic age for many laws. These questions were generated as a class last week. The first question we had was “ Why is 18 the age for most laws?”, we had many different opinions regarding this. The conversation began with the discussion of the age being 18 because that is the legal age that you are counted as an adult. In our opinion this the age where you finish adolescence and school, so that would be the likely age that you can live on your own and make your own decisions. After debating, many people gave the opinion that different cultures and countries have different legal ages. We thought this was because of their history and religion, for example, in countries in the middle east, the legal would be higher for some things because they are more conservative and religious, but in European countries, it would be lower.
Another question we had was “Why is 16 the age for consent and not 18”, again we had different opinions also related to cultures in different countries. But we think 16 is the age for consent because you are mature, can handle tough situations and can make confident decisions on your own. We also wondered why there is a law for consent at all. Some people thought that it would help prevent teenage pregnancies and we also came to the conclusion that people would not be able to take advantage of younger and more vulnerable children, who are easily manipulated and cannot understand some situations.
Written by Milla and Yalkin