Nowdays, redefining driving or voting age restrictions for youngsters have attracted numerous controversies and drawn the attention from the public. It can be agreed that there are obvious benefits in rising such age requirement, while on the other hand stands a perspective that imposing such restriction comes with adverse consequences. This essay will elaborate on both sides and thus lead to a logical conclusion.
At the outset, there are numerous reasons for rising age restriction on certain activities and the most conspicuous one stems from the fact that young people’s brain aren’t fully developed until age 25 or so. In fact, research has found that comparing to young adults’ brains, fully developed adult brains function differently, especially in the frontal cortex where critical rational part resides. For example, youngsters sometimes experience overwhelming emotional inputs which cloud their judgement that they can’t explain what they were thinking. As a result, at age 25, the brain is likely to have a balanced emotional and decision capability which is crucial in important event such as voting.
In addition to aforementioned justification, the fact that young people tend to be thrill seeking in relation to driving, it’s much likely for them to engage in unsafe behaviour such as speeding, reckless driving and statistical speaking, the increased risk in car accident is exponentially higher for a 16-year-old than a 25-year-old. Furthermore, these undisputable figures are reflected in increased insurance premiums for young people. Because of that, the associated risks far outweigh any benefits for young drivers.
In light of discussion above, it can be concluded that the impact of increased age requirement for driving and voting is prominent, and the potential benefits can be far reaching and should not be overlooked.
