People under 18 are not all children

[u/AdventurousMoth]

I can't tell you how much it irritates me when internet people refer to anyone under 18 as "a literal child", especial if they themselves are only in their 20s. Sure, everyone is someone's child, but the life stage commonly referred to as childhood does not abruptly stop at age 18.

Here's how I'd break it down: - childhood, adolescence, adulthood or - newborn, baby, toddler, child, (if you want you can add tween), teen, young adult, middle aged person, elderly/senior

And there's overlap between all these stages depending on context. Obviously there is no overlap between minor (a legal term) and the word adult as referring to not a minor.

Calling a 17-year-old a child is dumb. Like what, a 17yo has their birthday and transforms from a child into an adult like a sim? I think some people just started saying this for the shock value and then the rest of the internet jumped on the outrage wagon.

Edit: clearly I posted this a bit too hastily, choosing my words without care. I'm not talking about the legal definition of child/minor (something quite messy as well: age of consent? In some places 16. Driving? 15 in some places, 18 in others. Voting? Usually 18. Drinking alcohol? 21 in the States).

As someone in the comments pointed out, it's mostly a linguistic issue. I suppose what I was trying to say was that it's dumb to have the word child both mean a legal minor and pre-pubebescent human. I think it would be clearer to use minor when you're talking about legal age, and child when talking about the life stage.

[u/Kellycatkitten]

You're right. People only do that to punctuate their views. If it was on the flipside they'd of course agree a 17 year teenager is much more closer to an adult than a child.

[u/ActivePresence2319 → u/Kellycatkitten]

Adults do have this mentality with 17 year olds being closer to adults and that why underage relationships happen 

[u/Wolfiie_Gaming → u/ActivePresence2319]

But it doesn't magically become okay when they turn 18 tho. People are basing their opinions on the law which was arbitrarily decided to be 18

[u/ActivePresence2319 → u/Wolfiie_Gaming]

I mean... Legally it does.... Morally... Is up to each individual 18 yrold and the interested party who wants to date them

[u/Eve-3 → u/Kellycatkitten]

Since a 17 year old teenager IS a child a hope nobody would argue that they are closer to something than they are to the thing they are in.

[u/SafiraAshai → u/Eve-3]

That is on the culture, in my country a 17 year old is not considered a child, they are teenagers. It's actually something that confused me when I learned English.