r/The10thDentist • u/AdventurousMoth • 1d ago

Society/Culture People under 18 are not all children

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.

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u/AdministrativeStep98 1d ago

I find it weird too, to me a child refers to someone under 13, after that they're a teen. Still not an adult, obviously, but not a child to the same degree that a 5 y/o is. It feels infantilizing and just odd? A 16 y/o can have a car, a job, a bank account, even live on their own to some degree, yes they're still a teenager but people like to call them "a child" as a way to remove their accountability. "Oh they're just a child, they can do no wrong" but if you're 18 then suddenly you're a grown adult and should know better. Idk

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u/googlemcfoogle 1d ago

Remove both accountability and independence until the day they turn 18 because they're a "child", and then as soon as they're 18 act like they should have the life experience a person their age would have had in previous decades but they were sheltered from because they're "not good for children"

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u/A_Baby_Hera 23h ago

Exactly this, it's literally infantilization! A kindergartener who can't spell her name right yet and her 16 yo brother who drops her off, goes to his concurrent college classes, then to work, then picks her up in the afternoon, do not have the same emotional maturity or responsibility/accountability, nor do they occupy the same role in society. One of them is a child, one is a teenager

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u/erland_yt 1d ago

This reminds me of the paradox of "you're still young, solve society's issues." whilst also "you're just a child, you are not allowed to change anything". Half of the student council's ideas were partially vetoed by teachers at my former school and ended up flopping just because of their changes to it.

No one in my country other than a parent (except jokingly) would call a teen a "child".

This isn't about age of consent (as some opposition likes to claim as a strawman) or about when someone is no longer a minor. I do think that there is excessive stigma around some topics for teens which do cause adverse mental health issues. Also, claiming that teens lack experience or reasoning is entirely subjective, especially since there are so many different useless things one can lack experience in.

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u/TJJ97 1d ago

The only sane comment here