essay for Assignment 1

1. EFFECTS OF CHILDREN OVER 15 SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO MAKE
DECISIONS ABOUT THEIR LIVES AND SOCIETY SHOULD ACCEPT THAT
CHILDREN MATURE AT YOUNG AGE AND ADJUST THE LAW
ACCORDINGLY
Nowadays we can easily found in news or any other sources that teenagers at
young age have already making a trouble. If the society accepts that children
mature at young age and adjust the law accordingly, I could not imagine how the
world would look like. By common understanding, at age over 15, children begin
to think broader which expected to take much more responsibility for their own
learning.
Here I would like to highlight the negative effects if the society would change
the law. First of all, death rates at early age. According to most articles, between
ages of 16-19 years old has the highest rate of death statistics when compared
to any other age groups. Minino (2010) stated that these deaths among
teenagers include accidents, homicide, suicide, cancer, and heart disease.
According to a website (www.after-car-accidents.com), accidents can
happen due to teen’s carelessness, such as, not weari ng seatbelts, inexperience,
driving beyond speed limit given and also distraction. In definition of distraction
here is that most teen would have one hand on their phone, texting or calling,
and only one hand steering. This can be reduced actually, if the law would be
adjusted to 18 years old above that can only own a driving license. Most of these
ages, also, likes to drink alcohol while driving. This can cause a serious injure to
an accident, If the law would accept children at 15 years older to drink, this could
become worst. On the other hand, suicide, cancer and heart disease happens
because of drugs and smoki ng. Accordi ng to Blumberg et al. (2003), “Cigarette
smoking at age 18 or younger is the number one cause of preventable disease
and death worldwide. Smoking-related diseases claim over 393,000 American
lives each year.” He also found that according to he United Nations 2008 World
Drug Report, about 3.9% of the world’s population between ages of 15 and 64
abuse marijuana. In addition, recent studies among 15-16 years old suggest that
use of marijuana varies from under 10% to over 40%.
Another common effect is early marriage, famously known as teenage
pregnancy. This happens when parents does not aware of their children going
out alone or with friends, in such ways, teenage nowadays would say to their
parents that they are having a sleepover with their friends, but instead, they are
actually going to a hotel alone with their so called soul-mate. Normally, most of
these teenagers never graduate in high school, with responsibilities they have to
face on their pregnancies plus homework and exams, they would just have to
drop out of school with no choice. Numerous numbers of teens have never even
thought about how pregnancy would affect their lives. For instance, they would
not able to support their child well. An un-graduate teen would be having a
trouble finding a proper job with their lowest qualification. As a result, they

2. become poor and have no place to live. This can also leads to divorce, when one
can’t support each other or stressed out thinking of how they can survive, they
could give up easily.
Furthermore, in connection of the two examples, the main cause is because
they have lack of guidance from their parents. Parents have become an
important role to keep the chi ldren on the right track from the day their children
were born. However, some parents are too busy with their work, or they thought
that children nowadays could be independent by themselves. This reason leads
to children at 15 over have poor of decision making. For example, they become
socially attached to their friends, hanging out at midnight, doing crimes, and
smoking pots. As stated from a journal Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, “When a person is high on drugs, his thinking and s stated from an
article called Child Death Review, major risk factors of homicide are youth in
drugs, gang activity, violence and also youth with little or no adult supervision.
To conclude, I would definitely disagree on society accepting children over 15
to be mature and adjust the law accordingly. As what I have stated from the
above examples, children at these ages can be clearly seen that they could not
or have not been ready to develop their understanding into a mature living. Even
at these years of modern ages, children around 18-20 are still having trouble with
their life.
(727 words)

3. REFERENCES
Minino, A. (2010). Products - Data Briefs - Number 37 - May 2010.
Cdc.gov. Retrieved 28 May 2010, from
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db37.htm
Nhtsa.gov,. Facts About Young Adults Ages 16 to 20 - Motor Vehicle
Occupant Protection Facts. from
http://www.nhtsa.gov/people/injury/airbags/occupantprotectionfacts/young_
adults.htm
After-car-accidents.com,. (2012). Teenage Car Accidents : Top 6 Causes
of Auto Crashes. Retrieved from http://www.after-car-accidents.
com/teenage-car-accidents.html
Blumberg, H., Burman, W., Chaisson, R., Daley, C., Etkind, S., &
Friedman, L. et al. (2003). American Thoracic Society/Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention/Infectious Diseases Society of America: treatment
of tuberculosis. American Journal Of Respiratory And Critical Care
Medicine, 167(4), 603.
Eschooltoday.com,. (2010). Facts on Teen Drug Abuse, Alcoholism and
Smoking. Retrieved from http://eschooltoday.com/drug-abuse-and-teens/
factsheet-on-teens-and-drug-abuse.html
Childdeathreview.org,. Causes of Death > Homicide (Firearm). Retrieved from
http://www.childdeathreview.org/causesHF.htm