I think that young people, in general, aren't given enough credit.
On the other hand, even though age restrictions are frequently circumvented, they impress a certain amount of respect for why these regulations are in place.
For example, in my corner of Canada, the legal drinking age is 19. They tried lowering it to 18, and it caused a noticeable spike in high school students drinking and getting into all the nasty trouble that it can cause, such as drinking and driving. The age was raised back to 19 and the problem receded, even though many teenagers were obviously still drinking underage. They're much more careful about how they drink, though.
It's kind of like how a posted speed limit of 100kmph causes most people to drive 110kmph. Raise the limit to 110kmph to respect this reality and you find people are now driving 120kmph.
Your point that being old enough to work and pay taxes ought to be old enough to vote is very well taken, though.
"The worst part about these reviews is they are [subjective]--and their scores often depend on how drunk you got the media at a Street Fighter event." — Mona Hamilton, Capcom Senior VP of Marketing
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