Other examples abound. More and more communities impose curfews on people under 18. Some states revoke drivers licenses of high school dropouts. Pregnant girls often need parental or judicial permission to obtain an abortion. Teenagers under 18 cannot vote even if they understand better than their parents the political issues they study in school.
Kids caught with cigarettes in Rochester now pay a fine.
Alcohol, which was available at 18 partly to let people old enough to die in Vietnam have a beer first, is now again illegal until 21. The list goes on, and its length doesn't really surprise us. Even those who support these and similar policies must acknowledge that the rules reflect a lack of trust that most kids will do the right thing. We protect them, and we control them, and we let them know we don't have much faith in them. We don't expect much from them other than following our rules.