In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, a minor is a person under the age of 18; [9] In Scotland, this age is 16. [10] The age of criminal responsibility is 10 years in England, Wales and Northern Ireland; and 12 years in Scotland, formerly 8 years, which was the lowest age in Europe. [11] [12] [13] A person who, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, appears to be twelve years of age or older. Section 2(1) of the YCJA states: “Where the context so requires, [a young person] includes any person charged. if he has committed an offence as a minor or if he is convicted of an offence under this Act. That is, even if a person is over his eighteenth birthday, the person charged with committing a crime, while a young person continues to be treated under the YCJA for the purposes of prosecution, conviction and criminal review. In law, a minor is a person under a certain age, usually the age of majority, which legally separates childhood from adulthood. The age of majority depends on jurisdiction and application, but is usually 18. Minor can also be used in contexts that have nothing to do with the total age of majority. For example, the drinking age in the United States is generally 21 and young people are sometimes referred to as minors in the context of alcohol law, even if they are at least 18 years old. [1] [2] The term minor often refers to people who are not yet of legal age, but it can also refer to people who are below a certain age limit, such as drinking age, smoking age, consent age, marriage age, driving age, voting age, etc.

These age limits are often different from the age of majority. In the United States, since 1995, a minor has generally been defined by law as a person under the age of 18. However, in the context of alcohol or gambling laws, persons under the age of 21 may also sometimes be referred to as “minors”. [1] [2] However, not all minors are considered “minors” within the meaning of criminal responsibility. As is often the case in the United States, laws vary greatly from state to state. Therefore, a minor in Thailand refers to anyone under the age of 20, unless they are married. A minor cannot perform any legal act – for example, sign contracts. If minors wish to perform a legal act, they must obtain the consent of their legal representative, usually (but not always) the parents, otherwise the act is questionable. Exceptions are acts by which a minor simply acquires a right or is released from an obligation, strictly personal acts and actions that correspond to his or her living situation and are necessary for his or her reasonable needs. The minor may draw up a will at the age of fifteen. The emancipation of minors is a legal mechanism by which a minor is no longer under the control of his parents or guardians and receives the legal rights associated with adults.

Depending on the country, emancipation can be achieved in different ways: through marriage, economic self-sufficiency, graduation or training, or participation in some form of military service. In the United States, all states have some form of emancipation of minors. [18] Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan and Prince Edward Island set the age of majority at 18, while British Columbia, Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick reached the age of majority at 19. [5] In Saskatchewan, the legal gambling age and the legal drinking age are 19. [6] Things prohibited for persons under the age of 18 include sitting on a jury, voting, running as a candidate, buying or renting films with an 18 certificate or R18 certificate or watching them in a cinema, depicting pornographic material, bringing a lawsuit without a litigator, civil liability, access to adoption records and the purchase of alcohol. Tobacco, knives and fireworks. The rules on the minimum age for the sale of these products are often violated, so that, in practice, the consumption of alcohol and tobacco takes place before the age of majority; However, many UK stores are tightening restrictions by asking potentially underage customers for identification documents. The term “verifiable parental consent” means any reasonable effort (taking into account available technology), including a request for authorization for future collection, use and disclosure, described in the notice to ensure that a parent of a child receives notice of the operator`s collection, use and disclosure practices and authorizes the collection, use and disclosure. if applicable, personal data and further use of such information before such information is collected from that child. Some states, including Florida, have passed laws that allow a person accused of an extremely heinous crime, such as murder, to be tried as an adult, regardless of age.

These laws were challenged by the American Civil Liberties Union. An estimated 250,000 juveniles are tried, convicted, or imprisoned as adults in the United States each year. [17] In many countries, including Australia, India, Brazil, Croatia, and Colombia, a minor is defined as a person under the age of 18. In the United States, where the age of majority is determined by each state, minors generally refer to a person under the age of 18, but in some states, in certain areas (such as casino gambling, possession of handguns, and alcohol consumption) may be used to define a person under the age of 21. In the criminal justice system, the term “minor” is not entirely consistent in some places, as a juvenile can be tried and punished for a crime either as a “minor” or, usually only for “extremely serious crimes” such as murder and/or robbery, as an “adult”. The term “minor” is not clearly defined in most jurisdictions. The age of criminal responsibility and consent, the age at which school attendance is no longer compulsory, the age at which legally binding contracts can be concluded, etc. may vary.

Driving certain large vehicles, driving a personal driver`s license for licensed institutions and adopting a child are not permitted before the age of 21. The minimum age to drive an LKW1 vehicle has been lowered to 18 years. However, some vehicles, such as road rollers, require a person to be 21 years of age to obtain an operating licence. In Japan, Taiwan and Thailand, a minor is a person under the age of 20. In New Zealand law, the age of majority is also 20,[3] but most adult rights are adopted at younger ages: for example, making and drafting a will is allowed at 15,[4] while the drinking and voting ages are both 18. The term “online contact information” means an email address or other substantially similar identifier that enables direct online contact with an individual. The term “person” means any individual, partnership, corporation, trust, estate, cooperative, association or other entity. In Italy, Law nr.

Article 39 of 8 March 1975 provides that a minor is a person under 18 years of age. [7] Citizens under the age of 18 cannot vote (to elect senators, 25), be elected, obtain a driver`s license for cars, or issue or sign legal instruments. Crimes committed by minors in Italy are tried by a juvenile court. For all provincial legislation (such as alcohol and tobacco regulations), provincial and territorial governments have the authority to determine the age of majority in their respective province or territory, and the age varies across Canada. L. 105-277, div. C, Title XIII, § 1308, 21 October 1998, 112 Stat. 2681-735, provided that: The term “Commission” means the Federal Trade Commission. In all 28 states and 8 territories of the Union, a minor is considered to be a person under the age of 18. In rare cases, minors as young as 16 or 17 accused of extremely heinous crimes can sometimes be treated as adults.

[8] Minors aged 16 or 17 who are charged with criminal offences may sometimes be treated as adults. In England and Wales, cases of juveniles who break the law are often dealt with by the Juvenile Crime Team. If they are detained, they are sent to a juvenile detention centre. The term “Internet” refers collectively to the myriad of computer and telecommunications facilities, including operating equipment and software, that make up the interconnected global network of networks that use the transmission control protocol/Internet Protocol or its predecessor or successor protocols to communicate information of all kinds by cable or radio. The term “federal authority” means an agency as defined in section 551(1) of Division 5. Under this distinction, those who are considered juveniles are usually (but not always) brought before a juvenile court and may benefit from other special protection measures. For example, in some states, a parent or guardian must be present during police questioning, or their names may remain confidential if they are accused of a crime. For many crimes (especially violent crimes), the age at which a minor can be tried as an adult varies below 18 or (less commonly) under 16. [14] For example, in Kentucky, the lowest age at which a minor can be tried as an adult, regardless of the seriousness of the crime, is 14.

The Twenty-sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified in 1971, granted all citizens the right to vote in any state, at any election, beginning at age 18. The death penalty for persons who committed a crime before the age of 18 was established by Roper v. Simmons in 2005. [15] The Court`s 5-4 decision was written by Kennedy J. and supported by Ginsburg, Stevens, Breyer and Souter, and cited international law, the science of child development and many other factors in reaching its conclusion.