Young citizen: rights and responsibilities

Everybody has rights and responsibilities and children are not exempt from these rights. The 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) defines a child as “any human being below the age of eighteen years”. Children rights includes: right to survival, cared and raised well; to live with a family, protected, provided food, educated, health care etc.

These rights are given from birth and increase as they mature in life. Let us understand these rights age-wise.

From birth:

A right to survival
Cared and raised weak
Protected, provided shelter and food
Have a deposit account or current account

Three years

15 hours of childcare a week
30 hours funded childcare if their patient earn a certain amount

Four years

A child can start full time education in a reception class at the age of four.

Five years

A child must start her or his education at this age.

Ten years

At the age of 10, a child can be found guilty of a crime under the Crime and Disorder Act 1998. S/he can be convicted of a criminal offence but will be tried in a youth court unless the offence is serious, such as murder.

Eleven years

Some banks allow children aged 11 or over to open a bank account, but not one with an overdraft.

Fourteen years

Get a part time job as permitted under local authority for maximum 2hrs on a school day
Work up to five hours on Saturdays
Order soft drinks from the bar £1,000
Wearing a seatbelt becomes their responsibility.

Fifteen years

Addition to the above, they can work up to eight hours on Saturdays
They can view, rent or buy a 15 rated film
If convicted, they can be sentenced to up to two years in a young offenders institute.

Sixteen years S/he can:

Give consent to medical, dental and surgical treatment
Join the armed forces
Get married or leave home (with parental consent)
Leave school (provided you turn 16 by the end of the summer holidays.
Access free full-time further education or take a year off for training or study
Claim benefit and obtain a National Insurance number
Apply for legal aid; drink a beer, wine, or cider with a meal in a pub or restaurant if accompanied by an adult;
Obtain a provisional licence and ride a 50cc moped; work as a street trader and/or sell scrap metal; choose a doctor
Work full time if they’ve left school
Pay for prescription charges
Order a passport
Receive a youth rehabilitation order if convicted of a criminal offence
Play the National Lottery
Buy premium bonds
Fly a glider.

Seventeen years

You can become a blood donor leave their body for medical study
Drive most kinds of vehicles (as long as accompanied by someone age 21+ if they only have a provisional licence);
Drive alone if they pass their driving test
Apply for a private pilot’s licence for a plane, helicopter, gyroplane, hot air balloon and airship
Be interviewed by the police without an adult present and be given a reprimand or a warning; be sent to a remand centre or prison if charged with an offence and not granted bail.

Eighteen years is a ‘age of majority’ you can:

Buy alcoholic drinks in a pub or a bar
Pawn items in a pawn shop
Have a tattoo
Drive lorries weighing up to 7.5 tonnes, with a trailer attached
Vote in local and general elections
Stand for election as an MP, local councillor or Mayor
Serve on a jury, be tried in a magistrates court and be jailed if convicted of a criminal offence
See their original birth certificate if they were adopted
Make a will
Get married without parental consent
View, rent or buy an 18 rated film; buy fireworks
Place a bet in a betting shop/casino
Buy cigarettes, rolling tobacco and cigarette papers
Open a bank account.

Twenty-one years

Apply to adopt a child
Supervise a learner driver (with the rights driving licence)
Apply for licences to fly commercial transport aeroplanes, helicopters, gyroplanes and airships; drive buses, road rollers and lorries over 7.5 tonnes with a trailer (with the right licences).