I don’t want the voting age lowered to 16, I want it abolished

Would some children be persuaded by political campaigns? (Picture: Phil Noble/REUTERS)

I write about children’s rights for a living, but you won’t find me campaigning to lower the UK’s voting age to 16.

It might be surprising to hear, but the reason I’m against lowering the voting age – as the Labour Party is suggesting – isn’t because I think older teens aren’t capable. Far from it.

Instead, I believe we should abolish the minimum voting age altogether so that all children who want to vote can do so – whether they’re 14, or four.

I realise the idea of preschoolers getting to vote might sound extreme – but is it, really? 

The UK has an ageing population where votes are increasingly weighted towards older people who can continue voting for as long as they live. 

Older people have tended to choose politicians who ignore the future in favour of short-term gains, and these decisions have had disastrous consequences for children’s wellbeing.

From the lack of good quality childcare and crumbling schools, to the rapidly worsening climate crisis, and the urgent need for mental-health support, our children have been let down by older people voting in politicians who don’t seem to care about them. 

With over four million children currently living in poverty, something needs to change. 

In the 2019 general election less than a quarter of 18-24 year olds voted for right-wing parties, compared to around 70% of over-seventies.

Giving children the vote would go some way towards redressing this imbalance, and it would send a clear message that children’s rights matter. 

Giving all children the vote would shake things up (Picture: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Politicians might think twice before defending the two-child benefit limit, or suggesting compulsory national service if they knew that children would be voting on their manifestos.

Giving all children the vote would shake things up and change the way politics works in the UK. It would be good for children, but bad for the politicians who don’t want extra scrutiny around children’s rights. 

But that’s not a good enough reason to stop children voting.

We tend to think of the voting age as something set in stone, but who has been eligible to vote has changed dramatically throughout history. 

Many of the arguments that were used by men against women’s suffrage are the same ones used by adults today to justify children’s exclusion from voting: that they had smaller brains; that giving women the vote would mean handing an extra vote to their husbands; that they wouldn’t be interested in politics anyway. 

I’ve had people tell me that children’s brains are insufficiently developed to understand politics; that children would just vote like their parents; that children are too easy to influence; and that we need to protect children from the sordid world of political campaigns. 

There are three big problems with these arguments. 

Firstly, we don’t place such conditions on adults voting. We don’t need to pass an IQ test, or show we understand politics, or be able to prove that we haven’t been unduly influenced by someone else. We can – rightly – still vote if we have dementia or an intellectual disability. 

So, why are children the only ones who don’t get a say? What’s the excuse? 

We could easily make election materials accessible through picture books, cartoons, songs, and games – and political education and critical thinking skills could be embedded into the curriculum. 

Would some children be persuaded by political campaigns? Sure, but then again some adults are, too – if ads didn’t work, political parties wouldn’t spend millions on them. 

Secondly, the best way to protect children from the very real problems they face – violence, poverty, underfunded services – would be to give them some political power to fight back at the ballot box from a young age.

To be able to help and play a part in making a very real difference to their unique lived experiences.

Lastly, these arguments tend to ignore just how capable children can be. Four and five year olds who attend democratic schools regularly vote on how their schools are run and are able to do so perfectly well. 

There are examples of children all over the world mobilising and campaigning for social change and getting things done, from working children’s movements in Peru, which campaign for better protections for child labourers, to the children’s parliaments in India, which have tackled adult alcoholism and helped more children attend school. 

So why can’t they vote here in the UK?

Children are denied the vote because of adultism, the bias that favours adults over children. In adultist societies like ours, children are seen as incompetent, irrational, and in need of being controlled ‘for their own good’ (children in England are the only group of people who can legally be hit as ‘reasonable punishment’, for example). 

I spoke to a number of young people, aged from three to 12, who told me that they wanted to vote

Childhood is too-often seen as a deficient state where children’s worth lies in their potential as future adults, and adults routinely underestimate children’s ability to understand information and make good decisions. 

It is because of adultism that children are excluded from democracy. 

If this was any other group of people we would be quick to call it what it is: discrimination. Yet, because they are children, we see their political marginalisation as natural, or ‘just the way things are’.

But children know this isn’t fair. 

While researching for my book on children’s rights, I spoke to a number of young people, aged from three to 12, who told me that they wanted to vote. Our children are fed up with watching politicians risk their futures with the climate crisis, and they have strong views on war, inequality, and education. 

Our children want change, and they want their voices to be heard. 

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child states that all children have the right to express their views in all matters affecting them and to have their views taken seriously. Giving children the vote would show that the UK is committed to taking this right seriously. 

So, while I’m pleased that Labour are looking at reducing the voting age if they win the general election, I hope this is only the first step towards truly universal suffrage. 

That children get to shape their futures – something that we adults in this country have done for far too long, and without much success.

Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing jess.austin@metro.co.uk. 

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