What should be the general legal age of adulthood?

14-15 (5%) – "In the modern time, with the abundance of education and knowledge at the tip of your fingers, together with advances in health science, humans mature earlier than before, both physically and mentally."

16-17 (11%) – "I just feel like that’s when most kids start their life as they are going into their senior year and have to think about the rest of their life which is basically the adult phase therefore when you have to think about the adult phase of your life and have to make decision of careers and college I feel that is when a child becomes an adult so the age of 16-17 is an adult."

18 (37%) – "One of the biggest factors for me is when kids graduate high school and are, theoretically, on their own. Once you strike out on your own, you should be able to vote for policies to support your well being and happiness as you see fit."

• "18 just feels right to me, and yes, many kids still make dumb decisions at this age, but they also make dumb decisions until they’re 30 too. Especially if we’re going to keep the draft age here, then they should be allowed to have a damn drink if they can be enlisted to kill someone. I would be open to moving the draft age to 21 and all other laws to that age too though."

"At the end of the day, people are going to make immature or idiotic decisions at any age. At some point we have to give up pretending we can know when people are 'really' mature enough and recognize that any number we choose will be arbitrary to some extent. Still, we need a cut off date at some point, and to me 18 seems a reasonable age for most things. Some people at 18 are already living as adults, but independent living at younger than that isn't super common. If you wait until 21 you start to frustrate the many young adults who are independent earlier. It makes sense to me then that adult decisions made by anyone younger than 18 can have a few reasonable barriers in place (i.e. extra approval steps or permissions) to ensure we aren't putting kids in risky situations but still supporting those who need to make adult decisions at an earlier age. And it never hurts a 16 year old to wait a few extra years to vote...I was a younger college student and ran into a few annoying situations before I was 18, but it wasn't anything that kept me from enjoying life or moving forward with large decisions."

• "18 feels like a fair balance for most things, though voting earlier actually seems fine to me. All people have a stake in the future, and voting for the first time while in school (for most) seems like a good way to make it a lifetime habit."

19-20 (15%) – "It allows kids to get through school, and start their life as an adult, either through college and/or working, before being allowed or expected to make adult decisions. Kids under the age of 19/20 have no idea how adult life really works. They've been taken care of by their parents and others. They need real world experience before they can make adult decisions. They are allowed to be on their parents insurance until 25, but we want to push them into adulthood on important decisions like electing government officials before they've experience life on their own!?"

21+ (32%) – "18 year olds have virtually NO life experience outside of home and school and are still in development physically and mentally. Voting and major life decisions should NOT be a popularity contest but a reasoned decision based on full, and not arrested, development."

• "Two words: prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for decision-making, judgement and other executive functions. It doesn't finish developing until between 23-25 years old, which is why adolescents and young adults eat tide-pods and light their farts. 16 year olds are perhaps the most emotional, unreasonable, insecure and egocentric humans on the planet. So no, they should not have a say in voting. What a dumb idea: exactly the kind of thinking a 16-year old would think is reasonable."

"Most states have a drinking age of 21, which I totally agree with. If you aren't mature enough to decide when you have had enough to drink at age 18, then you aren't old enough to make mature, informed decisions on other important choices. This includes being sent to war or owning firearms."