(Kinda unpolished) Video:
download (currently having technical difficulties getting embed to work, but the ~95mb download should work. also uploaded on the mastodon instance mas.to) (apologies for the video compression on this version, fixing it seems difficult but hey, youtube-dl) Or on youtube: https://youtube.com/watch?v=WBQf6crEQTk Future videos (and this one, in a week or so) will also be uploaded on platforms like Bluesky and Mastodon hopefully
Video transcript: The age of majority is 16 in scotland. It used to be 21 untilā¦ the 1970s. It still is 21 in the state of mississippi, 19 in nebraska and 19 in alabama. But Iām getting ahead of myself, and I really need my script. Youth rights. What are youth rights? The National Youth Rights Association defines youth rights as āThe rights that everyone should haveā, but that youth donāt. Though interpretations vary, possible rights include the right to vote, at least at an earlier age, the right to not be subject to āPhysical Punishmentsā, also known as violence, and the right to privacy, the right to make decisions, the right to be outdoors, the right to have or not have a job with money we control, the right to choose aspects of our education, the right to control our own bodies, the right to speech and the right to read. In the united states, youth have very limited rights, instead at the complete or most whims of their parents or schools awkward laugh the government (next time iāll record some more takes i promise) no matter how an individual youth petitions, police and the law will by default back up parents and institutions, ignoring any rights the young person could be argued to have. We already covered some of it, but why are youth rights? Fundamentally (hang on lemme get a little more comfortable here) youth are people. Once we hit a certain developmental stage, we are able to read, write, speak fluently (most of the time), some youth in multiple languages. We can fully form opinions (gesture that means āthisā), feel or not feel emotions and do most everything adults can. We deserve rights, just like everybody else does. Like in everything, the specifics are more complicated. What exactly should the voting age be, or should it even work that way? What about drugs and alcohol? But regardless of specific viewpoints, itās very important to discuss expanded rights for youth. The concept of parental rights gets far more attention than the concept of youth rights does. For that matter, specifc youth rights organi Specific, specific youth rights topics are covered with a modicum of frequency but rarely connected. These youth rights adjacent concepts include childrenās rights, LGBTQ youth rights (usually focusing on the right to privacy), youth advocacy (against like climate change or something [or something????]) and sometimes students rights. Theyāre part of the youth rights movement, and in no way bad but parts lacking a whole. Well defined subcategories of youth rights despite youth rights barely being a category. (noises in background) And thereās my parents. (parent and brother technically, brother cool tho)
coughing ok, alright, I ran to the library, um I- I got I- ok. So now- now i can now i can record. Um Iām Iām back Iām and I reserved a room, Iām in a library. Um I I have I have I have I printed my script out on this cardboard um and so now weāre going to start recording. (faint You Okay) Uhhuuum Uhuuuuuuh Ohooo I donāt I donāt have my script Ii um Ii d uh oh I do, itās right here. This is not a prop, it is the script. Um.
brother: ā¦restart.
me: Iām
brother: are you currently recording or no? me: shhhhh
me: (manic) Iām- This is part of the bit! And youāre not part of the bit!
brother: Yeahhhh, I know.
me: sigh
brother: Iām saying this bit sucks
me: (manic laugh and very manic gesture)
brother: I hope you got some comedic relief from that because the kids that weāre going to be covering donāt get any sort of relief
me: It is my opinion that the very worst youth violations are products of an entirely broken system with total control to parents and whatever parents wish. The most horrifying example of this is the Troubled Teen Industry.
(that was a really tonedeaf transition and I do apologize,
iām not sure why i decided this video had to be the first take
but I also decided the video had to come out today or tomorrow
so itās too late now :/)
Parents sign s- forms giving the individual TTI all rights to the child the parent already has, so, you know, all of them, and then the individual is legally taken without their consent or prior knowledge often from their bed, taken to a facility, often crossing state or sometimes even country lines. Afterā for more favorable le- legislation and like whatever (āwhateverā??? who even is this guy). After that, the details vary but are very traumatizing for the youth and often include things like restraints and forced labor as punishment, malnutrition, injury or even death. This issue absolutely deserves a whole video. The point for this one; These abuses against various youth are not just individual cases of abuse, but products of a broken system, a systemic problem coming from the way youth are treated and classified in this society. The solution to all of these problems isnāt just reduction of these specific injustices. We donāt just have to close down abusive facilities that profit off harming youth, we donāt just have to regulate to reduce the amount of abuse teenagers and children suffer in and out of facilities. We have to increase the rights that young people have and decrease the barriers to getting them. We have to be advocating for different, more reasonable perceptions of how young people are and how we could be without the world against us. We have to be advocating for real solutions and real rights instead of little tiny bandaids (???) and improving specific situations. Thereās no way to fix this, really fix this that doesnāt increase the rights of youth over our lives and bodies. Life wonāt improve for us without decreasing parents and schools control over youth. The issue of how youth are treated legally and culturally today is vast, and awful, and this video cannot describe it and it just compounds for youth part of another discriminated-against group. Who are youth rights? We mentioned the national youth rights association, and thatās an organization Iām a part of. Itās perhaps inactive, but very much not dead. Thereās various european youth rights organizations and some active bloggy organizations and websites. There are many organizations against the troubled teen industry, including āWe Warned Themā, āUnsilencedā and others. So when are youth rights? Youth Rights is soon, hopefully. You could argue youth rights was 1971, when the federal voting age was lowered from 21 to 18 with the 26th amendment. Soon causing all states but threee, there- thereās that beginning again, Mississippi, Alabama and Nebraska, contact the lawmakers or whatever to lower their age of majority to 18. Thereās actually some really interesting history on that it was like Youth Activists during the Vietnam war, students for a democratic society (SDS) if you wanna look that up. In Scotland, youth rights is kinda now as since 1991 the full age of majority is 16. Many rights are afforded to people [16 in England](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_majority_(England) as well, including the right to leave home, open a bank account without parental consent, and medical autonomy. Iād imagine how other countries talk about youth would also be different, especially considering the amount of European youth organizations. The united states should not be behind on this issue. While these countries have many differences, if the age of majority is chilling at 16 in scotland, why wouldnāt it work over here. I wanna do a whole video on the history of youth rights and the age of majority a- and variation by country and jurisdiction because thereās some really interesting stuff there. Where are Youth Rights? Digitally, Youth Righ R Digitally, Youth Rights is the best place for Youth Rights thatās true. Digitally, r/youthrights is the most active place for it right now. You can find the links to several Youth Rights organizations below, as well as a list of Youth Rights organizations at underdevelopedprefrontalcortex.github.io. Ummm, yeah. How are Youth Rights? very intentional visual effect The youth riots [sic] movement seems dormant right now, but there are people that advocate and support expanded youth rights, and they might just need to get connected. Every movement has unique challenges. For example, aging out of the movement seems to be a common problem, though of course you can be a supporter. The youth rights movement will have itās day (it actually already does itās April 14th) its month and its era. Stay safe out there, and stay talking. (Mic drop but the mic is headphones) title card time!
This work by underdevelopedprefrontalcortex is primarily licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0, but also contains an image of the United Kingdom with the following attribution:
Source: File:British Isles all.svg by Cnbrb File:United Kingdom countries.svg by Rob984 Derived work:Offnfopt, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
and some other images that are fairly evidently fair use, from a few in-work mentioned organizations. This title slide is sufficient to share this video file legally, but removal would require the CC (Creative Commons) attributions above, not withstanding a few legal fair use exceptions. For more information or a video file download, see underdevelopedprefrontalcortex.github.io/video1
email: underdevelopedprefrontalcortex@tuta.com