Too young to vote? The science of maturity | Dean Burnett

The shock election result has been attributed to the youth vote, leading to claims that younger voters don't/can't understand the issues at stake. Are the concerns valid?

So, the General Election happened. That was fun. What was meant to be a Conservative landslide turned into a chaotic hung Parliament situation. A lot of the blame for this surprising (hilarious) result has been placed on an unexpectedly large increase in turnout from pro-Labour younger voters. And I do mean "blame", because according to many, this was something they shouldn't have happened, because younger people can't be trusted to make such important decisions. Apparently.

Seriously, there have been phone-ins about it. Many articles. Letters to the editor. Lord knows how many below-the-line comments. All based around the point that young people voting is bad, and they shouldn't do it, for reasons. Presumably many of these reasons a variations of "how they vote doesn't correspond with how I'd vote and I cannot allow this", but are there any valid ones? As in, scientifically speaking, are there any realistic arguments for younger people being denied a vote? Here are a few candidates