A Thin Volume

When is a youth a man? it seems to me that according to the news coverage, a 17 year old male, if a victim, is termed a youth, whereas if accused of a crime he becomes a man. Anyone else noticed this?

And when does a male infant become a boy and then make the transition to youth?

Boy, youth, man are not - in my opinion - definitions that are relevant only to legal matters, but they also carry an emotive element, related - I think - to the way society believes it has a duty of care to the vulnerable; the younger the person, or the way that person is defined, then the greater our duty of care - because they are not capable of taking on that care for themselves.

There are many ways in which we are subtly influenced by such word-related perceptions of maturity. There was a considerable debate on another blog about the age of (sexual) consent: my take on that is that individuals mature emotionally and physically at different chronological times - and on that basis some could be "ready" to have an "adult" sexual relationship from any time from say 15 years onwards, but because of those individual variations then society must make all efforts to limit the explotation of "young" people and set the legal bar a bit high for safety's sake. Also, society's differ, what mey be appropriate in the UK in 2007 is not necessarily what is appropriate in other cultures.

But let me get back to the original questions - have you noticed how the news media reports age differently, according to the context, and where should we draw the lines between boy, youth and man - and of course the female equivalent - and indeed, should they be the same age divisions for male and female?