Under Jewish law the official age at which one is considered able to tell right from wrong and thus held responsible for one's actions is 13 (for a boy) or 12 (

Under Jewish law the official age at which one is considered able to tell right from wrong and thus held responsible for one's actions is 13 (for a boy) or 12 (for a girl). I've never seen a good argument for 18 or 21 being a better place to draw that sort of arbitrary line. My suspicion is that kids act irresponsibly to the degree that they do largely because we don't allow them agency or true adult responsibilities - we've infantilized them. Whatever age gets picked becomes essentially a self-fulfilling prophesy.