In Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan, and Prince Edward Island the (baseline) age of majority is set at 18, while in British Columbia, Yukon, the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick the age of majority is 19.
[6] Citizens under the age of 18 may not vote, be elected, obtain a driving license for automobiles or issue or sign legal instruments.
In rare cases minors aged 16 or 17 who are charged with extremely heinous crimes could sometimes be treated as an adult.
In England and Wales, the Family Law Reform Act 1969 set the age of majority in both nations at 18.
Things that persons under 18 are prohibited from doing include sitting on a jury, standing as a candidate, buying or renting films with an 18 or R18 classification or seeing them in a cinema, suing without a litigant friend, and purchasing alcohol, or tobacco products.
For example, in some states a parent or guardian must be present during police questioning, or their names may be kept confidential when they are accused of a crime.
[8] The death penalty for those who have committed a crime while under the age of 18 was discontinued by the U.S. Supreme Court case Roper v. Simmons in 2005.
[9] The court's 5–4 decision was written by Justice Kennedy and joined by Justices Ginsburg, Stevens, Breyer, and Souter, and cited international law, child developmental science, and many other factors in reaching its conclusion.
The twenty-sixth amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1971, granted all citizens the right to vote in every state, in every election, from the age of 18, reducing the minimum ages for most privileges that had previously been set at 21 (signing contracts, marrying without parental consent, termination of legal parental custody) to 18, with the exception of drinking, which had been raised to 21 around the 1980s due to teen drunk driving cases protested by the Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
The U.S. Department of Defense took the position that they would not consider "enemy combatants" held in extrajudicial detention in the Guantanamo Bay detainment camps minors unless they were less than sixteen years old.
Some states, including Florida, have passed laws that allow a person accused of certain crimes, such as murder, to be tried as an adult, regardless of age.
Depending on country, emancipation may happen in different manners: through marriage, attaining economic self-sufficiency, obtaining an educational degree or diploma, or participating in a form of military service.