All those individuals who have not yet reached adulthood or the age of majority will be called a minor..
Individual who has not reached the age of majority and as such must be protected and maintained by their parents or guardians
Generally, the minority of age covers all childhood and almost all adolescence or part of this stage, such determination will strictly depend on what the legislation of the place of the planet in question stipulates, although, most western countries establish that one is a minor up to 18 or 20 yearsAfter these, the individual of legal age will be considered and as such must fulfill certain obligations that were previously alien to him, precisely because he is not considered an adult.
In legal terms, minors are those individuals who have not yet reached the age of majority, as we have already said, and by case they are subject to the regime known as parental authority, this means that they live under the authority of their parents who have the responsibility to protect and educate them until they reach the age of majority. Meanwhile, if they do not have their parents because they died or because they lost this right due to a judicial resolution, a guardian will be appointed who will exercise parental authority.
Basically, the minority is established to indicate the lack of maturity that an individual still presents to carry out certain actions or activities in his life, such as working, getting married, living alone, among others and that are typical of adulthood, and also to exempt him from responsibility for those acts that cannot be attributed to him due to his lack of capacity.
State that establishes a series of rights and obligations and also limitations
Then, this situation will bring about a series of limits to the rights and responsibilities of the person. To prevent the minor from carrying out activities or making decisions for which he or she is not yet ready, or failing that, so that an adult does not abuse the benefits that the law sometimes provides for minors is that the law establishes limitations regarding capacities, rights and obligations according to the age observed by the individual.
According to what is established in most laws, a minor may not be imprisoned for committing a crime, if there is any violation of any rule on the part of a minor, he / she will be taken to an institute but will not serve an effective prison. In any case, there are some exceptions in which according to the age and the crime committed, the minor is plausible of being convicted.
It is proven that a boy before reaching 18 years of age does not present a total maturity to work, marry or run a home, until that age, the ideal for the development of that individual to be satisfied and positive is that he is in school studying, with time to be able to have fun with their friends and living as a family with their parents, or failing that with those older adults who are responsible for them.
Exploitation and abuse of minors
But of course, sometimes, not all realities turn out to be like this and some children, before reaching the legal age established by the law of their country, find themselves working to survive or to help their families. Or in other cases that are equally serious, they are sexually subjected and exploited.
The corruption of minors is a crime classified in the criminal code and that punishes those who abuse minors, urging them and forcing them to carry out sexual practices
Governments, on whom the direct responsibility for this situation falls, should, through different policies, ensure that fewer and fewer children have to work as a result of necessity before they come of age.
And they must also take care of having laws that severely punish those who mistreat or abuse children, and of course ensure that they are applied.
If these issues are not mediated, it will be very difficult to eradicate the abuse of minors that is proliferating in the world and especially in less developed countries.
Children's rights
It is important to follow as a guide the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, a treaty that was approved back in the middle of the last century, at the behest of the United Nations and that proposes ten fundamental principles in order to fulfill this objective: the right to equality without suffer distinctions of any kind such as: sex, race, religion, opinions, social status; to have a special protection for its compliant development; to a name and a nationality; to housing, food and medical care; to education, and those with disabilities access special education; to the understanding and love of their parents and society; free education and recreational activities; be among the first to be assisted with a problem; protected from neglect, cruelty and exploitation; be raised in a spirit of tolerance, understanding, respect, and brotherhood.
