Look me up when you're legal....

That's a phrase I've heard a few times at YouTube.
No. Not in a dirty way - it had to do with going out for a drink - and it was not said to me (I'm old enough...)

But it got me thinking: Legal?
To do what?

Where I live we have very different standards for legality.
For instance:

- You can legally drive a car when you are 18.







- You can legally buy/have a drink in a pub or a disco when you are 16 (or at least that's where the age limit will be in a few months. Right now it's actually 15)






- You can legally get married when you are 18 (sometimes you can get married at an earlier age, but then you need government approval - and yes same sex couples can get wed as well (since 1989) - at the city counsel)






- You can legally smoke (cigarettes/cigars/etc.) when you are 18 (this is a fairly new one as well - earlier there was no age limit.)











- You can vote when you're 18.












- You will be convicted as an adult, if you commit any crime after you turned 15 (not that you should commit crime at any given age)






And finally


- You can legally have sex when you are 15 (although this might change to 16 as well) - but hey, what can you expect from the first country in the world to legalize pornography...





So basically you can have sex and get drunk when you are 15/16, but you cannot vote, drive a car or smoke legally until you are 18.

So. Are we more liberal than the Americans?
In America you can drive when you're 16, have sex when you are 16/17/18 (it varies from state to state), vote when you are 18 and drink when you are 21. Or at least that's what I think it is. Please enlighten me if I got it all wrong. :o)

And should the age limits be the same?
Like, "When you are 18 you can vote/drive/drink/have sex/get married/smoke - but not sooner..."?