by Y Tian

Created on: January 05, 2008   Last Updated: March 19, 2008

At an age when life's worries consist mostly of homework, show-and-tell, the daily bath and how to spend this week's pocket money, politics doesn't play that much of a part. Sure, you might know who the current president is, but expecting a child to have an avid interest in politics let alone know which candidate to donate to is asking for a bit too much. Under such circumstances, how can we expect children to donate money to political candidates?

Donating to a political candidate is not like donating to your favorite charity. It means you have a lot of trust in your chosen candidate and you truly believe in their aspirations, goals and promises. After all, you are donating to a candidate that might not even win the election when the time comes. Essentially, you are taking a huge leap of faith. Thus, when choosing which political candidate to donate to, you must really know what you are doing as well as what the candidate is doing.

For children under the voting age, these requirements are way past their capabilities. While I concede to the fact that there may be little geniuses out there who can argue politics as well as an adult, the truth is, most children under the voting age don't really understand or simply don't care. Allowing them to donate money to candidates is simply a loophole that allows these children's parents to donate that little bit extra.

This brings forward another question? Why would children under the voting age donate in the first place? It's naturally because of their parents. Swayed by their parents' political views, these kids are essentially donating money in the place of their parents. After all, where did they get the money from? Who told them to do so in the first place (normally, kids enjoy spending money on themselves rather than on a political candidate)? Who will actually benefit from the donations and the publicity?

Since children cannot be expected to make informed decisions regarding which political candidate to vote, why would we expect them to make informed decisions as to which political candidate to donate to? Isn't that the whole reason why there is a limit to the voting age? Thus, the government should not allow them to donate because after all, it's not the children who are doing the donating, but rather their parents.

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