ArcaMax

* Teenagers are subjected to public embarrassment via special license plates on their vehicles, the equivalent of being required to ride the short bus to school.

* Teenagers are treated unequally (more severely) by the law - subject to being punished for offenses that do not exist for (arbitrarily defined) "adult" drivers.

Add to this the Wet Nurse "parental control" electronics being fitted to new cars such as real-time monitoring of where, when - and how fast - a teenager drives (these technologies soon to be applied to the over-21s, too). Limits on speed, limits on radio volume. "Geo-fencing" (no, really). The list is long - and growing.

It does not take an academic study to suss out the implications. Teens are doing the only thing left to them:

They are opting out. Just as many people have decided it's no longer worth the hassle to fly. At least at home, one's crotch is still sacrosanct. You only have to take off your shoes if you feel like it. And if someone tries to rifle your pockets or belongings you may (for now) defend your pockets and belongings from such assault. Each year, it seems, the circle grows a little smaller.

Obtaining a driver's license - and one's first car - was once upon a time (and not all that long ago) perhaps the number one priority of every soon-to-be 16-year-old. After, of course, the other thing. Which was very much enabled or at least made more potentially realizable if one had one's own set of wheels and the freedom to jump in with another teen, hopefully of the opposite sex - and take that first bite of adult life.

That's now denied in the interests of "Keeping kids safe" ... by preventing them from ever becoming adults. It is useful training for the world that awaits them.

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www.ericpetersautos.com or EPeters952@aol.com for comments.