I basically agree, but I must point out that with rights comes responsibilities. Currently, children are treated much like property of the parents. It is almost like slavery. The parent is responsible for ensuring that the child is fed, clothed, sheltered and sent to school. Because of this arrangement, the child must be obligated to mind the parents. If the child was given more rights, then the parent should have less responsibility for them.

In may old cultures, like the Native Americans for example, the children were very free, but the parents were not responsible for them. The parents didn't punish the children and the children were free to come and go and do as they wished. They could leave home and strike out on their own anytime. Of course, the parents could throw them out any time too. Typically, the children stayed with their parents by choice and minded them because they didn't want to get kicked out on their own. As a result the children treated their parents with a lot more respect than most kids do today.

Many people would be concerned that this sort of arrangement would result in a lot of homeless and exploited children. This might be true, but they would serve as a good example to the rest of the kids of why it's best to respect your parents.

Just to make things clear, your idea is to end minimum age requirements?

This wikipedia article on age of majority is interesting. 18 seems to be the global mode.

To clarify, my idea is to end all age discrimination. My supporting arguments were for discrimination against youth, but there are things that elderly are discriminated against as well, for example nearly all forms of insurance. Similarly, there are benefits specifically given to those of certain age groups, namely social security and medicare. I disagree with all types of age discrimination and I believe it should be illegal, just as discrimination based on race, sex, orientation, etc is illegal.

I don't think you can avoid discriminating against older people for insurance. Insurance companies discriminate against all kinds of people depending on the risk. For example, they discriminate against drivers with bad driving records. Drivers that get lots of tickets have higher statistical odds of getting in an accident. Sad to say, older people have higher statistical odds of getting seriously ill or dieing.

Capability should be based on an individual. All people should be given equal rights until they prove they are not capable (i.e. felons).

People should not be subject to discrimination based on a factor over which they have no control, such as age, race or gender. I think most reasonable people can agree on that. However, you should take into consideration that some uncontrollable physical attributes limit what we can do as individuals, and that some of these attributes are correlated closely with age.

I don't think it's possible to end any type of unreasonable discrimination (there will always be unreasonable people), but I agree with you that we should adjust our societal age limitations to work for individuals who don't fall within chronological demographics.