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Recently, the hot topic discussed by most of the teenagers was the issue of making club entrance restricted to those who are 17 and over. This has led to an uproar by the 16-year olds who have felt that this maneuver was unjust and unneeded.
Increasing the age limit from 16 to 17 may indeed be a useless change in the law. The real difference lies between the age of 15 and 16, where most students move from secondary schools to higher level schools, such as Junior College and GCHSS. There isn’t a noticeable change in the level of maturity/responsibility between 16 and 17; the majority of students are still attending the same schools. Moreover, normally you will find students of 16/17 hanging around together, both at Paceville and elsewhere, and leaving half the group outside the club simply because there’s a few months of age gap between them is idiotic.
This new law has also led to a heavy blow to the nightclubs in Malta, especially in Paceville. Students are the main source of income for these clubs, and most of the club owners have disagreed with this change. Security had to be tightened, because the owner would face a very hefty fine indeed if an underage person is found in his club. Owners may now have to cater for and attract more mature clientele, but such clients have either stopped frequenting Paceville, or are disheartened from entering nightclubs because these have to close at 4 am, due to another law imposed by the Maltese government.
A University student has also pointed out that this law may even do more harm than good, when it comes to the consume of alcohol, which was the main reason for the law change. As said by this student, a new trend may be settling in after this new law: flat parties. Teenagers would rent a flat for a night or for the weekend, buy their own alcohol at a much cheaper price than normally found in clubs, and thus they would consume a significantly higher amount of alcohol. Furthermore, they wouldn’t be under the occasional supervision of bouncers and security personnel, so God knows what might happen to a group of students who do not even have an idea of who they are after a whole day/night of drinking.
Therefore, one needs to ask whether it is wiser to simply reinforce the 16+ law, and leave it at that, or even introduce Substance Education in schools which deals with the harmful effects of alcohol and drugs by presenting brutal and shocking real-life situations to students (and if needed, with visual aid as well). After all, we only need to safeguard children from consuming alcohol, and not teenagers who are old enough and may even be more mature than some of the adults living in today’s world.
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