Sex, Jobs, and Smoking: What's Legal for Teens in Your State? A STATE-BY-STATE LOOK AT AMERICA'S PATERNALISTIC PATCHWORK OF LAWS.

• Author: Boehm, Eric
• Position: INFOGRAPHIC - Brief article

THE AGE OF majority in the United States is 18--that's when you can join the military, register to vote, and be convicted of crimes as an adult. But individual states can't resist drawing their own bright lines of law regarding many adult activities, thereby creating awkward juxtapositions of permission and prohibition.

Case in point: Republican state lawmakers in Ohio this year proposed making it a crime for anyone under the age of 21 to engage in "sexting," defined as the exchanging of racy photos via mobile phone, potentially ensnaring people who would by many other measures seem to be adults. Further illustrating the complexities of the issue, lawmakers are pitching the bill as a solution to the problem of overcriminalization created by...