The way that I’m personally approaching YL history has a couple of caveats. I’m only dealing with the U.S., and really only with organizations that embody “activism by youth, for youth, challenging adult authority” or individuals who’ve written manifestoes that could be used by such organizations… Looking at the global scene is too big for me at present, as is looking at all the single-issue youth rights movements.

That said, I’d love to hear your take on the history of global Youth Rights… Similarly a post on who you think the big players in the “Youth Voice” movement — or in the alternative school movement — would be very cool.

A few historical tidbits I’ve discovered during the past few months that I can throw into the mix…

Apparently when the U.S. moved to lower the voting age to 18, there was also a world-wide movement going on to do the same. But it wasn’t just about lowering that age-line — it was about unification. Simultaneously, the age at which you could get married was moved *upward* to 18 in a lot of places, so 18 would sort of be the master number.

Re NCRA: I want to find more support for this, but my sense is that the protectionism of the 80’s had *a lot* to do with the new awareness of incest. Whereas in the 60s the “Battered Child Syndrome” was putting emphasis on physical abuse, revelations about the prevalence of sexual abuse really wigged people out — and consequently we lost political ground.

Tidbits.

…I wonder if it might be appropriate to call this the “second wave” of Youth Liberation / Youth Rights? I’ve recently discovered some info about youth-led work in the early 20th century — but I don’t know enough about it yet to say whether it really counts as what we’d consider YL/YR now.