In New Zealand a person is considered a child or "minor" until the age of 20. On reaching this "age of majority" the person is no longer a child in the eyes of the law, and has all the rights and obligations of an adult.
Our laws accept that 16-year-olds can leave school and home, decide where to live, consent to sex, drive a vehicle, get married with parental consent, hold a gun or a student pilot licence, and can make independent decisions about their health and medical care (including having or refusing an abortion).
Definitions of a child
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) defines a child as everyone under 18 unless, "under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier".
The following are the American Medical Associations' age designations: Neonates or newborns (birth to 1 month) Infants (1 month to 1 year) Children (1 year through 12 years)
Years 0 to 8 are the primary years. Children in these years are generally aged 5 to 12 years. In some areas children go to an intermediate school for years 7 and 8.
In key stage one, children are usually aged between 5 and 7 years old. The Year 1 age group is 5-6 years old, and the Year 2 age group is 6-7 years old.
What are the Year 7, Year 8 and Year 9 age groups? In this key stage, children are usually aged between 11 and 14 years old. They are usually aged 11 and 12 in year 7, aged 12 and 13 in year 8 and aged 13 and 14 in year 9.
Section 11 of the Children and Young People Act 2008 (ACT) defines a child as a person who is under 12 years old, and section 12 defines a young person as a person who is 12 years old or older but not yet an adult.
Children aged 10-17 years are generally treated as 'children' by the police and the children's courts.
A 15-year-old is an adolescent -- no longer a child, but not yet an adult either. There are lots of physical changes, but it's also a time of big intellectual, social, and emotional development. While it can vary from girl to girl, there are common milestones to look for.
CDC: “Middle Childhood (6-8 years of age).” Stanford Children's Health: “The Growing Child: School-Age (6 to 12 Years).”
The brain still developing into a person's early or mid-20s. A person becomes a teenager when they become 13 years old. It ends when they become 20 years old. Teenagers who are between 13 and 17 years old are considered both children and teenagers in most countries.
Adolescence (generally defined as puberty through age 18) Young adulthood (generally defined as 18 to 22 or 18 to 25) Later adulthood (generally defined as mid-20s and older)
In Aotearoa New Zealand, you must be over 16 years of age to consent to sexual activity. The law is designed to protect young people from being taken advantage of.
Oranga Tamariki Child Protection Policy
It outlines the expectations of how staff will respond to situations where serious harm, abuse, deprivation, ill-treatment or neglect are suspected or identified or when safety and wellbeing concerns for tamariki are identified.
Payments stop when your child turns 18 (unless they're still at school), or if they: stop living with the receiving carer. work full time (30 hours a week or more) receive a benefit or student allowance.
In Australia, there is no minimum age which a child can legally refuse to see a parent following divorce or separation. Of course, once children of divorce reach the age of 18 years they can make their own decisions about where they live or which parent they want to spend time with.
Romeo and Juliette laws
In most Australian states, provisions exist whereby it is a defence to a child sex offence if the participants were teenagers of a similar age in a consensual relationship.
Although the legal age of consent throughout Australia is either 16 or 17 years of age, legislation in the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, the Northern Territory, South Australia, Victoria and Western Australia makes it an offence for a person in a supervisory role to have sexual interactions with a ...
I recommend doing it around 6-7 months. After that, infants become much more tuned in to the particulars of their surroundings and may have trouble with the change. Also, by 8 months, many babies suddenly notice—and really care—if there's no one nearby.
Preschool education is designed for children aged between 3 and 5. In Australia, most children who go to preschool are 4 or 5. Some preschools also have programs for 3 year-olds.
Secondary education is for children in Years 9 to 13, which is usually when they are between 13 and 19 years old. Your child might go to secondary school (sometimes referred to as college or high school) or your child might be at composite school or middle school that goes through to the secondary years.
In New Zealand, Year 13 is the second year of post-compulsory education. Students entering Year 13 are usually aged between 16.5 and 18. A student may stay in Year 13 until the end of the calendar year following their 19th birthday.