Voices is the Dorset Echo's weekly youth page - written for young people by young people.

This week Oliver Streather-Paul argues young people should have the right to vote.

As the latter half of Generation Z (those born between 1995 and 2005) prepare to become part of the electorate, now would be the greatest time to reduce the voting age with another Representation of The People Act. 

The aforementioned generation is more vocal and involved than ever having been subject to on-demand technology from the get-go.

According to the Office of National Statistics, in the UK, 97 per cent of Generation Z have access to a smartphone and 96 per cent have connected to social media. 

This means that while Millennials got their views from TV as they grew up in an era that saw the birth of dial-up, Generation Z has been able to independently research their own views, essentially from the womb.

Personally, I have noticed two flaws in testing of people aged under 18 to see how politically active they are.

Firstly, the testing done on the only European country with voting for 16 and17-year-olds is Austria, which falls behind the majority of other nations in terms of secondary and tertiary attainment levels. Therefore, it could be argued Austrian under 18s are ill-prepared to engage in politics through lack of available information and education. 

Secondly, testing done on 16 and17-year-olds to see if they would vote cannot be used as an accurate counter-argument. The teenagers tested lacked the right to vote, they had no incentive to increase their knowledge of politics since their theoretical ‘vote’ was meaningless.

The one referendum where 16-year-olds were given suffrage conveniently holds the record for the highest voter turnout in the history of UK referendums – with the Scottish independence referendum boasting an 84.6 per cent turnout.

I argue that giving young adults the vote must be at least tested in the quest to hoist the UK out of its democratic deficit – but done so in a way where the youth are energised and impartially educated – unlike the AV vote in 2011, where nobody knew that they were voting for.

By Oliver Streather-Paul